Target audience (Music)

Before I start planning my music magazine I must first discover who the primary target audience is, as Hall and Holmes said;“Any media text is created for a particular audience and will usually appeal most to this particular target audience” (Hall and Holmes, 1998).In order to attract my target audience I must know who they are and profile them successfully in order to draw them to my product.

There are several ways of categorizing an audience, I will take into consideration representation theory, social class and the Uses and Gratification theory.

Magazine institutions pitch to two prime types of audiences; a mass market or a niche audience. Mass audiences are large mainstream audiences who consume mainstream or popular culture (Marxists would claim that this audience is comprised mostly of the 'working class'), such

My final cover (prelim task)

Music magazine analysis

 

Before I begin creating my magazine I am going to analyse magazines from the same genre in order to gain a better understanding of how to use media language to represent and attract my primary target audience. It is important to understand genre conventions because as Bentley said (1997) the creative process is the; "Making of the new by rearranging the old."

The first cover I have decided to look at was Q,

Music magazines: Genre identifiers

The Uses and gratification theory states that we use the media for a specific purpose.

• Identify ourselves
• Entertain/escape
• Inform/educate
• Social interaction

Television programme

How I met your mother:

Use it to indentify male and female actions.

Use it to entertain myself

Use it to interact

Use it to learn about social situations

Music

Honor for all- David Licht

Use to escape

Use for entertainment

Use for meaning

Internet site

YouTube

Use it for entertainment

Use it for information

Music magazine history, genre and audience

My music usage in the last month

In the past month I have listened to music through my tablet, Ipod and on my PC via YouTube and Itunes. The music I have listened to has been downloaded or streamed for free from Internet sites. I do not usually pay for my music, however I have recently bought a physical discography from my favourite band “System of A Down”, the only reason I felt this purchase was justified is because I have been listening to their music for the majority of my life and will likely continue to listen to their music. Some of the music I have recently downloaded has come from artists and bands such as: Viza, Dan Bull, Serj Tankian and several others from The Pirate Bay.org

The music I listen to usually contains strong messages about Peace, war and other similar themes that are prominent in today’s society. These bands are usually unknown to most people due to the fact that they are more unique than, and different to the modern “Mainstream” music that dominates the charts. To me I believe that Serj Tankian is a very ‘cool’ artist. Serj Tankian to me is a very inspirational person as he is a political activist, writer, poet, song writer and manager to another of my favourite bands. To me, bands like One Direction are ‘uncool’ because of their unimaginative and uninformative lyrics about women, sex and other typical nonsense that does not send a meaningful message that relates to modern day problems.

  

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ERA	TECHNOLOGY	AUDIENCE
Caveman	Singing, clapping, hitting things	Other cavemen
Civilisation	Musical instruments built	Small groups
Composers	Collection of instruments	Larger audiences
Recorded wax cylinders	Phonographic equipment	Family/friends

 

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Record (vinyl)	Record player	Family/friends
Radio (1930’s)	Radio broadcast radio owned	People near the transmitter
Sheet music	Musical instruments	Musical people
Tape/cassette (1940’s)	Tape players	Recording studio/home

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CD	CD walkman	Best quality ever
Mini disc	Half digital half analogue	No one bought them
Internet mp3	PC internet, access, player, headphones	The world, all music that has ever been made, you listen on your own

How do you find out about a new band? (Pre 2000)

·      Radio one

·      Top of the pops

·      NMF/sounds/melody maker

·      Your friends