Questionnaire results

Questionnaire Analysis

Question 1

What gender are you?

From this chart you can that the questionnaire was answered by the same amount of men as women to keep the questionnaire fair and unbiased.

Question 2

How old are you?

I asked students in my class to answer the questionnaire and my friend’s younger brother. That is why the age range is so limited and not varied. This does limit the variety of answers a bit but my magazine was going to be aimed at the younger generations anyway.

Question 3

When buying a music magazine, what genre would interest you the most?

From the results of this chart you can see the most popular genre of music that the people would be interested in reading about. The answers are not that amount of people for each answer is that far apart, this shows that the there is a lot of variation in the genres the public would like to read about. The most popular genre for the public to read about is clearly D ‘n’ B, because of this question I will base my magazine on the genre Drum & Bass

Question 4

Out of these four music magazine covers, which layout do you prefer?

From the answers to the questionnaire you can see that the most popular layout is for the Vibe magazine. The layout is very simple with just a main image and a bold masthead; this is to attract the reader’s eye. The simple layout of this cover makes it very easy for the reader to identify the key points of the magazine before they buy it.

Question 5

Out of these four colour schemes, which do you prefer?

The results of this graph show that most people would generally prefer a simpler and contrasted colour scheme rather than one that consists of the same sort of colours. This is probably because the bold and contrasting colours make the magazine cover and all pages a lot more interesting to look at compared to one that consists of lots of the same colour.

Question 6

How often do you purchase a music magazine?

From these results you can see that most people either buy a music magazine never or once a month. This shows us that the magazine should be released on a monthly basis because not many people buy a magazine once a week rather than once a month.

Question 7

How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine?

From these results most people expect to pay £3-£4 for a music magazine, because of these result I will make the music magazine 50 pence cheaper than £3 so that more people will be inclined to buy it. This will hopefully boost the sales of the music magazine and help make the magazine better.

Question 8

Do you prefer a simple or busy front cover of a music magazine?

This pie chart shows that most people would prefer a simple music magazine to a busy one this is probably because they will be a lot easier to read the front cover if it is not full of information and images. Because of this the cover of my magazine will be quite simple and not very busy as to make it seem a lot simpler.

Question 9

Out of this selection which musical aspect would you prefer to read about?

From this graph you can see that most people would prefer to read about solo artists in the magazine. For this reason the magazines articles will mostly be about solo artists inside the decided genre, but some of the articles will be about bands and other aspects of the genre so the magazine has a bit of variety.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

This questionnaire will determine the preferences of the public in relation to the magazines they buy. Your answers and results of this questionnaire will aid the final development of the front cover contents page and overall magazine.

1)    What gender are you?

Male          

Female      

2)    How old are you?

Bellow 10   

10-12          

13-15          

15-17          

17-19          

19-21          

Over 21      

3)    When buying a music magazine, what genre would interest you the most?

Pop                

Rock             

R&B              

Indie             

D ‘n’ B            

Other            

4)    Out of these 4 music covers, which layout do you most prefer?

      

5)    Out of these 4 colour schemes which do you prefer?

             

6)    How often do you purchase a music magazine?

Never                                                  

Once a week                                        

Once a month                                      

When I have the money                     

7)    How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine?

Less than £1                       

£1-£2                             

£2-£3                            

£3-£4                            

£4-£5                            

£5+                                

8)    Do you prefer a lot of text/information on the front cover or not?

Simple                        

Busy                              

9)    Out of this selection which musical aspect/person would you rather read about?

Bands                            

Solo artist’s               

Acoustic artist’s         

Song writer’s               

Technical tips              

Thank you for completing my questionnaire.

Understanding genres in music magazines

Understanding Genre in Music Magazines

Genre plays a major role in the colours, images and language used in the different music magazines. There is hundreds of different music genres used and created around the world, some of them include: emo, metal, drum & bass, rock, pop, rap and electro. All of these different genres hold different stereotypes within them about the artists and the fans and how they are portrayed in the public eye.t

The most obvious stereotype is within the genre punk. The stereotype of the fans is that they wear black or leather clothes with metal spikes or studs glued onto the clothing.  This image bellow shows the general perception of the punk fans, as you can see both leather jackets have the studs and metal appendages attached to them. The hair style for men in the punk scene is show very well in this image; they generally spike their hair into very unique and interesting ways. The general attitude of the punk fans and artists is to be rebellious and against the system. They achieve this with their unique hair and variety of unusual facial piercings.  The bands that play punk music also dress in the same fashion and style as their fans, the bands give themselves the repel image in the eyes of the media which also fits into the stereotypes of the genre.

The drum & bass genre of music does not have any particular stereotype. This makes it hard for specific magazines to be instantly noted as a drum & bass magazine.  This genre doesn't rely on a style of fashion or a rebellious look of the artists and fans, the genre isn't represented by anyone style or brand. Most drum & bass magazines use computer generated and graphically designed logos or images to put a picture to the genre. This is a very unique way of portraying a music genre as it does not allow the fans to fit in with the artists and style of their favourite genre. This image (right) is a good example of how drub & bass artists portray and sell their music to the fans.

The biggest culture surrounding a genre is pop. The pop genre is the biggest because pop music is simply popular music and so it has the biggest amount of fans. Pop music can’t be shown by an image or a stereotype of fan, the entire pop culture is mainly stereotyped by young people. This isn’t to say that only young people listen to the genre but that is the way it is portrayed. The images used on album covers and magazines for pop music are genially very big and bold, this is to make the genre seem very simple and easy to be a part of again contributing to the popular music industry. The way pop has not images to describe it is very unique in media; this is because most genres have an image from the bands or artists that make up the genre. With pop there is no one artist or group that sum up the  genre on their own, this adds a very personal feeling to the genre as the fans don’t all just follow one look and stereotype.

Rap and r & b are two very similar if not the same genre. The imagery of these two genres are generally relate to crime and drugs as the main stereotype. These two genres also don’t have a symbolic image or theme, the magazines that write about the genres use the artists themselves to sell the magazines. The genre as a whole is widely listened to by young and old people alike. The amount of different artists in the genre also helps to keep the music very new and original and stops the genre from getting repetitive.   

To conclude there are hundreds of different of different genres and artists within the music industry. Each genre is different in their own specific way. Each genres fans and artists have found ways of expressing the genres to others. The way in which the different genres are so unique is because of the way in which people view the music and statements made by the bands and artists in that genre. The biggest stereotypes that come from genres are the fashions and ways of life that comes from the different genres. 

Codes & Conventions of magazines

Codes & Conventions of Magazines

Every magazine is different and unique to try and persuade people to buy and read their specific magazine over other magazines, but every magazine is also the same in the way they are written and laid out. All magazines follow some general codes and conventions to make the magazines easy to read and understand for the reader.

These codes and conventions are used throughout the entire magazine, on the cover and all of the pages inside. The codes and conventions used in the magazines are used to make the articles easy to read and understand for the reader, the colours are also part of the codes and conventions used. Part of the codes and conventions is the layout of the articles in the magazine. For example the positioning of images on the page is extremely important. This is very important because if the text was over the image the reader would not be able to clearly read the article, The main image of an article is usually over to one side of a page with the text on the other side of the page, this separates the page and allows the reader to focus on either the image or the text and not get confused by too much on the page.

Each and every magazine includes certain things that are part of the codes and conventions. For example on the front cover of a magazine there will always be the masthead of the magazine, this helps for the reader to know the brand of the magazine at the first look. It also helps for readers who buy the magazine on a weekly basis to find the magazine easily on a shelf of other magazines. Another code and convention used to make the magazine easier to navigate and read is sub headings within the articles, these help the reader to be able to pick out the part of the article they are most interested in without reading through page after page of writing.

Other codes and conventions used are things such as captions underneath pictures, and headlines. Both of these features help the reader to understand and grasp the meaning of certain articles. The caption is usually underneath small images around the page, the caption gives a description of the image and if the image includes a group of people it gives their names from left to right. The caption is there to make sure the reader knows what an image is actually of instead of just a group of random people. This allows the reader to gain knowledge while they read the articles in the magazines. The headline serves the same purpose of the caption but is for the entire article instead of just an image. The headline is always at the top left corner of a page and is a general overview of the whole article; this means that the reader knows what they are going to read before they begin reading the entire article.

To conclude the codes and conventions of magazines are used in every magazine around the world. All of the codes and conventions used in magazines are simply there to make the magazine articles easier for the readers to understand and read. There are lots of different codes and conventions used throughout magazines, some are very subtle and go completely un noticed by the reader. Others such as headlines and captions are meant to be instantly noticed as soon as the reader opens the magazine.