Research and Planning: Distribution

Major magazine labels distribute their magazines across a huge scale. They will distribute to capitalist shops such as; Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda so that they can target their audience on a wide spread scale. For example, magazines such as Kerrang target ‘wannabe rockers’ with the audience profile of; passionate, musically experienced and loyal. This makes the audience participant seem ‘cool’ by buying the magazine. However, they are merely buying into a huge media conglomerate that covers major music artists, such as Paramore. In contrast to this. Magazines such as Kerrang are on the same distribution company as magazines such as Grazia or Zoo, tacky magazines which are does not fit in with the ‘cool’ image that Kerrang is trying to project.

Independent magazines such as Vice, distribute their magazines on a much smaller scale, to only around 4 shops in Birmingham or London, such as; Urban Outfitters. However, in contrast to magazines such as NME, Vice is free yet makes sure it’s magazine is seen by it’s audience as a difficult token to find, it only distributes in small amounts to make the audience try and find the magazine. Vice target an audience who are very niche, into indie music. Vice says that their audience like to hear about new music before anyone else, like to have fashion before anyone else and like to know about gadgets before anyone else. Therefore, Vice are targeting and audience who like to feel like they are in on a ‘secret’ when getting the magazine, it is a token of their ‘coolness.’ They also say their audience is a “trendsetting metropolitans aged 18-34.” This fits in with them targeting a niche, underground audience. However, there is some scrutiny about the independence of their magazine as they advertise for huge, mainstream companies such as Nike.

Detailed Research into Forms and Conventions

The genre I have decided to research and eventually make into a magazine is jazz for the younger generation. It will be an 'indie' magazine and will be for culteral teenagers who enjoy obscure and unique music. They will be hedonists, 16-19 and possibly a-c on the jicnar scale. They will be people whom enjoy a party and love music, they will probably go to small, intimate gigs instead of clubbing. I will target my audience with the use of odd photo's of my 'artists', incorporating indie music into jazz, for example; a niche saxophone player.

The magazine NME (New Musical Express) target an audience whom presumably are: hedonists, a-c on the Jicnar scale and possibly 16-19. The magazine targets an audience who are into ‘serious’ music such as indie rock, with bands such as The Last Shadow Puppets on the front cover, with strap lines such as ‘Jack White’s new album!.’ The magazine use lettering for the mastheads, strap lines and puffs etc which is bold and in a bright red with a thick, bold, black outline. The colour red can connote sex, anger and danger. Therefore, the audience could be attracted to NME by feeling that the magazine is associated with these connotations.

The bold lettering could also connote that the magazine is audacious, it will feature music it likes and it doesn’t care whether anyone else likes it. The double page spread includes an interview with ‘The Teenager’s’ which gives a carefree, laid back atmosphere to the interview; The Teenagers are photographed on sofa’s laughing and joking. NME’s mode of address assumes that its audience is knowledgeable about music, it does not patronise them. For example, a strap line states ‘Jack White’s shock new video.’ NME assumes that the audience will know who Jack White, of The White Stripes is, they treat their audience with an element of respect. The contents page uses a layout which resembles a messy collage; it packs in as much information about music as possible. This shows that NME is a serious music magazine, the audience will be impressed by the amount of coverage on the music world they have provided.

This is similar to ‘Artrocker’ which targets its audience of cultural teenagers who enjoy music and art, by fusing the two categories. The magazine uses lettering which has a messy, handwritten scrawl which has a sense of culture and artistic influence. They mainly cover unheard of and obscure bands which targets a specific audience; those who enjoy niche music. The front cover uses a simple yet striking grey, white and black and the title ‘artrocker’ looks as though it has been painted via hand. This express’s the magazines vibe; it fuses art and music together. Artrocker also provides a double page spread for an interview of the band. Most of the double page spreads are reviewing bands such as The Flaming Lips. They use a typical large photo as the main feature showing the band in an amateur photo taken at gigs, adding to the magazines raw vibe which it is going for.

The magazine ‘Jazzwise’ contrasts both of the magazines. It is for an older generation, possibly 30-50, traditionalist and a-b on the Jicnar scale. However, the front cover appears to be for a younger, niche audience. It uses a variety of bright, bold colours such as sky blue and mustard yellow. The artist on the cover connotes a niche and obscure style of music. However, the contents page shows men of the older generation playing the saxophone in a smoky jazz bar which may indicate that the magazine need to focus on one audience to target, as the pictures connote older and serious musicians. The double page spreads can connote youth and can also connote music for the older generation, with images of young musicians talking about new albums with bright colouring etc whereas some connote the older generation by discussing tribute bands and reviews of older, underground albums.

Initial Research into Forms and Conventions

For this part of my research, I chose three magazines with different styles of genres; electro, indie and jazz. I then compared the audiences, main contents and brand identity for each of the magazines. I did this to help me understand the different conventions for magazines, the way they put themselves across to a certain audience and how they do this. This will help me to create a new and different style for my magazine which challenges the genre's of mainstream magazines, eg; only a certain type of person can listen to this style of music.

The first magazine I studied was NME magazine. I found that this magazine was very much for the modern day music lover, who loves band such as Owl City or Jersey Boys. They will enjoy unconventional music and are probably hedonistic and on the jicnar scale they would be a/b. I would say the magazine is upmarket as although it likes to project a grungey, individual style they also have a very sleek look and have interviews with upmarket bands such as Babyshambles. The contents of the magazine shows interviews with indie artists such as Jarvis Cocker, Jack Penate and Patrick Wolf. This shows that this magazine is a respectable one for young music lovers, possibly 16-20.

The second magazine was based around electro, technical music; ATM. It represented an audience who were definately hedonist, like to party possibly in clubs while listening to underground electro music such as Alix Perez or Underground and were possibly 16-19. The magazine was a-c on the jicnar scale. They have features on clubbing, fashion and club based festivals in places such as Ibitha. Their audience is definately the happy go lucky, party girl.

The final magazine I looked at was entitled Jazz. Obviously, it was based around Jazz and the cover implicated that it was based around more soul and jazz rather than smooth, blues style jazz. On the jicnar scale I would say the audience of this magazine would be around a-c, it is an upmarket magazine for serious and passionate music lovers who like slightly older, less fashionable music such as Jaar Van Bezeiling. The audience was be traditionalists, possibily 30-40 or possibly 19-30 if they enjoy niche style,vintage music. The contents of the magazine gives information about music,rather than the celebrity performer.

Main task: Magazines

This task is to create a completely new magazine cover, contents page and double page spread to challenge the conventional style 0f magazines, eg: a heavy metal magazine for girls. I will need to create and devise new artists, take relevant photo's of my 'artists' and create an interview with them. To do this I will have to research into different conventions and styles of music magazines to decide which genre I would like to devise. The deadlines for each of the different sections of the magazines are as followed:
- 4th of January: Deadline for the Research and Planning
- 15th of January: Production deadline
- 12th of Febuary: Post production deadline
- 22nd of Febuary: Evaluation

To follow these deadlines, I will need to be organised with my work so that I can create my magazine to the best of my ability.