Research Rationale

I have decided to create a music magazine revolving around the genre of rap. It will be targeted at young people who enjoy this genre of music, specifically young females from the ages of 16-18 years, however young males will be more than welcome to viewing it if they feel it attracts them. Although, the reason why it's mainly targeted to females is because I feel that rap music is more often than not directed at the male population. Also, usually whenever females are portrayed on rap magazines, they're sexualised and I would like to show young females that we should be empowered instead of objectified.
My choice of the target audience will make researching opinions a lot easier, as I got to sixth form with girls these ages. I will also be able to ask students my age and younger. Although I have an idea of what genre of music I would like to create a magazine on, I would like to collect some research from the target audience and see whether there was a particular genre of music they feel doesn't get represented enough than other genres (i.e. Rock, Blues etc.).

 For research, I will be asking groups of my target audience how they feel about music magazines and whether or not their preferred genre of music is promoted enough. This could help solidify my choice of music magazine I hope to be making or push me down a different genre. While I've already focused on the age group, I haven't completely settled on the idea of targeting it at a specific gender. Therefore, by conducting my research, I hope to discover whether or not young males will be interesting in the approach I look to take for my rap music magazine. I will be providing the groups with magazines of the same genre and ask specific questions that will help me see how they view magazines of the rap genre.

 I will be taking quantitative and qualitative research. In order to take quantitative research, I will be providing students of my target audience with a questionnaire and even online surveys - that I will be making myself - so I can find out information such as, what they like to take from a music magazine and what they would like to avoid (e.g. irrelevant information).
 I will also need to take qualitative research so I can find out what readers like to see on a magazine and how they feel towards the portrayal of artists they may or may not like.

 I will use Web 2.0 to gain inspiration from other magazines, researching about my chosen genre of music as well as collecting data from my online surveys. I will ensure to note the responses of my target audience once they've seen my own interpretation of a rap magazine and how they feel about my approach.

Typography Image Mood Board

This post shows a variety of magazines of different genres and how they use different fonts that will be suitable for what their magazine promotes. I noticed how the magazines more often than not changed the colour of their font, depending on what their main feature colour was. This could be the main artist on the front cover or another celebrity. However, the actual font will stay the same as a way of identifying the magazine. This task proved to be helpful because I was able to see what kind of font would be suitable for my own music magazine and whether or not I should add certain features like serifs, italics, boldness etc. 

What I noticed was that the colours of the fonts changed according to the featured celebrity and how it would be relevant. For example, the orange used for the 'Rolling Stone' magazine was used because the front page was of two cast members from 'Orange Is The New Black'. However, as you can see from the moodboard, the colours of the fonts didn't change all the time. The majority of the magazine covers kept their colour the same for each edition. This told me that it wasn't always the main celebrity that influenced the aesthetic of the magazine font. 

Another thing I noticed was that fonts which included serifs were often used for more sophisticated magazines, such as 'Vogue' and 'Belle'. This told me that the use of serifs made the font appear more serious than fonts sans serifs, such as 'Top of The Pop' and 'Clash'. These fonts told me that the message for the readers was that their magazine was to be light-hearted and fun. 

Music Magazine Deconstruction

Music Magazine Deconstruction from gaya_sri

This post is on depicting the different ways that music magazines portray their artists. I have analysed 3 different genres of music magazines, such as: R&B, Pop and Contemporary. This is because I am not yet sure which genre I will be focusing on for my own Music Magazine. What I mainly focused on was how the artists were portrayed, depending on their gender. For example, the female artists are portrayed in a sexual light, whereas the male artists are portrayed in a more serious one.

There were many conventions that I picked up from the different genre of music magazines I deconstructed. For example, I came to the conclusion that if I was to create a Rap/Hip Hop magazine, I would have to portray a female artist in a sensual way, however it would be as if they were rebelling against the way other female artists are portrayed on magazines. I would also have to include a few urban articles that link with the genre of rap. Another convention I discovered for a rap magazine, would to have the main artist being the mist prominent feature on the front cover, while having the masthead a secondary feature.

If I was to create a Pop magazine, I realised I would be using my front cover artist as a guide as to what my colour scheme would be - as you can see from the 'Top of The Pops' magazine that the pink and purple colours have been taken from Britney Spears' outfit. Also, my front cover artist would be portrayed in a way that would be suitable for its target audience, which would be young readers (perhaps 9-12 years old). For example, Britney has been positioned in a sightly sexual way, however it's not as explicit as other female artists. She's wearing a lot more clothing.

Finally, I deduced that if I was to create a magazine which focused on interviews with artists or a questioning magazine in general like 'Q', I would have to make the front cover mainly dedicated to the artist who would be featured. While I would have accompanying articles, they're slightly smaller to scale which means that the readers' attention most likely won't be fixed on them, rather than the article written in bold and LARGE letters.

Introduction to Music Magazine and Initial Response

This is a brief vlog of me introducing the task of creating a music magazine and my initial response towards it.

PRELIM TASK: Final Products

This is my final Front Cover.

And this is my final Contents Page