target Audience Profile for my magazine

In order to help me start comming up with ideas for my magazine I need to create a target audience so that I know who im  trying to make my magazine appeal to.

Target audience profile:

Age: 16-25

Gender: Male and Female. However some of the artists who would appear in the magazines may appeal to females more (eg: JLS) but on a whole it will be a unisex magazine

Music style: people who enjoy listening to Pop music. My target audience will enjoy most of the songs that are in the Uk chart, which could consists mainly of Pop, although there are elements R&B and dance in some pop songs. Their music style will be very main stream.

Interests: They enjoy listening to music and attending festivals and concerts. My target audience would attend festivals such as V Fest, Glastonbury and T4 on the beach as these festivals have a mix of artists that have dominated the chart over the past year and there are usually a wide range of pop artists. Aside from music my target audience will also be interested in the personal lives of the celebritys. Although the magazine is music based, in interviews there will also be questions where the interviewer is trying to find out some gossip on their lives. My target audience may have an interest in main stream fashion and shop in high street stores such as Topshop. Some of the featured artists may be also seen as a fashion icon, such as Katy Perry and Cheryl Cole.

Favourtie Atrists: Their favourite artists/bands are those which are very populare in the uk at the moment, these may include Adele, Emeli Sande, Rita Ora, Ed Sheeran, Chris Brown, Ne-yo, JLS,Fun and LMFAO

Magazines they read: They would be subscribed to Billboard as you can not buy it in the UK  and sometimes read Q if the main cover star is someone they like as Q have a mix of artists, although sometimes they are mainstream artists such as Lady Gaga, Cheryl Cole and Plan B
On a whole my target audience will be very mainstream pop and are very up to date with the latest trends.

creating my own billboard magazine

I created this front over for Billboard to show my understanding so far about the codes and conventions of music magazines.

I used original photography to get me used to taking photos for my own magazine.Although the quality of the photo would be better for my final design. The cover star is making eye contact with the reader slightly which is a convention of a music magazine, but she is adding personality to it but winking. This shows she has a fun, quirky side and it is important for magazines to portray the artist/bands image right. Also like all the music magazines i have looked at the cover star is dominating the front cover in order to entice the customer to buy this magazine as theoretically the cover star will be someone people are interested in. I didn't consider much mise en scene for this photo, such as clothing and make up, but for my final piece i will make sure the mise en scene adds to the effect i am going for. To go with the cover star image i created a main cover line to go with it too. However my main cover line is not as big as conventional music magazines so for my final piece I will have to ensure I make the font larger. Although I do quite like the pun used 'First Lady of pop', it is not a convention of music magazines to have puns and alliteration ect in there cover lines, however during my research i have noticed a few magazine covers which use these devices. The main aim of a cover line is to attract and interest the reader and I feel the pun on this front cover would do that.

I included a bar code and date line which are both conventions of a music magazine, i made sure they were big enough to see but not too big so they do not take away from the main features of the magazine.

I created all the cover lines and tryed to use the left hand side rule so I put a puff and a pug on the left so when the magazine is on the shelf and just the left hand side of the cover is on show the customer can still see some of the articles. Pugs are used to persuade people to buy the magazine and usually involve something free, or a competition ect. As Billboard is an American magazine I decided my pug would be a chance to win MTV music award tickets as this is a big event and is world wide but especially popular in America. My puff is an exclusive with Drake who is extremely popular with a large fan base who would buy the magazine to read about him. The cover line about Rihanna is a small introduction to what the interview will be about, only giving a small snippet will interests the reader enough to get them to purchase the magazine with out giving too much away.

After doing this cover it highlighted some key areas I will need to spend time on when creating my magazine. First of all is finding a suitable font, although the font used here isn't dreadful for my final piece I need to find something more professional, I also need to create a bold colour scheme which will help the magazine stand out and adds to it meaning.

Peer assessment

They noted that I had used most of the conventions however I need to remember to use the web url and the price. Also they liked the size of my cover star image as it made it clear to the audience what the magazine was centered around and thought the photo was 'cheeky' which added some character to the magazine. The layout was pretty good in their opinion althouh a few more cover lines could be added. The main improvement though was that the main cover line needs to stand out more, they were unable to tell which coverline linked with the cover star.

 

Cover star ideas

I wanted to start creating some ideas for my cover star, so I have created some artist profiles.

Katherine Johnson - "Selena"
Real name: Katherine Johnson
Stage name: Selena
Age: 21
Music style : Pop and R&B
Nationality: English
Years in the industry: 3 years.
Selena is a young, fashionable singer and song writer. She has a big fan base in England, with a mix of females and males ranging mainly from the age of 13-30 and but mostly anyone who is into Pop and R&B. Selena is starting to get more popular in America, but hasn't quite made it yet, with her first single going to number 24 in the American chart.
Selena's has 2 albums out, both going to number one for two weeks. Her albums consist of a mix of slow love songs and dance classics. Over the past 3 years Selena has secured 5 number ones.
Over the years Selena has become a fashion icon and is well known for creating new trends for the high street. Recently Selena has created her own clothes range sold in Topshop, which features a range of party dresses.

Josh Cafford and Sofia Sellman - "2real"
Real names: Josh Cafford and Sofia Sellman
Band name: 2real
Ages: Josh - 20 Sofia - 21
Music style: POP
Nationality: English
Years in the industry: first year
2real are a up and coming group made up of a female and male. They are becoming popular and have just had their first number one in the UK chart. 2real are seen as 'different', they songs consist of a mix of quick tempo almost rapping by Josh and softer strong vocals from Sofia . The mix of the two is something the UK pop scene hasn't seen often and it is suggested this is why there are doing so well. Surprisingly there fan base is much wider then you would expect, both females and males mainly ranging from the age of 16 - 30 who enjoy a mix of different genres.
2real are still creating a strong band image and are trying to get magazine covers and interviews to establish themselves and get their personality across. As they are a little bit more street then most chart bands, they want to portray a down to earth image. There inspired by Ndubz, which is a band from the streets of London who managed to get a name for themselves.




 Lilia

NME Cover and double page spread

I got this NME magazine which features Florence and The Machine to see how the front cover and the main article link.

The article and cover line is about Florence taking over America. In both the front cover and the main article the pictures relate to America. The front cover shows Florence getting out of a yellow taxi ; yellow taxi's are something America are famous for and are often used to symbolise America. This helps the Mise en Scene link in with the theme of the interview. The picture on the main article is of Florence sitting on the American flag, not only does this link in with the front cover, the fact She is sitting on it symbolises how she has concurred America, almost as if she is in control of it.

In both pictures Florence is also wearing the same the same outfit, which is all black, showing her rocky edgey side.

I partically like the clever mast head on the double page spread, as "got the love" is one of Florences most famous songs.

Language anaylsis

I wanted to see the language magazine use in double page spreads, so I re-looked at the 'We love pop' magazine I previously analysed to see what type of language they use in the interview articles.

The tone of the interviewer is friendly and informal, yet there is still a hint of professionalism in the questions. The interviewer wants to create a conection with the interviewee so they need to be quite chatty and informal, they say things like "sexy scale". This also makes them appear on the same level as the reader, as they are trying to ask questions that the reader will be interested in.

The interviewer asks mostly opened questions in order to allow the interviewee to answer the questions fully to get the most out of the interview which will make it more interesting for the reader. However there is one closed statement, "oh dear me, talk about bad first impressions", which is a response to something Rihanna has said. The interviewer would have done this to prompt a reaction out of Rihanna.

Rhianna's responses are alot less formal and she uses spoken language devices, "I have gotten". Also her none verbal reactions are also in the interview, for example when she laughs it says " no (laughs)".

Q magazine

Double page spread layout

I wanted some inspiration on layouts for double page spread interviews, so i looked around at different magazines and this type of layout was my favourite:

This double page spread it from 'We Love Pop', a monthly magazine for "pop loving teenagers". In this double page spread Rihanna is being interviewed, Rihanna is the type of artist I would also like to have in my magazine, so I thought this double page spread would be a good source of inspiration.

I like how the headline is something Rihanna says as it gives the reader a sneak peak of the interview but also makes them curious as to what else she said. Underneath the Masthead is a smaller strap line which summarises the interview, again this is a good technique to interest the reader.

I like how there is a question and answer interview and that the question is in a different colour making it easier to follow. The main thing I like about this page though is the layout of the pictures and text. The text is split up into columns and is separated by the two pictures of Rihanna, this gives a good mix of text and pictures. Having the main picture of Rihanna in between the two columns of texts means that the picture is centre and grabs your attention first. Also the picture of Rihanna and Nicki Minaj is one that they have taken themselves which adds a personal touch to the interview and shows Rihanna in a care free environment.