How Does Your Music Magazine

Represent Particular Social Groups?

My Target AudienceMy target audience, which I discovered from looking at my survey, are males and

females ages around the 16 – 28 year old mark. My target audience will mainly be made up of the older teenagers/students, however there will definitely be some older people within that. The biggest interest for my audience would be going to gigs and festivals, as that is where most indie rock bands play. The music genre which my magazine will conform to will be indie rock and alternative, though its main focus will be indie/indie rock music. It is quite common for the audience of this genre to be more interest in the music than other genres, for example being able to play an instrument. It is mostly likely that they would be middle. My target audience would shop in quite small or unheard of brands and chains, however for the big brands it would be places like Topman, Harper & Lewis, Topshop & Phix due to their unique yet good looking clothing that suits the genre perfectly.

The Stereotype for a young adult: Informal Reckless Behaviour Never listen Troublemakers CHAV Violent Rude to elders Aggressive Attitude

Stereotypes

Stereotypes of Indie music fans Artistic people Witty Do certain ‘party’ drugs Vinyl and cassettes Passionate about what they believe in Mainstream/Hipster Leather jackets and skinny jeans Educated Calm and peaceful Different styles of clothing Long untidy hair Generally happy Individual

Stereotypes

As my magazine is going to be fitting the indie genre I have decided that it is best that I go with Bauer for my distributor. This is because Bauer are probably the best known magazine distributors, and they work with all different genres of music so they have experience with magazines like mine. I feel that the indie stereotypes are somewhat pretty accurate from the research and personal knowledge I have

The fact that the stereotypes that surround the indie music scene are pretty spot on means that representing that in my magazine will be quite easy, however I want to make sure that the indie fan are represented in a good light because there are rarely any situations where you hear about violent occasions. Getting across to people that indie fans are just very chill and carefree people is quite important, however I need to also make sure that I am representing the indie rock side fairly as well, which is more denim jackets and Arctic Monkeys style indie. Indie people are seen as quite outgoing, not in the club sense, however more in the gig and bar sense and I want to get this across to the readers because the indie genre is full of very energetic and passionate people who enjoy the sociability and the good times that a gig brings. Indie people are always dressing up in very unique clothing, hence why they belong to a genre that is all about being different and unique, and I want to get that across to people because the difference in clothing almost emphasises that persons personality. It is fair to say that a lot of indie or indie rock magazines have a lot of the same aims as me when trying to convey their representation of the indie genre and the fans of the indie genre. They pride themselves on their uniqueness and their differentness, however when they are at a gig they are all there for the same reason and almost all become one.

Throughout my magazine I have represented the stereotypes as such:Mise-en-sceneI have used mise-en-scene in my magazine to represent the social group by choosing locations that are very reminiscent of indie music videos so it makes perfect sense for me to locate my artists there. The fact that there are two artists just chilling at a train station does actually what I wanted my magazine to do; they are just normal people. Even though they are musicians they are still appearing to take public transport. This is very reflective of my audience because they are obviously all themselves, but that is what makes them conform to the stereotypes. They are different from one another. Even though they are appearing to be different you can still connect to these people because of the use of the train platform and the fact that they are just normal people.

Props and costumes I have not used many props in my magazine due to the fact that I could not really decide on a prop that I wanted my artists to have. My main artists are a band so you expect them to have their guitars and stuff, however because they are taking a picture in which they look like normal people it was not a necessity for them to have props. The one prop that I did use was the Indiana Talk flag that I make the boy group hold. This was helpful is showing stereotypes because usually most bands have a professional made banner showcasing their name, whereas this indie band have just gotten a plain white glad and just painted their names on it, which is very different emphasising that uniqueness again. All of my artists throughout my magazine have different costume on and this is because social groups of the indie do not tend to wear noticeably similar clothing, it is all very different and personal.

Lighting The lighting in all of my pictures has been fairly bright, apart from the double page spread picture of Indiana Talk, but that was purely because of the weather that day. I wanted to get quite a light hearted and happy vibe with my magazine because although a lot of indie lyrics can be quite powerful and often a bit dark, the band members and the fans are often very carefree and happy people. The lighting this picture definitely helped to get that across because even though they look serious it is clearly that they are not angry or sad.

Language The language that I have used in my magazine has all been pretty formal and linguistic because a lot of indie readers are those that have an education and are very competent readers. Although you will find some words that you may question because you don’t want it to get too grammatical or it ends up being a very long and wordy piece of text that gets boring. The language used in the magazine reflects the language that the social groups use. Also, the language used by the interviewees is very similar to what the language used by the indie music fans will be using as the band members are also fans.

Camera Angle Throughout all of the pictures that I took the majority of them were mid shots. I chose to use a lot of mid shots within my magazine as it would allow me to show off more of the outfit when compared to a close up. This lets to me represent my social group by the clothing that is featured in the magazine. Considering that there are going to be very well known artists featured in my magazine that my audience are already interested in, showing their outfit is going to be very important because it gives them an idea of what ‘real indie’ people wear.

Mode of address In most of the images that feature in my magazine there is direct eye contact with the camera as this helps to build a personal relationship with social groups. It feels like there is more of a connection because of the direct address from the artists. However, there are also pictures or models that are not looking a the camera and I have chosen to do this so I can portray the artists as normal people as its often found that normal people aren’t posing for the camera. This also allows the social group to connect

I have used colours very effectively in representing my social group in my magazine. I managed this by having very cold and faint colours, mixed with light white shades. This emphasises how the audience are as people because the colours are very calm and chill. They look very good and they compliment the black text. This can also be seen as an opposite to the rap and rock colours which are commonly blacks and reds as indie music is quite different to these genres. The bright blue colours are very appealing colours to the eye meaning it will be very attractive to the audience. The pictures below show the main colour usage within my magazine.

Finally I have considered the social groups of my magazine by allowing my price to be very affordable. This is important because as the majority of my target audience are going to be students I need to make sure that it is an affordable magazine, whilst still making sure that I am getting good money from it. I know that a lot of students will not have the money to want to spend a lot on a music magazine so I have made it affordable.