Starting off - Research

My research into magazines consists of a variety of things. Firstly I have decided to see which magazines fit which audience in retrospect from my opinion from a first look at a magazine.

My first example is The Rolling Stones music magazine. By looking at one cover i could easily make the judgment that the magazine's target audience is a more mature fan base. In comparison to magazines such as NME and Q, the magazine shows a variety of things such subtleness and maturity that is more likely ( i feel) to appeal to an mature audience, but yet, it has the capacity (being such a well know magazine) to target a younger audience. Their front cover has a rock feel to it, with appearance and layout.

Conventions and codes on the front cover:

Convention:

• Barcode
• Magazine title
• Image
• puff
• issue Number
• Price
• Image

Codes:

• Red colour for main title suggests Vibrancy
• Font of title is somewhat american, old school, classic rock.
• Image overlaps the main title of the magazine suggest that the magazine is well known and the title doesn't need to completely be there for the reader to guess what it is.
• The image of the two men on the front cover is rock based, seen by the shaggy clothes and accessories
• Leather wristbands and antique watches, rings and tattoos resembles rock and uniqueness
• subheadings looked like they've been stamped on showing, again, an old school look

From further research i have conducted i now feel that their fan base is even wider that first thought. origionally i th It has featured many different and iconic celebrities such as Jay Z and Brittany Spears and includes the Rolling Stones themselves always however doing a pose or an image that represents the artist. In most other magazines you would mainly see outrageous poses and other factors such as accessories and crazy fashion, including sunglasses coats, necklaces, bracelets, wristbands ect... (This could be found on the front cover of ATM (Atmosphere) ). Atmosphere's audience is obviously a younger audience because of the "ghetto" pose that he seems to create and the use of sunglasses that don't enable you to see his eyes, which in a way can DE-humanize a person making him seem dangerous, which could appeal to the middle teens (14 - 17 years), but these magazines all have a main theme of music they base around. With the rolling stones it has proven that it is very diverse and could appeal to all ages, genders and races in each issue, proving that magazines can be diverse to an extent, but they still follow a main theme. With the rolling stones i feel, again that it has a rock/indie/pop culture classicness that has helped make a very positive impact on the magazine industry.

What would be found in a magazine?

• Colour theme matching throughout the magazine
• Random Accessories
• Hair Styles
• Unique Magazine title
• Bold head line
• matching themes to there music
• Fashion
• Columns
• interviews
• Question and Answer page
• Adverts
• Subscription page