Primary Research Magazine Analyis

7/27/2019 Primary Research Magazine Analyis

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Paige Bamford

Primary Research Magazine Analysis

To begin to even conceive the notion of creating music magazines, I need to firstly

do some primary research. By researching this you can look directly at the stereotypical

conventions in either a general music magazine or a specified one like egg pop, rock, indie.For me specifically I looked into three specific genre magazines I did this to look at how they

use the iconic conventions of their genre within making the magazines specifically. The first

one I chose to look at was Classic Rock which in comparison to Metal Hammer and Vive Le

Rock! Has a rather different demographic in terms of an older age group who understand

references to motorhead or Pink Floyd. Vive Le Rock also targets people who understand an

older era of music but the main cover image both reflects and challenges the demographic.

Metal Hammers rarity in the cover is the fact that it doesnt contain any cover lines

whatsoever just a skyline above the title.

The Cover of Classic Rock ha a ratherstandard layout with the main image

taking centrefold in front of the text,

what I noticed in terms of the magazine

grabbing the audience is that in term of

having the musician wear a simple hat it

creates this gravitation to the audience

that it might not have had if Lemmy was

stuck behind the text. The grungy

look/effect of the magazine I really

created by both the musician and theway colour I used. The November issue

of Classic rock keeps to four particular

colours to draw in an audience, the

colours used were intended to draw

readers in by the connotations. The red

signifying danger is used to showcase

significant parts of the issue so they

highlight the free cd in this particular

issue (its also increasingly aware to the

audience by having it as a puff)but thearticles alsocausing the niche mark to

look into how this article in particular is

something that is exclusive to the classic

rock magazine.

Something in particular about

this magazine was increasingly different

to the other two magazines I was

looking at and that is the sticker on the

left hand side. Whilst stickers are used as a free product in metal hammer, Classic rock uses

stickers for censorship purposes which makes the audience/demographic know that they

are not know to withhold from the truth. Although there is one thing in particular about the


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Paige Bamford

cover page that has me distracted, And that is the use of multiple fonts by having over four

fonts a notion that be considered edgy to the publishers creates this oversaturated mess of

fonts. It takes away the clear elevated image of Lemmy and subdues it for a lot of font. But

ultimately Classic rock does intended and draws attention to the niche market that it is

currently aimed at, this is easily shown to the audience by the intentional shot of Lemmy.

They pick an intentional outfit that will show off his various amounts oftattoos but the

powerful part is this grimacing power pose that Lemmy holds challenging the readers to pick

up the magazine and

read it.Something

that easily apparent

in the cover image is

that the main focal

article in classic

rock is focused on

Lemmy who again

shows in the contentpage shot that he is a

dominant figure. The

contents page is a

double page spread

but are used in terms

of the first page is

used for feature

articles in this

months issue and

the second page is areferral to the

regular style articles they have monthly. Again

they stick to the same four colours to create an edgy yet grungy look, but they create a sleek

and professional contents page by the use of space in the double page spread.

One main thing I love in terms of

the conventions of Classic Rock is

the quality of the images they

always seem to reflect the

personality of the artist or band

which is something I want to do interms of when I get to the stage of

planning or designing overall.

Something I loved in terms of this

double page also is that the image is

in black and white, by choosing this

not only is in keeping to the theme

but it brings this interesting

definition to detail.


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Paige Bamford

Interestingly enough the Metal Hammer

magazine and the classic rock magazine are

published by the same publisher team rock.

The main theme that the metal hammer

magazine seems to convey other than the genre

is the religious tones this is stated by the use of

the cross as a main focal point as it is seemingly

too bright and overshadows the text and the

person standing in front of it and the flannel

Panel under the master head that states that it is

the heavy

metal bible.

Something

different about

this magazine in

comparison tothe others is

they have a

trade watermark

that they use at the bottom right side, this may have been

done by the publishers to make it seem like there is less

space. But you find out the main information of the

October issue by looking on the contents page, whereas

classic rock main focus was on the image taking up most of

the space, Metal Hammer makes it the main focal part of

the contents page which I ideally prefer in comparison, thepanel title are bold, easy to read for the viewer.

Another thing that I like as a convention of a heavy metal

Magazine is the creativity of the images, below is a double

page article on the Devil Wears Prada the layout is

conventional in terms of the image is on the left hand side whilst the article is spread onto

the second page, but the subdued colours mixed with the graphics is what makes this

double page spread memorable in comparison to countless others you see on a regular

basis. The writing is engaging also with the writer Emma Johnston over dramatizing the

introduction of how she met theband making it somewhat

humorous.


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Paige Bamford

Vive Le Rock was a magazine that

quickly drew my attention in, but I

learned very quickly when

analysing the magazine that it was

a newly published magazine so it

didnt have the edge that both

classic rock and metal hammer

had. Something that has me to

believe that this magazine is

amateurish at best is the fact

that it doesnt list articles

that are going to be in the

magazine but rather it

names bands and artists

from the punk era. Also the

use of various fonts for noconceivable reason also has

me believe that this is a

magazine that both wont be

a magazine that will

continue to publish for a

long time but also the use of space is irregular to the usual

conventions of magazines. The use of colour is used to draw the

audience in by the seductive dark colours of the red and the black

connoting danger. Again the contents page is distinctive to two

columns and the Double page spread has a band interview ofGogol Bordello which is both alike the other magazines. Whilst the

other articles in classic rock and Metal Hammer had articles that were interesting as a

reader Vive Le Rock lacked that in comparison.

What I will take from this primary research is looking in depth at the conventions and

how the articles gravitate to their niche target groups, and how in terms for my music

magazine I know how to navigate and feed it to that one Genre.

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Primary Research Magazine Analyis