General questions

about music
magazines

1. What is a music magazine?

A music magazine tend to include the
most famous music artists on the
front cover that are well known to
help sell their magazine. In addition to
this inside the magazine it may
include depending on the genre
different music topics of the profile of
an artist, upcoming events e.g. tour
dates, calendar's, what's on, gig
guide. As well as this they tend to
include a wide range of
advertisements as that is how music
magazines make majority of their
money. Furthermore competitions are
included to help intense the buyer to
purchase their magazine but
rewarding them with the chance to
win luxuries.

2. What content
(text/copy/writing/articles/stories) would
you expect to find in a music magazine?

Music news
Record reviews
Advertising
Concert reviews
The newsiest music like top 40
Competitions
Interview
Photoshoot
Tour dates
Calendars
Whats on
Gig guide

3. What images would you expect to find

in a music magazine?

Organised design design grid- repeated

designs rules across pages.
Consistent colour scheme.
Modern design sans serif if you're dealing
with a contemporary genre
Appropriate symbolism, visual
Location photo shoots, e.g. gritty rock area for a
rock band

4. Identify general characteristics/ Features

that you would expect to find in all music
magazines.
Visual style organised design rule of thirds/designed grid
repeated design rules across pages
Colour scheme consistent
Modern design for younger audience sans serif fonts as its
more contemporary
Symbolism and connotations suitable for the pop genre
Limited number of fonts so its more familiar and relatable
Consistent language for the pop genre less formal to fit in
with younger audience whereas classical would be more
formal for an older more niche audience
Pop would be light, fun and slang, whereas classical would
be sophisticated

Questions about
music magazines
front covers

5. Identify the features/characteristics they all

have

Music news
Record reviews
Advertising
Concert reviews
The newsiest music like top 40
Competitions
Interview
Photoshoot
Tour dates
Calendars
Whats on
Gig guide

6. Why are these features present on all of the magazines?

Why are they important?

Informative
Music news is in a magazine because its informative about
what is new and upcoming for the target audience
What's on near them is slightly more informative as its telling
them venues and describing rather than pictures
Record reviews are more informative as they are telling them
about the record
Advertising is informative as its about products but usually
containing photos of products
Interviews with singers are slightly more entertaining than
informative because it is more focused on a person they enjoy
knowing about
Photo shoots are entertaining because they are showing
pictures rather than lots of text so its less boring
entertaining

7. Take one of the magazine covers and say what type of

music magazine it is (SUB-GENRE nb music magazines are
the magazine genre, the type of music covered is the subgenre)

Genre is named in masthead

Cover image of an act from the genre
Fits with colour scheme of pink and yellow pastel
colours
Consistency of use of pop stars on the front cover
light and innocent very appropriate
Secondary images consists to the pop act not
random people
Reem is slang for pop music very informal and
light again current and fashionable.
Very girly female targeted due to language
used/romance fantasy wanting to be older.

8. For the same magazine say who

your think the target audience is.
And give reasons for your answer.
I think the target audience for this magazine is girls aged
10. This is due to the fact that young girls fantasize of
growing up and being able to do things that older girls do
therefore they purchase the magazine.
The romantic language used heart kiss and love
create an image in young girls heads that this is normalto
be dating; although they're too young they want to be older
as they wish to date the boy band on the front cover of the
magazine.
The colour scheme pink and purple connotation friendship,
affection and harmony. As a young girl is socialised to
believe that pink is nice colour they will most likely
purchase the magazine due to the fact it is pink therefore
this is also a marketing scheme.