Music Magazine: Genre & Audience research: 2

NME Magazine:



Genre: The music magazine NME largely contains the genre's of rock and indie music. Also in the magazine it contains an article for unsigned bands to get themselves noticed. It also gives them the opportunity to get advertised in the back of the magazine, which gives it a more 'undergound' scene, which would attract a variety of indie/rock fans who want to discover new and unique bands.
Audience: I feel that the NME magazine would be ideally suited and aimed at individualists, Radicals and Aspirers from the ages of 15-30 because it has music ranging from the mid 80's- modern day music. I also feel that it has a range of readers on the jicnar scale who read the magazine. This is because it contains the more 'educated' bands on the scene, and uses detailed grammar to describe them. It also contains the more 'working class' view on bands such as Oasis and Arctic Monkeys. This can identified because it uses more informal and taboo language to get through to the reader.
Title: One of the ways how the magazine appeals to a variety of different readers, is that the font structure of the title, makes a direct impact on its readers. With the title 'NME' being shown in a basic, hard hitting font, i feel that this would appeal to its readers, as it almost does 'exactly what it says on the tin'. Also as the font structure of the NME logo, never changes its colour and other features, this could appeal to the reader as they know what to expect from the magazine, and that it doesn't lose its reputation in the music magazine market. This also links with the strong blend of red for the letters of the NME logo, with its black and white outlining. If the logo would so happen to change in future years, this may effect the rate of sales due to the audience being unfarmiliar witht he change and also beleiving that the magazine is not as 'hard hitting and straight to the point' as it normally is.
Style: With the Font structure and colours of the title being the same each week on the NME magazine, there are always different style fonts for advertising, marketing and quotes. For example: For American 'pop/rock' band 'Green Day', the makers of the magazine cover, have used a green font to express and point out to the reader that the main magazine article is about them. This can also be identified as the main image on the front cover is of the band. Also with other 'in your face' font styles it can atrract the readers attention even more with words such as 'Exclusive! and 'Brand New!'.

Also in the NME magazine, there is a specific layout of where everything goes. One of the main things that stand out to the reader from looking at the front cover, is where the logo and barcode/price are located. In every issue of the magazine, the logo has been placed in the top left hand corner of the magazine with the barcode being placed veritcially near to the bottom left hand corner. Although this is minor detail, if the creators of the magazine decided to change the layout, this may effect the sales rate, due to people judging the magazine differently and believeing it has a new appearence and approach towards the music.
Another thing which is located on the front cover of the NME magazine, is the different article issues and what they're about. For exanple a new band on the scene or a band reforming e.t.c. Depending on the magazine (e.g. if it is an anniverary, or end of an era for a band such as Oasis where they dedicate the magazine to them), they include pictures with the different articles and include the more important quotes which will attract the readers eye.
Content: By looking at the NME front cover, it gives detailed descriptions of what is in the magazine, ranging from the bigger artists all the way to unsigned bands. The detail and layout is shown in different ways such as different font sizes, photographs etc. From looking at these two magazine front covers, they show what the main feature of the magazine is (Blur on Magazine A & Oasis on B). This can be identified as the image of the two bands are placed in the middle of the magazine and are the biggest images on the front cover. Another thing which tells me what is in the magazine is at the bottom of the cover, where it shows the more 'out of the mainstream' bands such as Reverend & The Makers. With the font size being smaller than most other descriptions on the cover, this tells me that less people are interested in these bands and are more focused on the most important article of the mgazine.









Mode Of Address: After reading and researching the NME magazine several times, i feel that the style and grammar of language, is dependent on what issue number it is. For example if it is 'The Awards Issue', it tends to a contain a 'higher level' and formal vocabularly containing minimal taboo language, rather than in a standard one. In a standard NME issue, it usually contains a more chatty, informal, and 'in your face and straight talking', type of language context to address its readers. I feel that NME use this technique to give the magazine a more 'open' feel, where the readers may feel as though they are involved and connected to their idles. An example of this, was when NME covered a detailed interview with Liam Gallagher from Oasis, entertaining his wide variety of fans with his comic and informal use of language.

Photographs: After researching plenty of NME magazines in the past and present, i have found that the magazine uses a wide variety of different photographs, portraying an image to its audience. For example if an up and coming indie band such as the rascals are in the magazine, the photographs of them posing would probably be in black and white and the mise en seene of the background would have great effect in the image which would attract the reader to the picture even more.
Other photographs in the NME magazine can be shown for example in an action shot of the band such as open air concerts, festivals (Reading & Leeds) etc. When i first started collecting the magazine, i used to skip the pages to view the images shown of these bands. With the big lights, smoke, and the silloette of the hungry crowd, swaying crazily inbetween each other eurphioically, it gives the reader a sence of feeling and pride by viewing these images. I feel that the band members are represented as superlatives compared to the crowd. This is shown through the lighting and atmosphere shown in the pictures.






Q Magazine:




Genre: The genre of the Q magazine is mainly indie and rock music. Although it features a number of bands who are on and off the scene, it doesnt include unsigned artists unlike the NME. Many of the Q magazine articles focus on a particular band/group that are in the spotlight at present times such as Kasabian, but they can also cover the more older and unique bands which had their day in the past. For example Led Zeppelin.
Audience: From researching the Q magazine, i believe the audience that would be ideally suited for this magazine, would be traditionalists and aspirers. This is because it has music ranging from the 60's (The beatles & Led zeppelin)- Modern day rock/indie music. I also believe it is rightly aimed at people ranging from A-C2 on the jicnar scale, due to the fact that it contains more advanced grammar and vocabularly. Another way in which i feel the Q magazine is aimed at a more 'higher class' audience, is because the front cover is usually shown with a more formal and 'tidy' context, in which the article issues/numbers are displayed. One of the ways i believe this to be true, is that the font sizes and bright colours are not as broad and in your face as other magazines i have looked at, for example NME.
Title: From looking at the Q magazine title, i feel that it can attract the readers attention because it uses a basic 'Q' letter as the logo, which is always shown either a white or gold, with a red background which i feel emphasises and makes the logo stand out even more. I feel that it gives the magazine front cover a more expensive, special and well worth the money design.
I also feel that as the Q magazine title font and colouring never changes, this may appeal to the reader because like the NME magzine, it gives the reader that sense of 'does exactly what it says on the tin' feeling. I believe that if the font size or colour kept changing after every week, many readers would lose interest in purchasing the magazine as they may think that the Q magazine is not good enough for their more 'upper class' needs to get the latest gossip on their favorite bands.
Style: After researching more than one Q magazine, i have found that the style on the front cover changes regularly, for example the font colours introducing the main articles, pictures, background image and also background colours. Another thing i have noticed about the various style's that are portrayed on the Q magazine front cover, are the importance of the 'Q' letter. An example of this is special issues such as the end of year magazine, or an important announcement in musical history such as the death of Michael Jackson, the Q logo can change colour.