Primary Audience Research

Primary Audience Research

My first question I asked on my survey was the gender question. I asked this because it would help me have some of sight of what target audience I will be promoting my Music magazine too. In my survey around 75% of people who answered was male. 

My second question on my survey was 'what is your age?' As you can see by my results that the highest selected answer was a younger audience. This works well because they are all in my sort of age group and interests will be the same in this age group.  but the age group of 18-24 will be the one I prioritise.

My third question asked them if they read music magazines recently. Over 60% of people said that they do. This means that there is still a market for physical music magazines instead of my first theory of teenagers reading magazines online or even getting the lasting music gossip and news from other sources.

As you can see in this question you still have the 37% of people who don't read music magazines at all but the 63% who do mainly buy monthly magazines instead of weekly. Weekly magazines are still very popular as no one in my survey buys a magazines daily and thats something I suspected.

Finding out the genre of magazines people are interesting in was very import and so i could see how popular my genre was ( Indie / alternative ). As you can see not a lot of people who answered my survey are strongly interested in my genre. I wouldn't say this is the end of the road because there is still some interest there and Im going to try and change many peoples minds on this genre.

By a clear mile White was a clear winner as everyone who answered my survey selected this. I will take this on board when I'm doing my own magazine.

When asking this question, I had a theory that alot of people will select this price to be very low as maybe thats what they ant to pay, but looking at my results you can see that people have been really honest and paying around £3-35 was an acceptable price to pay but no more.

When asking this question I was hoping to see a balanced answer, I almost got this excluding images. I think that my cover will include most of these things.

About 50%  of people have a fairly low household income but are still set to pay high for a magazine. So I may change my prices a bit when I come to do it. As I want my magazine to be affordable but yet sophisticated.

Im not to concerned about this question or answers as I want to my magazine to try and appeal to all sexuality's although I will take this on board and acknowledge this.

Researching Photographic Lighting

The first video I have watched and chosen to learn more known lodge on about photographic lighting is this one about the egg. This tutorial explains many different techniques on how lighting is effective when taking photos. Lighting is important factor on making a good photo this is because too much or even too little light can make such a huge difference.  

The first major point they talk about is how the light creates shadows. He paced an egg in a centre of a table and panned a light source around it. As he did this the shadow would change shape and depth.

From this tutorial I have learned where to position the model or the item and also how to include light depending on where the model or the item is placed.  I also watched some other videos that showed me how a model should be placed corresponding to the lighting. This has allowed me to understand how to make more of a professional style photo.

Contents Page Analysis

This contents page shows a picture of a drum using his drum kit. There is also smaller images of drum kits and as the the title of this contents page is 'Drummer' its clearly about drumming. The main colours used on this contents page is Red, Black and White. The black represent danger, serious and powerful which a drummer could also be associated with. The images are all positioned central or down the right hand side of the contents page, which the the text runs down the opposite side of the contents page. The fonts used work well with the contents page as  they are strong and in a style which suits musicians.







     
This contents page is from Q which is an indie/ alternative music magazine. This is a very tidy and organised layout at first glance. The target audience for this cover would be around 13-43 and probably a higher social class due to the way this is laid out. The contents page doest include the masthead but thats not such a surprise as many contents pages doesn't. Instead this contents page has loads of sub-headings. There is one main image which catches your eye almost straight away. The main image is a popular artist which 99% of people will recognise and might influence them to read the article about her. This is another image below it to try and create more visual effects and to add colour this artist probably isn't as well known but still might capture the audience the main image didn't.

Representation – Selling Through Stereotypes

Media produces use stereotypes to sell a product, I’m going to show you how stereotypes effect your decision into buying a product.

Gender

In 1975, feminist critic Laura Mulvey said females are summarized “As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator.” Females are very commonly used as sex appealing objects to the audience for a long time. These does appeal to both genders but when you have a female model such as Katy Perry semi naked on the front of a magazine cover it most probably catch the attention of males. But also this would catch the attention to females who are the secondary target audience. Females the age of the model or younger will be interested as they want to been seen attractive as well. But since 1975 men have been used in the same way. Men have been used in the same way woman have been used as you can see Justin Bieber is the main image of this magazine cover and he is topless which is supposed to attract women.

Youth

In 1904 Stanley Hall wrote that a theory known as the Storm & Stress Model. In this he suggested that the common mood for teenagers is being depressed, And that a lot of criminal activity happens from people between the ages of 12 and 24. He also suggested that the 'youth' need an extreme amount of excitement and that excitement usually contains 'alcohol, drugs and sex'. Bill Osgerby said that “We do not have to search too hard to find negative representations of youth in postwar Britain." Most of the youth will read more 'Rebellious' Magazine's if they deem themselves as rebellious. Unlike straight A students who would be represented in a different way. As you can see on this magazine cover the two statements apply as their is a close up of a youth, smoking and making inappropriate gestures. He is also wearing all black clothes and this brings out his 'Rebellious side'. This connotes the depression and how the youth always need excitement as the the story on this cover is 'David Cameron...Be Very Afraid'.

Race

On this topic Sarita Malik argues: “Many feel that Black and Asian audiences are still not sufficiently catered for and that insensitivity towards issues of race and ethnicity still exist. The reality of a lived multiculturalism is not represented in the British media." This is because the Music magazine industry does not cater fairly to all the races n the UK. When i was googling music magazine covers it was hard to find one which had someone who wasn't white on it. Top of the Pops, Kerrang and NME support Malik statement as these are all music magazine companies but yet don't cater fairly as most of there models are white. Even though this is true Malik statement might be slowly becoming outdated as Companies such as XXL and others are now including more models which are not white.

Sexuality

The next magazine I'm looking at is about sexuality. This cover "Chooses aspect of gay male behaviour (SELECTION), inflates it into the defining male characteristic of male homosexuality (MAGNIFICATION), then establish it as the most easily recognizable image (REDUCTION).” This is shown through his clothing choice. He is wearing all black clothing and black makeup which shows us he has a 'gothic' fashion sense which is normally related to homosexual males.

 National/Regional Identity

Theorist Andrew Higson writes; “Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalized inhabitants of a particular political-geographic space – this can be a particular nation or region. This is shown quite obviously in this magazine cover by Kerrang as the main use of the Union Jack flag. Also all over this magazine cover they use the main colours of the union jack (Red, Blue and White). This is also represented through some of the text as well such as 'cool britannia' which also portrays this theme.

 

Class

My last magazine cover is represented through the theories of class and social grades. It is argued that the middle class of the population has the best deal in terms of representation as the middle class have the biggest impact the the social media. This magazines cover is middle/higher class as the choice of clothing of the main image portrays a higher social class and looks in control. The content is layer out in a very formal way and this also makes the magazine cover more of a higher class. 

Music Magazine Genre

There is lots of different genres of music and each one has a different target audience and properties to them. The first genre of music is Hip-hop.

Hip hop is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Hip hop is commonly associated with working class African American Males ranging from the ages of 11-36. Most people that feature in videos or photos to do with with Hip-Hop tend to follow the African American fashion which consists of High-Top trainers, skinny or baggy jeans, oversized T-shirts and a lot of expensive looking jewellery. As you can see in this Hip-Hop magazine cover the main image is a photo of Jay-Z who is one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in America. As you can see he is wearing an eye catching piece of jewellery around his neck and in his ears which is what Hip Hop artists are known for wearing.

The next music magazine cover is called Kerrang, which is an Alternative/Indie genre. This can be often shortened to 'Indie' and has loads of sub genres such as 'Indie Rock' and 'Indie Pop'.In the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s, the major record companies had so much power that independent labels struggled to become established. The Uk Indie Chart was first compiled in 1980, and independent distribution became better organised from the late 1970s onwards. In the earlier 2000's the use of the internet and the decline in record sales gave indie music more of a chance to mainstream success. The internet was used as a strong form of promotion and the use of MP3 files and the iTunes library was invented and changed the music industry completely and more indie bands could achieve success from several different countries around the world.

 This music magazine genre is 'pop' which is an abbreviation from the word popular. 'Pop' songs normally include elements of all different music genres such as Jazz, Urban, Hip-Hop and many more. Most songs contain a catchy verses and choruses with a melodic tunes and hooks. As you can see on this 'pop' music magazine cover it features a very popular figure in the music industry, in this case its Taylor Swift who in 2012, She released her fourth album, 'Red'. Its opening US sales of 1.2 million were the highest recorded in a decade, with Swift becoming the only female artist to have two million-plus in the opening weeks. Although this magazine cover features one of the most successful person in the music industry this type magazine rarely actually talks about music as its more of a gossip magazine. The target audience for a magazine such as this would be young teenagers and maybe more towards females rather than males.

Jazz was first established by African Americans in the USA in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1910's Jazz spread all around the world and many different sales was created and used frequently. Jazz hit its high point in the 1970's and since then Jazz has never been as popular although it is still heavily used in music we listen to today. Jazz has been recently been used as an electric instrument in many 'Dance' songs which have been popular in the past decade. As Jazz was most popular back in the mid 90's the target audience would probably be around 40-80 and maybe people in a higher social class.

Reggae music was first established in the late 1960's in Jamaica. Reggae can be used as in quite a broad was as most be associate all dance music in Jamaica as 'Reggae'. This is not strictly true as Reggae has certain elements to it which makes it different to other music. The bass guitar is the dominant role in reggae music, the sound is thick and heavy and really emphasised. The first primary target audience for Reggae music was poor, working class citizens however today all different countries around the world listen to it and it has a huge target audience range.

'Vibe' is a type of R&B music magazine. R&B is an abbreviation of Rhythm and Blues. R&B is popular African American Music which was established in the 1940's. n the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, saxophone, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy.Lyr ics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, and sex. R&B's primary target audience is mostly teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16-26. This maybe because of the lyrics and videos associated with this genre of music

After reviewing many genres in the music magazine industry I decided that I'm going to create a indie/alternative music magazine cover, contents and double page spread. I decided to do this because when I was analysing some products in that genre I found it interesting and now I have more of a clear understanding of how that genre works and what that target audience will be looking for. I feel like that I will be able to create a successful cover, contents and double page spread in this genre.