1B: Sam Walsh: January 2011

Names For Magazine

I have thought hard about what kind of names I could call my music magazine and below are some of the better choices I came up with :

CM (current music)

NUM (new upcoming music)

TMM (The Music Mag)

Beats

Music Matters

Top Tunes

MBS (Music Bands and Singers)

Out of this selection of names I feel that the best one for my magazine is TMM. This stands for The Music Magazine, I then went forward and did a survey on what other people in the class thought about these names. The results are listed below in a basic tally chart:

CM (current music) - 0

NUM (new upcoming music) - //

TMM (The Music Mag) - ///////

Beats - 0

Music Matters - 0

Top Tunes - 0

MBS (Music Bands and Singers) - /

It is obvious by the results that the majority of the class agree with me on the name and think that TMM would be the best name for my magazine. In total there was seven votes for TMM, two votes for NUM and one vote for MBS.

Target Audience

With my topic being a current music genre, and me covering the four main groups of genre in the charts at the minute my target audience is aimed at both sex's from the age of 11 to 18. This is because at this age this is when they are turning into teenagers and at the end of being a teenager, and so tend to like the music coming out in the charts. They start to take more notice an listen to music more, and because of this interest they have in it they will want to buy a magazine like mine that will cover different genres and not just one because then they can get news on all of the songs, artists and bands they like and not just news on one genre. And obviously with my target audience being that age the magazine wouldn't be expensive and would be set out so its appealing to that age of people.

Journalistic Styles

When a journalist is writing an article on a band/artist in a music magazine his job is to promote this band/artist and get all the good points across and try to keep the bad points minimum. When reading articles in music magazines I haven't yet come across one where the language used isn't positive or it doesn't promote the band/artist in a good way. So when writing my article I need to take this into account and make sure I use positive language and get the good points across about the artist/bans I am covering. I have also noticed the articles are written informally and this is because they are trying to appeal to their target audience. Im my opinion if the article was written in a formal format it would come across more like an email or a newspaper article and so wouldn't work as well. I have found a pattern that most articles I have read are set out in columns, I couldn't figure out why at first but then I found it when I went back to reading normally and not in columns that for me it isn't easy to take in the information and also a bit boring. So in my own case I think columns are better because they are more exiting to read than the layout of a book for example, It also allows me to take on the information better.

Current Music Genre Research

Seen as though in the charts there is a range of different genre's the research isn't based on one genre. So its basically research on the charts and which genre dominated the charts and when, also what genre is currently dominating the charts.

I would say there are four main groups of genre's in the charts, Hip Hop, Indie Rock, Rock & Roll and Pop. All of which are very different.

Rock & Roll for example has been around since the late 1940's and early 1950's. The typical rock band consisted of a rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar, and a drummer, with the piano or saxophone as a fifth instrument or a replacement for the lead guitar. Rock & Roll due to its worldwide popularity has affected the lifestyle, fashion, attitudes, and language of generations from the late ‘40s to the present. Now the technology has moved on greatly and rock bands are on to using electric guitars and other equipment.

Hip Hop was thought to have developed in New York and consists of four main elements, rapping, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti writing. Some other elements added later on were slang, Hip Hop fashion and beatboxing. When hip hop music made a break through, it was based around DJs who created rhythmic beats by looping breaks on two turntables. This was later joined together with "rapping". An original form of dancing, and particular dress codes arose among followers of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture.

Indie Rock Music is short for independent rock, and links to a category of music where many artists are on small independent labels or even unsigned. In Indie rock bands they have a very strong do it yourself ethic and do not change their sounds to fit proper trends that are big at the time. Many early indie rock artists came from Britain, including The Smiths, The Cure, and The Stone Roses. This is where the main Indie Rock Music started from, from bands like The Smiths, The Curve and The Stone Roses.

Pop Music is very big today, especially for the younger generation I would say and I think it drifts more over to the girls side than the boys. Id say it is aimed more at girls but thats just my opinion. The word Pop is an abbreviation of popular, and this type of music is usually known to be commercially recorded music, its relatively short simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. It has took most of its influences of other forms of popular music and portrayed it in a different way.

Current Music Genre

I am looking at the Current Music Genre and by the phrase Current Music Genre I mean a mix of todays music listed in the charts.

Looking at the current charts I have noticed that there is a range of different artists/genres and so when writing my magazine I will have plenty of information and news to write about. Now I have looked at this and found that in the charts there is a different range of artists I can talk about I now know my magazine will work.

So below is Radio One's official current top 40 in the UK: