Music Magazine Conventions

Before I create my very own music magazine, I need to know the conventions of magazines in general, but also the conventions of music magazines. As I have done all my initial research on magazines, I can use what I know to analyse the music genre, and build on my knowledge.

In my big blue book I analysed 6 different music magazines, with a very wide range of target audiences.

I realised that in a lot of cases, the age of the person on the front cover is around the age group the magazine is targeted at. It's really important that the cover appeals to the audiences they are aimed at, and don't attract the wrong ones!

For example, I looked at a 'top of the pops' magazine, which featured the two disney channel stars, Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron. This magazine cover features a lot of pink, blue and white. Pink is very girly, the royal blue stands out really well and the white represents purity. If this magazine cover was designed for older women rather than young teenage girls, it wouldn't reach it's audience specification very well at all. If it was to be for older women, the background would perhaps go to a very deep, elegant blue or a very pale blue. The pink would change to

perhaps a deep rose and the white text would stay white or change to black, depending on the colour of the background. Bright colours are sometimes seen as 'young' and 'vibrant' colours, which mean that they don't tend to appeal to the older aged audiences.

A lot of the music magazine covers I viewed seemed to be making the audience see an ideal being that they would initially want to become or 'be with'. The very promiscuous image of Britney on the front of Blender makes a female say: 'I wish I was that pretty' and a male say 'I wish I could have her' so it appeals to both female and male audiences.

The Rolling Stones magazine is using very much the same imagery as Blender. Only one brunette is pictured in all of these, which makes it seem as though blondes are thought to be more attractive in music to men.

It seems that men's magazines whether they are music/lifestyle/fitness all are able to feature a woman half dressed on the front cover in order to attract their audience.

In female music magazines, they had either girls, a girl and a guy or a guy, which are 3 scenarios that girls tend to live by.

My research has really helped me see the different styles there are already out there for music magazines, and let me see what kind of imagery attracted different audiences and why!

I can't wait to begin working on my very own music magazine!