Music Genres

A genre is a type of music, for instance Rock.

Sub-genres are types of music that beong to the main genre eg metal, heavy metal, emo, pop-rock, alternative.

Music and Lifestyle

Music is about more than just the music itself, it is also about the lifestyle.

The music you like today is regarded as a major part of your lifestyle. It can affect the way you dress, think or act. Often the style is derived from particular artists or other famous individuals.

Music may be aimed at a specific target audience or demograpghic. In order to sell music and related products like magazines and dvds to an audience, media companies like to know who they are selling to, as this helps them advertise the product effectively. This is their typical consumer.

It is important that you recognise that any generalisations about an audience will not be true of every single consumer.

In media studies we talk about the penumbra effect, the people 'in the shadow' of the larger group, who still consume a text- the 65 year old who watches Top of the Pops, the black fan of irish folk music.

This information will be helpful to us as when making a magazine, we will have to bare in mind the lifestyles and genres related to rock music to produce an accurate magazine.

Investigating two music magazines (Kerrang)

I have chosen to base my magazine coursework on Kerrang and have therefore researched into the magazine.



Over the years Kerrang has changed it's layout many times. The first ever issue of Kerrang was released in June 1981 (top left) to a very recent copy that was released on the 12th January 2011. The name Kerrang! is a very clever choice as it is an onomatopoeia and sounds like a guitar.



Inside kerrang the praghology of kerrang is usually very cluttered and unorganised, giving a unique feel to the magazine which is what Kerrang is all about. The images used are overlapping each other also showing the magazine to be cluttered and packed full of information. There is usually a banner at the top of the page to catch the readers attention. In Kerrangs banners there are usually violent words used in this example above there is the word 'ripped' representing the stereotype of the type of music used in Kerrang.

I have used the example of Kerrang above to show the stereotypes of people likely to be featured in rock magazines. The people on the cover look aggressive, have tattoo's, have long hair, also people who are in Kerrang are likely to pose in a aggressive way.

The readership of Kerrang is 396,000 and is the worlds biggest selling music magazine weekly in the world. the average age of the typical Kerrang reader is really young with a median age of 22, this is a big advantage to selling the magazine as this is the age where the audience are more into music and pick up new interests. Kerrang readers are also the main consumers that purchase the most music, purchasing over 6 albums per month on average. The readers of Kerrang are also 5.5 times more likely to attend a rock gig after reading kerrang.

The reason why Kerrang's audience read Kerrang is because they feel that :

• It talks to me in my language.
• Is the authority in it's market.
• Has stuff i talk about with my friends.
• Makes me feel more knowledgeable.
• Like to be seen with this magazine.
• Believe what i read in this magazine.

This is quoted from the bauer media website.

Typical readers of Kerrang dress to fit the genre of music. An example of this is found on Bauer media "He is a fashion trend setter is his peer group but he is heavily influenced by musical icons and scenes. Like the bands he supports he is extremely loyal to the brands he trusts. The way he looks and the clothes he wears is integral to communicating 'his identity' to the world" this is the typical reader of Kerrang they dress the way their favourite bands dress to show their 'identity'

Older issues of Kerrang tend to have Kerrangs slogan underneath the title 'Life is loud' whereas now because Kerrang is so well known they usually just put the title of the magazine.

Here is my OFC for the preliminary task.

Magazines that have inspired my preliminary task

These are some of the magazines that i will base my OFC of my preliminary task on, i have chosen these as the covers are simple and stick to a maximine of 3 colours in the colour sceme, making the magazine look sophisicated and realistic.

Photo's taken for the Preliminary task

For my preliminary task we were asked to produce a school related magazine, for this task i have taken pictures for the front cover.

For the front cover of my magazine i picked this picture as my model, Sian Mabbott looks like a model student. She looks hardworking. And despite the apple core in the background i think it is the best picture as it would be the easiest to cover up the apple core.

I have not chosen this picture, because it is blurry as you can see.

I have also not chosen this picture as i think the one i have chosen is more suitable.

Terms for magazines.

Today we talked about the terms used when making music magazines.

The terms used are:

Balance- the design principle that one side of a layout must be given equal weight compared to another. Balance is achieved through the placement of type and graphic elements.

Banner- the place where magazine's logo (and it's motto or subtitle) appears.

Body copy- the main text of an article.

Brand- the magazine is a 'brand', in the same way as GAP or Levis is a brand. With the growth of synergy, a magazine might have spin off products such as a radio station, TV channel, clothing line or merchandise.

Bullet- a circle or dingbat before each item on a list.

Byline- the name of an article's author.

Callout- explanation of a specific area f an illustration or diagram.

Caption- also called a cutline.

Consistency- the principle that a magazine should retain some elements throughout an edition of a magazine and also from month to month. Inconsistency n typeface, design, layout etc. an confuse and alienate readers. See also: unity.

Contrast- the principle that important elements are given emphasis on a page through the use of size, colour, texture or placement whilst less important elements are minimised.

Copy- the written text.

Cover- divided into OFC (Outside Front Cover), IFC (Inside Front Cover).

Cover Lines- also known as sell-lines. The lines on the front cover that advertise the contents.

Crop- to cut or trim an image.

Deck- text below an headline that summarises or provides a lead-in to the article.

Display Type- type that is larger than the body copy, such as sub-headings and pull quotes.

Drop Cap- the large letter, like illuminated writing, sometimes found as the first letter of an article.

Font- all the sizes and styles of a typeface family.

Four F's- Format, Formula, Frame, Function.

Glossy- a magazine with glossy pages. Also refers to a magazine that is the standard magazine sizes of 8 by 11 inches to 10 by 13 inches, or 20 by 28 cm's to 25 by 33 cm.

Graphic- the visual elements of the magazine like illustrations and photographs, as opposed to typographic or copy which refers to fonts and words.

Grid- an invisible structure that guides the placement of graphics and text on a page.

Logotype or Logo- the name of the magazine, also known as the flag. Found in the banner space, but often repeated elsewhere, like on the contents page.

Margin- the measured white space at the top, bottom, left and right edges of the text. If anything goes over the margins, it is said to bleed.

Masthead- a box, usually about a column wide, that lists the magazine's editors, designers, business staff and information about the publishing company, subscriptions and contact information.

Matte- a dull, unglossy finish on a page.

Montage- the assembly of several photos or illustrations into a single piece of art.

Pagination- the process of creating complete page layouts and putting them in order using DTP.

Palette- a set of colours that can be used in magazines , defined in advance to ensure a consistant look and brand from issue to issue.

Pull quote- n excerpt from an article, often a quotation from an interview, that has been pulled out, enlarged an used as a design element to break up body text.

Sans-serif- a font without feet.

Sequence- the design principle that the designer can choose the order in which readers look at items on a page, using size, colour, shape and placement.

Serif- a font that has feet.

Slab serif- a typeface using heavy, even serifs.

Subhead- a short headline used to break up paragraphs within body copy.

Subtitle- a heading beneath the logotype that acts as the magazines motto.

Typeface- a style of font or type.

Unity- a consistency in design throughout the magazine.

Hello

For media we have been given our project, to make a music magazine, for this i will upload all my research and progress throughout the making of the magazine. Before we make the music magazine we have been given the task of creating a school magazine, and just like the main task i will upload all drafts and research.