Information on British music magazines- Research

There are approximately 15 well known/ popular music magazines in the UK.  There are probably more smaller less well known ones as well but I was only able to find these. Below is a list of magazines that I have found including details as to their genre, target audience and publishing house.

General Music (all genres)

Clash

This is one of the UK's leading independent Music Magazines. It is a mixed genre magazine featuring up and coming acts along with more well known artists. They feature interviews and concert information and tickets for these artists. It is published by a man name John O’Rourke, monthly and costs £3.80. It is aimed at young adults and older as it is quite sophisticated and doesn’t feature many competitions or have fun pages meaning that they are just focusing on the music involved. 

Clash Website

Black music

Echoes

This is a less well known magazine known as the ‘Essential black music monthly’. Its genre is black music such as soul and RnB. Its target audience is people who like black music however from the age of young adults as it is again very sophisticated and very music orientated. It features information on tour dates and profiles of artists within that genre. I have been unable to find who this magazine is published by.

Echoes Website

Folk

Froots

This is also a less well known magazine as it is very specific in its genre. Its genres are Roots, folk and world music. It is published monthly; however I was unable to find who publishes it. Its target audience is adults as it focuses on quite old music and specific genres that are not necessarily very popular today.

Froots Website

Jazz

Jazzwise

This is considered to be the UKs Leading jazz monthly. Its genre is jazz music and its target audience is young adults and older. This is because it is very specific with its genre and the content is very sophisticated. The content features things like tour dates and artist profiles of jazz artists. It is published monthly and costs £4.25.

Jazzwise Wesite

Rock

Kerrang!

Although the world’s biggest selling rock music weekly (£2.20), Kerrang! Is published in the UK by Bauer Consumer Media. This is a very large publishing company which produces many other popular magazines. Kerrang! Is a magazine whose target audience is very much the younger generation of young adults (mainly boys as this is associated with them more) as it is considered to be very cool and features information on all the latest news from the rock world. Its layout is fun and relaxed meaning that its suitable for its target audience.

Kerrang Website

Mojo

This is a long standing music title that's aimed at a slightly older market; its main focus is on rock, alternative and world music. It features music and interviews from popular artists from the past which makes it suitable for its target audience. It is published by the company Emap. This is a large publishing company which produces many well known magazines. It is published monthly and costs £4.50.

Mojo Webiste

NME

This is a long established rock and pop weekly. It is the UKs biggest selling music weekly (£2.30) and is aimed at a variety of target audiences. It is aimed at anyone who may be interested in rock or pop and is any age as it features new, old and up and coming artists. It is published by the IPC.

Classical

Music

This is the BBC’s best-selling classical music magazine. It is aimed at the older audience who may be interested in the classical music genre. It is published by the IPC monthly and contains all the news from the classical music world. It is published monthly and costs £4.60.

Music Website

Modern/ all genre of music

The Wire

This is an adventurous, modern music monthly. Its target audience is older people as it is a bit dated and features a variety of different genres. It is an independent magazine and is published by the people who make it. It features all the latest music news and concert details as well as artist interviews etc. It is published monthly and costs £4.00.

The Wire Website

 Q

This is one of the UKs leading music magazines. It is published by Emap which is a well known magazine publisher. It is aimed at young adults as it is very modern and up to date and features all the latest music news and trends. It caters for a variety of genres however more towards pop, rock, rnb and the most popular modern day genres. It is published monthly and sold for £3.99.

Q Website

Uncut
This is an authoritative UK music and film magazine. It features hundreds of music and movie reviews, interviews and news. It is aimed at adults as it features less well known and older artists. Its genre is rock/ pop and world music however it features mainly older artists. It is published monthly and costs £4.20.

Uncut Website

Pop

Top of the Pops- This is the UKs leading teenage pop chart magazine. It features all of the most up to date and popular artist in the pop world. Its target audience is teenage girls as its features lots of interviews with the latest crushes.

Top of the Pops Website

Conventions of music magazines- Research

All music magazines have a number of elements that are similar to each other. One of these conventions is the masthead. Each masthead has an element to it that suggests the genre of the magazine. The rock style magazines have used bold colours such as red and black which are connotations of rock. The colour schemes that are used by the different magazines are all very similar. 

They all use a lot of red, white and black as these are all very bold and eye catching colours. Another convention is that they all include a medium shot of a popular artist relevant to that magazine. The clothing that the artists are wearing are also stereotypical and conventional for that genre of music. They are all also very busy and there are hardly any blank spaces, which creates the impression that the magazine is well worth its money and has a lot of content.

Another typical convention of many music magazines is that their mastheads/ names are quite often just one word, which is very strong and catchy. These words are nearly always music related however some have names that are just catchy words such as Clash.

Many of the music magazines are all very similar. I only found one magazine that was aimed at teenagers, which featured pop music. A lot of the other magazines were aimed at the young adult audience who are into more specific music genres such as rock.

Magazines aimed at the older audience are slightly more pricey and tend to be monthly. The prices of these tend to be around £3-£4. Music magazines that are aimed at the younger audience are generally only £1-£2 and are published weekly or fortnightly. This is because the target audience are more likely to have less money and prefer to read smaller magazine rather than really long thick ones.

Conventions and Analysis of front cover- Research

Above is a labelled analysis of the different conventional elements to a music magazine. It shows what is effective and how they have met their purpose.

Preliminary task- evaluation

Overall I think that my final front cover and contents page for my school magazine was very successful. My final pieces were very similar to my flat plans which helped me to create a good quality front cover and contents. I learnt many new techniques and processes whilst creating these pages which will help me in my final piece. I learnt how to use Photoshop which I had never used before. This enabled me to create a much more professional front cover image as it let me place the image over the masthead. I think that my front cover was successful and suits its purpose and would appeal to my target audience.

I have learnt a number of lessons during the course of this project which will help me when creating my final project.  I have learnt that I need to create layers for each page so that I can lock things in place or hide them when working on different areas. I also need to spend a bit more time and add more detail to my planning as this will enable me to create my final piece quicker.

Preliminary task- contents page

After completing my front cover for my school magazine I created a contents page. I am very happy with the way in which my contents page turned out as it looks quite realistic and conventional. I really like the way in which the colours all work together and the montage of images down the side really give the reader a taste of what the magazine has to offer. I kept the colours used similar to those of which used on my front cover to keep the house style consistent. I made sure that there were not many empty spaces as this can make the page look less appealing. I also included lots of images to give the reader an idea as to what the magazine includes.

Preliminary task- front cover

Below is my completed preliminary task. It shows the techniques that I have learnt using the program InDesign. The masthead is in bold and in a suitable text for the name. The main image has been cut out on Photoshop and placed into the InDesign document. It has also been slightly edited using a inner and outer glow and a shadow. The colours used have been kept to a minimum to keep it looking professional and realistic. I have also experimented with different font styles and sizes. This has been the first time that I have used both these programs. The target audience for my school magazine is year 12 and 13.  I used articles that would appeal to them to make my cover successful.

Prelimininary task- initial front cover design

After looking at existing school magazine front covers I had to come up with my own. I have decided to include a medium shot of a 6th former holding a folder as my front cover image. The overall layout of my front cover is quite similar to existing magazines however I will try to make it more unique.