Researching Music MagazinesBy Georgina Grint

Target Audience: the majority of readers of nme magazine are male (65%) and a younger audience of 16-24 (50%) and the rest are an older audience of 25-34 (23%) it shows from this that nme is mainly based to a younger generation.

Magazine house style: by having a distinctive bold red capital lettering with outline colouring, this makes the masthead more eye catching for the readers, as it can be quickly recognisable

Language: ‘give into indie rave’ the easy language around the image helps to draw in teenagers/young adults as it is clearly laid out and not a lot of text.

Images: the magazine have made the main attraction ‘Peter Doherty’. The overall look and genre of the image is indie/alternative. As this would be aimed at the audience who enjoy listening to that type of music. The image has been focused on he's iconic style and image and the impact is the artist expression. Other photos have been positioned like snap shots .

Layout and visual style: there is an equal amount of text and images on the cover which have been laid out clearly and easy to read as this is aimed at younger adults they wouldn’t like to read chunks of information.

Focus: the main focus to this magazine is to a produce a magazine where the readers can be entertained and learn from different genres.

Ideology: the ideology of this cover is that you can make mistakes from bad decisions in life and how break you career/reputation in seconds and how you can then re create yourself

Overall impression: having a range of different information on the front cover it gives a good indication for the reader to what will be inside the magazine. Also the layout is very simple as it is mainly aimed at a younger teenager market, e.g. the colours are eye catching and bold to attract their market

All of NME’s contents pages are set out in the same way, packed with text, which parts of the information can be quite hard to read especially as the writing is very small e.g. Band Index.

Masthead: by have a bold heading similar to their masthead on the front cover, this immediately tells the audience what type of page this is. The text is in capitals bold and white colouring against a dark background and from this there is no mistaking what this page is about.

Image: the image that they have chosen to display is there main feature in this weeks issue ‘The end of the Astoria’ this has a massive impact on the market as this is a main venue for music they advertise in NME

Content: the contents is displayed on the right hand side of the magazine and is broken up into five major titles (news, radar, reviews, live! and features) which help the readers find what they are interested in a lot quicker.

In the left hand coner they are advertising a deal on the magazine where if you subscribe you can pay less than the standard charge. This would appeal to the younger adults as they may find it hard to cash out for a weekly magazine

Language: although there is a lot of packed information they have use easy flowing language. Throughout the magazine they have a informal and conversational tone.

Layout and visual style: on this page I have chosen to use a review of a new upcoming band which would interest readers to find new music. the double page spread is nicely laid and looks. The heading and statements are quite large to attract the readers into the key factors of the review.

Language: the review of the band is set up in an article form but there are ‘quotes’ from what some of the band members have said to make the readers feel as if they are getting to know the band

This double page spread is for the readers to see what the magazine have picked out the bands that the readers would most likely want to listen to which makes the magazine more personal to the readers.

Content: in this page the music is generally on indie/alternative market and is based on new artists around the world that the magazine believes that will be iconic in the future. the magazine is attracting readers who enjoy their music, going to gigs and finding new talent to love and an insight to how bands are scouted.

Magazine house style: throughout the magazine they have consistent colour scheme through the whole magazine but may use different colours for different features to attract more attention to the main stories,

‘Everyone's talking about’ this is using a direct tone to the readers.

Images: the images in the main feature of ‘the teenagers’ have added one posed photograph and the other one of them playing live. The way they have been placed there is for the readers to see where they have come to where they are now.

Images: the front cover is very attracting to readers as they have used bright bold colours to stand out the black and white picture of the ‘sex pistols’. There ‘crazy’ serious expressions show that they love what they do and how passionate they are about making music but then again don’t take themselves to seriously. The image brings life into the magazine for the contrast in colours and eye catching images.

Masthead: the masthead for MOJO magazine for this issue is white and bold to stand out from the colourless front cover image to be the main attraction. The name MOJO has been placed behind the band members heads which suggest that the masthead is easily recognized by regular readers.

Layout and visual style: the features have been posed around the main image to add more attention to their main feature. The box – outs remind me of a ransom note style of font ‘back for one last time’ which attracts the readers to what to see if and what's real.

Target Audience: the target audience for MOJO would be probably be mainly male but also could be read by female from ages 16-35.

Ideology: the ideology of the magazine would be showing a ‘blast from the past’ a old school rock back trying to promote rejoining the music industry and to see how different music taste and styles have formed over time.

Language: the language is very laid back and informal. The conversation is direct to the readers, which gives an indication of the way the magazine is formed – personal for the readers for giving them a ‘world excusive’ which is will make it more attracting regular readers

Content: the magazine have chosen ‘sex pistols’ to be their main feature for this issue as it interesting for the readers to see old bands reform, see new material or of any ‘albums’ to look out for.

Focus: this music provides with a a mixture of different genres of music in different issue, but this issue portrays the genre of ‘pop rock/rock n’ roll’

Masthead: the masthead is very basic but then is very striking as the font is very different/ obvious and has a catchy name so readers quickly recognize the magazine. Underneath the masthead there are countries names ( London, Memphis, Okemah) where the magazine is iconic for music.

Image: the image they have chosen for the contents page is simple but very attracting to readers as the outfit he is wearing contrasts with the background and makes him stand out. The image is direct to the readers as if they are looking at you.

Layout and visual style: the layout of the contents page is very simple and they have used colours of black, grey and gold. As they have a pull quote this draws the readers into the magazine to understand and read the main article.

Language: the language in this contents page is written in a formal way but then draws the readers in but having bold titles and by breaking the text up into categories help the readers find what they what to see and read quicker.

Content: from the photograph it does not give indication of who or what the man does. But as the angle of the shot it at an high view this suggest that’s he may be a big part to this particular issue.

MOJO is a monthly magazine and by showing the issue number it shows the readers how long the magazine has been running for this shows how successful the magazine is.

Layout and visual style: the lay out in this double page spread is set out in columns in a newspaper format which makes it easy for readers to search quickly for their interest

Language: the language in this double page is written like an article with description for each band reviewing their story to help readers to easily read allowing them to make their own opinions before actually hearing them.

Magazine House Style: MOJO is a very contemporary but then has a very traditional style as well. As this double page is written in columns to give an effect of a newspaper format. This double page is about how to buy the music they are advising people to listen to which is a regular feature that MOJO do, to make this more attracting they use photos for each band to draw readers in,

Layout and visual Style: the layout is very simple and clearly spaced out indicating with bold colour each band review which helps the reader in a easy format to pick from either band. By adding images of the each band it attracts the reading into seeing there look, fashion and first impression of there music.

Content: they have chosen a wide range of different bands with different genres of music to broaden their audience so they have this to enhance there readers.

Image: the images are a mixture of posed, back staged and performance this brings the magazine to life for the readers. The images are fairly small but a couple of the main ‘popular’ bands have been enlarge to make that impact to the readers that they are worth listening to.

Masthead: the title of the magazine is called ‘KERRANG’ in big bold capital lettering. Which suggest a loud noise a group of instruments. This magazine is seen as a popular rock magazine and is proven by the advert ‘huge 7 day rock guide’. This is indicates to the readers what the magazine is about and what may be inside so they know if they are interested or not.

Target Audience: the magazine is aimed at both males and females mainly from 16-25.

Ideology: the ideology for this magazine is that you don’t need to be a male to be a rock star and to show how successful ‘Paramore’ have got over the passed few years. The main focus is rock music.

‘Hayley answers your questions' this makes the magazine interactive with their readers as they are sending in questions for an artist they enjoy hearing.

Advertising competitions, rock guides and free posters which draws readers in as they are going to get more from purchasing this magazine,

Layout and visual style: the features have been posed around the main image to add more attention to their main cover story. They have a distinctive colour theme using black and yellow which are bold and eye catching to the readers as they have use box-outs, exclamation marks and captions to stand out from other info

Magazine House style: kerrang magazine focuses on the genres of hard rock, metal and scearmo music. Influencing readers in to different types of music and fashion trends

Language: the language is direct to the readers as if they are just talking to you and are informal and chatty to easily understand and be entertained by the humor.

Contents: the magazine have chosen paramore to be their main attraction as they are a fresh new sound to the music industry and are becoming increasingly international and have recently began touring so this would be reached to the readers to respond to their promotion by listening/viewing their music

Colour and font: the use a consistent colours and fonts through out the magazine (black, yellow white)

Images: in the main features inside the magazine have an image to make it more attracting and easier for the readers to distinguish what that what to read and see. The images concise of posed, gif and tour photos with brings life to the pictures and is more interesting for the readers to see

Language: as the contents is mainly imaged based the text they have used are clear, higher case, black and bold. This may suggest loud, harsh sounds as it is a rick magazine. The main features are highlighted and are their to help the readers quickly to what they what to read

Masthead: the magazine have continued to use the same colours as they did for the front cover to create a theme. Kerrang use bright fluorescent colours to attract their readers and to draw their attention to main articles/features.

In the left hand corner there is a note from the editor of the magazine which is a short brief of what’s this issues about and the main features and is written in a chatty informal. This relates to the target audience and gives a more personal approach to the readers and some what creates a bond between the editor and the audience.

Layout and visual style: the contents are clearly displayed with subheadings which are used for feedback, news, gigs etc. this makes it much easier for the readers to follow

Images: in this double page the majority of the feature is based on photographs of the band ‘my chemical romance’ as this is produced for younger readers text is not something they are going to attracting, as by having picture it draws the viewers to read.

Language: the article is separated into two columns which makes it easy for people to read. Although the magazine is attracting younger audience there is not much text. The ‘World Exclusive’ tab attracts readers as this new feature, featuring bands with new material as they are inside their studio recording, which for readers who enjoy this music would be interesting for them to see.

On the right hand side of the page there is information about the bands new albums and the popular songs are highlighted in red to show the readers what to listen to by this they are promoting a band and attracting readers by placing the information on to a white background to stand out in the dark photos.

Magazine house style: throughout the magazine they have consistent colour scheme and font style through the whole magazine but have used brighter and bigger font sizes to attract more attention to the main story to draw the readers in.

Layout and visual style: the layout of this double page has a big impact to other double pages as they are attracting readers with bold, powerful images

Contents: for this feature they have chosen to cover ‘My chemical romance’ trip to the studio. From these pictures they seem to be representing loud rock music and are iconic in this genre of music which is what the target audience are looking for by reading this magazine.