Target audience and music genre

By Lewis Howard

Target audienceFor this project will be focusing on creating a magazine

based on rock music. This is because I love rock music and I have good knowledge and understanding about rock music in general as well as certain artist/bands. My target audience is mostly going to be males aged 20-40, this is because general statistics show that male readers (most of which being ether young or middle aged adults) tend to buy rock magazines compared to females since 16% of average rock magazine sales are from women where as the other 84% are men. Plus rock music is generally viewed as a more ‘mainly’ type of music and most rock bands/artist are male.

These are magazine covers made by Metal Hammer (left) and Kerrang (right). As you can see Kerrang’s font is pretty basic but also rather bold however the use of colour doesn't stick out very much since the colours are rather dull apart from the logo which does stand out quite a bit. Metal Hammer’s font however is much more stylised which makes the magazine look a lot professional although it can be hard to read some times, but the colour scheme is rather bold which helps the text to stand out more. Both magazines consist of one image (Often of the main artist featured in the magazine with angle on gaze) that takes up the majority, the biggest difference being that Metal Hammer and special effects to their image where as Kerrangs is not different to the photo taken. The rest of the magazine is pretty much text with Kerrang featuring more text which express’ more about that magazine than Metal Hammer . In terms of teasers and so on Metal Hammer features little no teasers so that all the focus is not the artist featured on the cover the magazine. Kerrang includes more teasers than Metal Hammer but even then it doesn't include many of these.

Logo at the top of cover for both magazines.

Font styles is basic yet bold.

Font styles is unique but can be hard to understand. One image takes up the

most of the cover.

Text colour consist of mainly black and white sometime red and yellow.

Angle on gaze focusing on the reader

Kerrang is a U.K music magazine and are published by Bauer Consumer Media. The magazine is sold weekly and it mainly focuses on general rock music and features artists like Linkin Park, Slipknot, 30 seconds to mars etc. Because of the artist featured the main audience are young adults (often aged between 20-30 years) since compared to most rock music there artist music is rather tame and not as hardcore as other bands like AC/DC or Disturbed. The magazine's name is quiet funny because it is onomatopoeic and refers to the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar. Kerrang is very successful magazine since they sell an average of 41,125 units per month due to having very popular artist on the front cover and offering gig tickets and band posters inside.

Kerrang

Metal Hammer

Metal hammer is a U.K music magazine by Future Publishing. The magazine is sold monthly and mainly focuses on metal rock (or heavy metal) music and features artists like AC/DC, Disturbed, Led zeppelin etc. Because of the artist featured the main audience are young adults (often aged between 30-50 years) since most of there artist music are rather ‘hardcore’ and there music reflects their style and attitude. Metal Hammer is the U.K’s most successful rock music magazine with average sales of 41,777 and are doing better than both NME and Kerrang. The success of the magazine is due to having very popular artist on the front cover and offering CD’s inside the magazine. The internet has also helped make Metal Hammer very successful because it has help to increase their fan base which has increase sales for their hard copy and online magazine.

Market research results

For my Market research I ask eleven people to fit out a questionnaire and rock music and magazines. The results will help me to determine how I can structure and create a magazine that appeals to general interests.

1) Do you like rock music? Yes 82% no 18% sort of 0% 2) How often do you listen to it? All the time 36% Quite a bit 27% Sometimes

18% Not often 0% Never 18% 3) What is your favourite type of rock music? Soft rock 36% Hard rock 9%

Heavy metal 9% Indie rock 18% Pop rock 18% Other 9% 4) How do you listen to rock music? iPod/MP3 55% CD’s 0% Streaming websites

27% Radio/TV 9% Other 9% 5) How often do you buy magazines? Very often 9% Quite often 18% Sometimes

36% Never 36% 6) Do you buy music related magazines? Yes 27% No 64% Sometimes 9% 7) How much do you generally pay for a magazine? £1.00 - £2.00 9%

£2.00 - £3.00 45% £3.00 - £4.00 18% £4.00 - £5.00 36% Other 0%

8) Do you subscribe to a magazine? Yes 9% No 91% 9) Do you like to receive special gifts in a magazine? Yes 91% No 9%