Research and Planning 2: Detailed Analysis (unfinished)

I intend to create an indie folk magazine, however I couldn't find any magazines within this genre and so I have analysed rock magazines as they have a similar target audience with similar conventions.

Rock sound is a rock magazine which specifically features new music. A typical audience member may generally be a male who plays an instrument and may be in a band. He will most likely wear jeans and a t-shirt and attend many parties but won't dress up for them. He is a hedonist and perhaps someone who is intelligent but probably didn't put in enough effort at school to get the highest grades he could. This person will enjoy finding new music to listen to and his favourite band will be one which produces many albums such as Muse. To appeal to this 'couldn't care less' attitude Rock Sound have included colloquial arrows and vocabulary with large in your face fonts. The colour scheme they have used is Green, white and yellow which are bright, quirky colours which will stand out. They have included a list of many bands, some of which the audience member will not have heard of and will be interested to find out about them. The main sell of this particular issue is an interview with the band Muse, who are also the main image on the cover.

Rock Tribune is another rock magazine, who include music from the sub-genre metal. The reader of this is likely to be male and, depending on their personality, would either wear jeans and a hoodie or a long black coat. They will most likely have long hair and will aspire to grow some form of a beard if they don't have one already. Their favourite band is likely to be Megadeath and they will spend their time watching Youtube videos, most likely of stunts, and playing games on the Xbox such as World of War Craft. They are quite introvert and will have a social networking site but will rarely use it.

To appeal to their target audience, Rock Tribune have made their magazine simpler and have organizationally laid it out. The front cover has a sophisticated feel to it, which is encouraged throught the use of fonts, this particular issue appears very gothic. This is because the main sell "Nightwish" are a gothic metal band and this is portrayed on the cover through the use of serif font, dark colours and the vampire-esque appearance and pose from the band.

Kerrang is very similar to Rock Sound, but they will include interviews and information not just on new music, but bands which have been around for a while too. Because this magazine is so similar to Rock Sound, the readers are most likely to have the same qualities. However I think the readers of Kerrang are likely to be into heavier bands and have more of a rebellion about them than readers of Rock Sound. The masthead has been intercepted by the main image, showing that it is a well established magazine. They have used a sans serif font which, teamed with the chatty language used, makes the magazine seem colloqiual.

NME is a music magazine which includes all the sub-genres of rock and so includes information on lots of bands. The first thing I notice about the front cover is the colour scheme, white, red and black which connote to rebellion, and is continued throughout the magazine. Rather than their contents page detailing what pages to find the features, NME have listed all the bands mentioned in the magazine and the pages on which to find them. This is because they know that their readers will be very into their music and will want to be able to find the information on their favourite bands straight away. The contents page isn’t actually a full page, merely a column to the side of it, with a large image and news of another band dominating the rest of the page.
On this double page spread, which is in keeping with the set colour scheme of the magazine, there are a couple of large sized images, several medium sized images and a few small ones. This indicates the importance of the band the image is of, and is also indicated through the boldness of the font in the text around the picture.
NME includes music which is of a more indie style and therefore its readers will be slightly different to the ones mentioned previously. A typical audience member will shop at Topshop/ Topman, go to many gigs and festivals and will most likely have a MySpace.