Target Audience

Defining a target audience is one of the most vital parts of the making of any magazine. The success and profit of the magazine depends heavily on how closely the content of the product (in this case a music magazine) is matched to the expectations and requirements of the target audience. A target audience is a large or small group of people that are the most relevant to the media product being produced...

My target audience is going to be mainly urban followers of hip hop, as this is the genre of music that I am going to base my magazine on. Similarly to that of 'Vibe' hip hop music magazine, my target audience age range is going to be people in the age bracket of 16-25 years old. Having said this, the official age range for 'Vibe' magazine actually extends to 34. However, even though people up to the age of 34 (and beyond) may enjoy hip hop music, I feel as though few people above the age of 25 are likely to actually purchase the music magazine. This is due to many various factors i.e... lack of time, may have a family to provide for. In my magazine I will not be promoting the use of illegal substances that are often associated with this genre of music, therefore I felt it was appropriate to drop the target audience range to 16 years instead of 18 years old.

Despite the fact that hip hop music today is promoting the idea of male dominance in that it objectifies women and perhaps gives power to males, I want my music magazine to be equally appealing to both genders. This is slightly challenging as I will have to be careful when choosing a colour scheme for my magazine as I do not intend on being biased in any way shape or form. Various elements could however, impact different genders.. for example, if I have a female on the cover, the concept of male gaze may become apparent.

Moreover, I will have to consider the socio-economic groups of my target audience:

A - This is the upper class who have the tendency to earn around £50,000 and over, these are lawyers and business managers .
B- This is the middle class who earn around £35,000-50,000

C1 - This is refered to as the lower middle class (junior managerial, supervisors etc) skilled jobs
C2 - Skilled working class, this is the skilled manual workers also earning £15,000-25,000

D -Lower working class - semi and unskilled manual workers, earning around £7,000-15,000
E - This is the group with lowest level of income (pensioners//widows//students//benefits) earning around £5,000-7,000 per year.

Due to the relatively young age range that I am going to be targeting, I am going to aim my magazine at those that fall into categories E, D and C2, as this is where I think majority of my audience will be in, due to either being a student or being in a new job.

Practice Front Cover Drafting

In order to create the best magazine possible I thought that practising would make perfect.
Although this is not what my final magazine will look like I wanted to share a rough idea of what I have in mind for my magazine once its final.

As you can see I have included my 'dream' title, 'Renegade' in the top left corner. To create this I have used an already taken photo of R&B singer Ciara. I want to remain with my idea of using one person on the front cover as I think that using too many people could make the magazine look messy and alarming. This is the exact opposite of my intentions with the magazine as R&B soul music is generally very calming and slow, therefore its important that my magazine reflects these same vibes in the way that it looks. 

On the left hand side of the page I have placed an image of rapper Kanye West. This is where I would normally want to place an additional image to my front cover, but looking back at the cover now I think it will be highly beneficial for the magazine if I leave it out! I have learnt that less is more and too many images and text can create complication and instability. 

Magazine Article - First Draft

This is my first draft article of my music magazine

Beyonce is knowns as the King and Queen of the music industry and I feel as though Beyonce Knowles is an inspiration to all, not just because of her continuous success in the music industry, but also because she takes risks, exudes confidence and works extremely hard. Therefore I was inspired to do an article about her. Despite being a highly talented singing superstar Beyonce is a very reserved individual and certainly keeps her private life private. So, I decided to do a mock question and answer article with an interview starring the queen herself.

I made this by use of the Microsoft Publishing programme. I uploaded the main photo of Beyonce winning a Grammy award & edited the image using the 'Afterlight' photo editing application that can be purchased from the App Store. This was a great application to use as the software enabled me to fade the image in order to make it appear less exposed and bright. I did this so that I could apply the key text over the image to create a sharp effect. Finally, after writing out the questions and answers which makes up most of the article, I presented them in columns so that it is clear that it is an article for a magazine. 

Mood board

Artists & Groups that will feature in my magazine 

I created this mood board by use of the programme 'Paint'. I have included a mixture of artists that are included in the genre of music that I am interested in. I decided to include artists that are highly associated with Hip-hop music as this is the route that I would like my magazine to follow. Some of the main artists that I have included are; Kanye West, J.Cole, Beyonce Knowles and Tupac Shakur. I thought that it would be best to use images of new and upcoming singers as well as classical singers and rappers that have been well known in this genre of the music industry for a while. Many of the people represented on the mood board were at the 2013 'Billboard Music Awards' which is a publication and music popularity chart dominating the music business. Therefore I felt it was necessary to include the Billboard logo itself on my mood board. Hip-hop music as a genre is highly inclusive and does not relate to one specific group of people despite having a stereotypical audience. Having said this, personally, I feel as though the audience membership consists of people within a specific age group 15-30 years old and equally to both genders.

Images (Various Shots)

Here are some photos that I have taken for my coursework tasks. I used a green-screen backdrop so that the images I use for my final products can be edited to a standard that I will be satisfied with. I took a lot of images as I wanted to have a wide range to choose from for my magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page.

I used my friend Niah Johnson, as a model for my magazine making process. I used various camera angles and shots as well as camera stunts and poses. I wanted Niah to look at natural and sophisticated as possible to reflect the common stereotypes of women in the Hip-Hop music genre.

My inspiration for this came from the VIBE music magazine above. As you can see singer Kelly Rowland looks confident and elegant as well as reflecting an element of male gaze. As you can probably tell, I dressed Niah in a very similar way in attempt to create the same effect. Using a green screen allows me to edit the background colouring and I want it to be as plain as possible so that the talent on the front of the page stands out. I was worried after I had taken these images that there would be a colour clash between the white dress Niah is wearing and the white background. However after finding this copy of VIBE I am now reassured that I can make it work, even if this means that my backdrop is not as white as I would like it to be.