ChloeHughes7152: Music Magazine Genres

Music Magazine Introduction

Music magazine are used to promote; bands, gigs and festivals. Music magazine provide information to the reader regarding bands that relate with the genre of the magazine; interviews, concert, photo shoots and reviews on concerts, bands and albums. Each different music magazine has a different target audience depending on the genre of the magazine. However the main audience that the magazines tend to target is people aimed between 12 and 25, usually in the band of D to C as they are expensive and therefore disposable income would be necessary. There are particular genres of magazine including classical and folk apply to a neche market and a certain age group concerning older people. Music magazines tend to make bands more than break them, as they promote and advertise the band so I would say that they do more for helping them succeed than make them fail. Even when the magazine publishes negative stories it helps the band to gain more publicity and therefore gain interest in the band itself rather than the story. The music magazine industry is profitible because of the prices of the magazine, looking in stores you can see that the prices start at £2.35 and go all the way up to £5.00. The internet is a threat to the music magazine industry as the internet is full of blogs and website from the band themselves so if you want to find out any information you can access it instantly and it tends to be easier. Also waiting to find out information from a magazine may not be as convenient when you can automatically check online. These are some examples of music magazine genres; Indie, pop, rock, rap, classical, folk, house, R&B, reggae and DJ/club scene.

This is an example of an article regarding the decrease in music magazine sales because of the internet;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/19/digital-music-sales-circulations

Music Magazine Genres

Just by observing the magazine shelves in shops you can see that the magazine industry have covered a range of music genres. Each different magazine genre uses slightly different media language to represent the intended target audience. I will explore the different genres of music and how they concerned with music magazines first before deciding what genre I will use for my final magazine.

Rock

Rock music evolved from Rock and Roll and Pop music. It has developed to be a heavier version of pop music, rock music appeals to certain people and this is what I am going to discuss.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jun/12/rock-music-playlist-download

This article discusses what the best rock songs are and gives you the oppurtunity to download the playlist. This is a specific blog allocated to the genre of rock.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/kerrang#magazine_kerrang

This is a mission statement from the marketing side of Kerrang magazine expressing what the genre and target audience is for Kerrang.

These are links to some iconic rock songs;

AC/DC-Highway to Hell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzVxcolvAlM

Smells like Teen Spirit-Nirvana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

Gloria-U2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYgP48X2DY

These are some examples of the front covers of Kerrang! magazine;

Kerrang is a weekly magazine and features bands and artists that the target audience would be interested in. They often make the front covers look crazy and wild which would link to the rock genre.

Indie

Independent or 'indie' music is an alternative style of music and has recently become a lot more popular, the bands often range in style but all come under the same genre of indie which differs from mainstream music.

This website lists some of the best indie-rock songs and bands;

http://www.indierockcafe.com/artists-and-bands/

Here are some examples of indie music;

Lets Dance to Joy Division- The Wombats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayuooyWPEUc

Teenage Icon- The Vaccines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFUKrsDDChE

Gold on the Ceiling- The Black Keys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yCIDkFI7ew

NME is one the most popular and well known indie magazine, it promotes the latest indie-rock bands and festivals.

NME represents the alternative/indie bands and promotes them so they gain fans. They also promote gigs and festivals the featured bands will be playing.

This is a reader profile of the NME magazine on the IPC website;

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/6dcz2moj66wp0swdpyx5rv3o.pdf

Pop

Pop music has more harmony, rhythm and emphasis on the artists voice. There is usually some form of tuning involved with pop music. Pop music appeals to younger teenagers and is often said to be 'cheesy'.

This is a list of the current Top 40 showing the best selling pop songs at the moment;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

Here are some examples of the popular pop songs at the moment;

Boyfriend-Justin Bieber
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GuqB1BQVr4

Kiss You-One Direction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4cdfRohhcg

Diamonds-Rihanna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWA2pjMjpBs

Top of the Pops is the most popular of pop music magazine appealing to mainly girls between the age of 11 and 15.
This is a reader profile of the magazine;
http://www.immediatemedia.co.uk/advertising/Magazines/Top_of_the_Pops.html

Here are some examples of the front covers of Top of the Pops magazine which gives young teenage girls all the latest gossip on the boy bands and pop music weekly.

Classical

Classical music is often known as old fashioned and doesn't contain lyrics usually just classical instruments. Appealing to older people usually over 45 years of age.

This is an archive of the best classical musicians of all time;

http://sounds.bl.uk/Classical-music