How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Class

Typically bands and artists in the Indie music genre like Kasabian are from well off, middle class backgrounds. My magazine represents these middle class people by showing images of bands and artists who are evidently from these kind of backgrounds. For example the person in the second picture is wearing a Harrington Jacket which have become an icon of Ben Sherman and are fairly expensive, indicating that he has some wealth and is likely middle class. Middle class people, into Indie music will then be drawn towards this and will probably be able to identify with him.

Age

Artists, bands and groups within the Indie genre are typically fairly young. Normally between the ages of 19 to their late twenties as the Indie genre has only become more popular arguably within the last 10-20 years. Based on this my magazine showcases artists and bands who are in their early twenties to represent an audience who are around the same age group so that they find the magazine more relatable.

Gender

All of the photos in my magazine are of male because typically Indie bands are predominantly male. Furthermore my magazine showcases males who aren’t the typical ‘macho’ and masculine which coincides with the view that people in indie bands are more in touch with their feminine side and are more well dressed and well groomed in terms of hair etc. This creates an appeal for males who aren’t necessarily really masculine, but is also more appealing to females as maybe they can relate more to these more feminine males.

Ethnicity

Predominantly Indie groups and bands are full of white people and whilst there are black, Asian etc. people in Indie bands, they are a small minority and so my magazine shows all white males to fit in with the common stereotype of white musicians within the Indie music genre. This means that people who are into Indie music; who are likely to be white will be able to identify more with the magazine and thus will be more appealing to them.

White guy

Music Culture

Overall people who are into Indie music are often older, middle class, white teenagers who like going to music events and like discovering new music that perhaps most have not heard of. My magazine represents these kind of people by using images of people that are dressed to the style and also the models in the pictures are mostly holding instruments. This is a good representation of this particular social group, as not only do many of them play instruments but Indie music is more about authenticity and really instruments as oppose music that’s churned out on a conveyor belt by record companies for the mainstream, and showing images of these people playing instruments represents that.