Music Magazine Research

To start off the basis of my journey to making my music magazine, I did some initial research into the multitude of different music genres that are available today. Some magazines are more popular than others, similarly to music genres in general and so this has enabled me to look at an array of magazines that cater to different audiences.

This is an example of a cover page from Q magazine - a music magazine that primarily focuses on the indie music genre. This is my personal favourite music genre and so will be doing further research into magazines of this type, mainly focusing on Q magazine in particular for inspiration for my own magazine. As you can see from this image above, Q magazine cover tend to have a main, large central image surrounded by smaller tag lines (in this issue of the Arctic Monkeys). Also we can pick up that even though the masthead of the magazine is only one letter, they can afford to still have the central image covering the letter "Q" as it is such a well known, established magazine.

This is a cover from Kerrang! music magazine. This magazine is more based around heavier rock/metal music unlike the likes of NME or Q for example. Due to this style of music Kerrang! use darker tones in their colour scheme such as their trademark, recognisable dark reds, white and black to tie in the heavy metal/rock genre. It features bands/artists ranging from Biffy Clyro, to Metallica, Muse and American alternative rock band such as My Chemical Romance and 30 seconds to Mars (as shown above). Kerrang! often feature a main central image supported by smaller images that portray some of the other bands featured in the issue/magazine in the form of interviews, news updates etc.

 

Above are examples of issues of Rolling Stone magazine that has a very deep pool with many features from various genres. Also as you can probably tell sometimes Rolling Stone diverts away from music as their main features altogether, as seen in the 2nd issue cover showing the beautifully talented actress Jennifer Lawrence, however since it is primarily a music magazine, you can see that music is still massively featured from the tag lines down the right side of the cover displaying artists/bands from very different genres such as Jack White (rock) to the likes of John Mayer and Taylor Swift who are singer/songwriters of country folk music. Rolling Stone however vary from such artists to issues with the main central image being of Grunge legends Nirvana, as seen in the first issue shown above. Obviously, some music magazines are successful without having a definite genre and Rolling Stone Magazine is a prime example of this being a success. Again, similar to Q, Rolling Stone features a singular image surrounded by text and is renowned for its busy and cluttered layout. 

Above are a couple of issues of Billboard magazine that has a very clear set genre - Pop, R&B and Rap music. The two issues feature very famous performers, the first being Katy Perry (known for her upbeat pop music style) and the second example featuring Eminem, a prominent rapper. These two examples that I have chosen represent a typical cover of Billboard with a mid shot of the artist, with minimal text in the space surrounding the image, not revealing much about the inside content of the magazine. Also like NME and Q magazine in particular, Billboard also can afford to have the artist featured on the front to cover the Masthead, as it is a well known and recognisable magazine for fans of the Pop, R&B and Rap genre of music.