Summary and Evaluation of my Research and Planning

The first part of our coursework task was the preliminary task, which consisted of us producing a fairly simple front cover and contents page for a school magazine. I took pictures in locations around my school to fit in with the theme of promoting education as well as healthy eating (see water and apple in photo) and having fun. I was not very confident with the production of my prelim as I have never used computer programs like Serif before, so I was unsure of how to use the software. I found it quite easy to get to grips with the simple tools but I was wary of the more complicated/advanced tools and so the final product didn't look as professional or "real" as I perhaps hoped it would. So before I start to produce the pop magazine, which is the main part of the coursework task, I need to have a lesson learning how to use the programs properly so that I can create the best possible looking magazine I can.

Within my research, I have looked at many different aspects which affect the production and publication of magazines. For example, we looked at how different genres of magazine appeal to different genders and to different age groups and who exactly their target audience is. I also looked at the conventions of certain magazines and how some magazines choose to subvert conventions despite the fact that a lot of magazines don't tend to sell very well this way. This has allowed me to conclude that the pop magazine that I am going to produce will definately follow conventions rather than subvert them. We then moved on to research into semiotics and how certain signs and looks can denote one thing but connote something completely different.

My research helped me to decide that I want to produce a pop magazine for the main part of my task because it covers some very interesting topics such as the decline of pop magazines. This has enabled me to create extra blogs and to also gain a greater understanding and idea of exactly what a pop magazine should look like. Although most pop magazines have declined and been abolished in recent years, 'Top Of The Pops' magazine is still being sold monthly, and so I have decided that I am going to structure the basic framework of my magazine around this style model.

Media Theories

We have covered several different media theories within our media lessons, the most common and dominant being the Uses and Gratifications theory. This theory suggests that media influences people depending on the way they personally react to it rather than its influences being forced upon them. The audience supposedly take an "active role" is what they are perceiving, unlike the passive audience associated with the Hypodermic Needle theory (where the audience believe and follow everything the media says).
There are thought to be four main headings which can be grouped within the Uses and Gratifications theory:

• Information - media helps to increase/gain knowledge of specific subjects
• Personal Identity - media allows/helps one to find oneself
• Integration and Social Interaction - perhaps liking a certain aspect within the media text to fit in or connect with others.
• Entertainment - media could perhaps allow the audience to relax, release emotions or have fun.

There are several other perhaps less common theories which we have also studied:

Cultivation/Drip Drip Drip Effect - the audience becomes affected by the repetition of a certain message within a media text.

Two-step flow - the media introduces us to certain ideas and prospects and then we go on to discuss these with others and form our own opinions.

Limited effect - the idea that nothing in the media affects us because we are so used to everything that it has already thrown at us.

Media dependancy - the theory that suggests we as humans need media to thrive and to live.

How do these theories apply to music magazines?

The two most applicable theories are the Uses and Gratifications theory and the two-step flow theory, as they apply to the majority of people. For example, most people make up their own minds and form their own opinions about exactly what they see or read in music magazines, rather than being 'spoon-fed' everything. If everybody mindlessly followed and gave in to believing exactly everything that the media said, then we would have a very narrow minded and powerless society. The Hypodermic Needle theory is probably the least applicable theory because it is a discredited and outdated view of media which is overly simplistic, and it really doesn't apply to music magazines. The Limited Effect theory and the Media Dependancy theory can apply to music magazines, but not very regularly, and usually only to a small percentage of people. For example, the Limited Effect theory applies to people who are seriously devoted to music, because the magazines are more likely to have effect and sway the opinions of them. The Media Dependancy theory perhaps applies more to people who are always buying or subscribing to magazines and a huge part of their life revolves around music and celebrities.

Media Survey/Questionnaire

I have produced a survey to hand out to ten girls who are in year 7 (the average age group of my target audience) to find out exactly what they look for in a magazine, or what they would want a pop magazine to contain.

I chose to make my questions quite detailed about specific things such as font and colour scheme because this helps me to gain an idea of what my target audience want the entire magazine to look like, rather than just the contents of it. It will now be easier for me to pick out the detail within the front cover, contents page and double page spread because I will take the idea/selection which gets the most positive feedback in response to my questionnaire.

Below are the results from my survey:

Colour scheme B consists of the colours red, white and pink, and so these are the main colours I am going to be using for my magazine. This will generally make the magazine look quite girly, which is perfect, because my target audience is girls.

There is a clear preference for Font C on this part of the questionnaire and so this is definately the font I will be using for the title of my magazine and also a lot of the headings within my magazine.

Within this part of my survey, there was not one feature box that was not ticked when I brought all of the 10 surveys together. This will allow me to pick up on all of these features within my magazine, although I'm not sure if I will include anything about male celebrity style because this was the least popular feature and now that my survey is complete, I'm not really sure if writing about male celebrity style would fit in with my magazine's conventions.

This was the type of result I expected to get, because as my previous blogs have addressed, pop magazines have recently declined, so I expected gossip and lifestyle to be the more popular option. My magazine will still only feature music artists, but it will be focused more on their lifestyles, fashions and relationships, rather than the music they are making.

Mock up of magazine

This is the basic layout I want my magazine to have. Although this may change slightly when I begin to produce my magazine (depending on how it all fits into the space), I want to try and stick to these conventional structures as much as I can. I want each page to look quite "busy" and full of lots of photos and doodles (heart, stars etc). This will help to make the magazine look cheesy and cartoon-like and fit in with the pop theme. I want everything to be based around the main feature article - the celebrity being interviewed needs to be the main focus on both the front cover and the contents page (as well as obviously the double page spread). I want to use lots of photos to make it obvious that the magazine is very style/looks-orientated. This seems to be the way that pop magazines are conventionally laid out and structured, and so I have decided to stick to this method of production.

Deconstruction of an iconic pop star

Blue hair - very bold, grabs the audience's attention as well as showing that she is eager for attention. Also shows that she is quite wacky and maybe a bit crazy, but clearly wants to be different and stand out from other pop stars. Her hair is also long and wavy which perhaps suggests she is quite free and possibly playful.

Slightly open mouth - quite a sexual way to position the mouth. This is perhaps to appeal to men as well as women (who her target audience is mainly made up of).

Make up - suggests she is conscious about the way she looks, or maybe just feels as if she has to be made up to fit into the pop music industry, because this is how female pop stars steretypically look.

Little clothing - perhaps to show off her good figure and obviously for the sexual appeal to men as well. Slightly kooky outfit with all of the swirls on the bra - perhaps shows she just wants to have fun and feel happy in what she is wearing.

Arched back/body positioning - once again for the sexual appeal. Maybe shows she is quite confident because her head is tilted backwards as well.

Cartoon-like - the picture also connotes a cartoon character because the picture is so perfect and flawless (probably through the use of airbrushing) and everything is very colourful and "in-your-face". This cartoon aspect helps to relate to the brightness and cheesiness of the stereotypical pop magazine.

Inspirational ideas for my magazine

Musicians

• Up-and-coming female artist fresh out of school. Only enjoyed creative subjects at school and always knew she wanted to go into music, so she was determined to get into the music industry the moment she left school. This determination got her to where she is now etc. (Could have a photoshoot of her in schoo uniform in a classroom looking bored and sneakily listening to music. There could also be a shot of her singing into her hairbrush in her room before she became a star, and then a photo of more recently during a live gig or something. This would show how far she has come all on her own)


• Could have a feature article on my double page spread about a brand new boy band. (They need to be quite young looking and cheesy - take inspiration from 'One Direction' maybe?) They will also be young and almost straight out of school. Could mention about how their music teacher suggested that they start up a band and then everything went amazingly well from there. (They would only be singers without instruments though, because instruments are too indie/rock and wouldn't fit in with the genre of pop). Within the interview with them, I could have each one speaking individually about themselves and how they got into music etc - also about style and relationships to keep in with the main subject matters of pop magazines.
  

Conventional Camera Work

• You find quite a lot of close ups in pop magazine - this is perhaps to show the beauty/the make up the celebs are wearing (because a lot of pop magazine content revolves around style and beauty). The front cover will have a blown up close up of the main feature star.


• A lot of whole body shots also to show off the celebrity style and their amazing figures (they follow conventions and think skinnier is better etc).


• Pop magazines try to get the nicest possible pictures of celebs as well as the worst possible pictures of them (I will probably only be able to get good ones because I am only producing part of a magazine and so I don't have enough pages to create an "Embarrasing!" page or something along the lines of that).
  

Magazine Title

• All of the pop magazines I have ever heard of all have titles with words associated with pop in them. For example, 'Top Of The Pops' and 'Smash Hits'. Some of them also incorporate rhyme to make it sound cheesier.


• Name ideas: Hit Pop, Pop It!, Music Now...
  

Fonts

• Titles and sub-headings should be in more graphic, arty fonts and then all of the main articles should be in the same font.


• Font styles I like: Arista>Groovy>dafont.com; Neon>Groovy>dafont.com; Billo Dream>Groovy>dafont.com; Eras Light ICT>Microsoft Word; Calibri>Microsoft Word; Candara>Microsoft Word; Franklin Gothic Book>Microsoft Word.
  

Colours

• I think I want to use a mauve/purple kind of colour alongside a bright sky blue and yellow. Once I begin piecing together my magazine, I might think this looks too dark and not bright or "poppy" enough for a pop magazine, so I could add some little bits of white here and there, or even pink.
  

Sell lines

• There definately needs to be something to do with celebrity romance and celebrity style on the front cover: "Are (x) and (x) a secret item?", "(x) and (x) share a sneaky kiss backstage at (x)!", "Hear (x)'s latest beauty tips!", "Discover (x)'s decade of daring dresses!".
  There also needs to be a quote on the front cover from within the main feature in a larger font than all of the other sell lines (it should be the most exciting/most shocking statement or revelation from the interview. It should either be exactly the same as the title for the actual interview, or a slight variation of it).

Graphics

• Cheesy doodles in any gaps on the front cover (e.g. hearts, flowers, stars, swirls etc).
  Should have the name of the production company on the front cover (e.g. 'Top Of The Pops' has the BBC slogan on its cover

Housestyles

• Similar fonts within every article.
  I want the page number to be in the outer corner of each page. The number should be in purple writing inside a yellow star.
  The border at the top of the page should always be the same width and mostly kept to the same colour (purple with yellow text), apart from on the feature article, which looks completely different to other articles in most pop magazines (e.g. in the February 2011 issue of 'Top Of The Pops', the interview with Justin Bieber had a grey, black and blue colour scheme).
  Margins should always be the same size (text should always be the same distance away from the edge of the page on every single page).
  

Further analysis of 'Top Of The Pops' magazine

As 'Top Of The Pops' magazine is going to be my style model for the main part of my coursework task, I have decided to do a more in-depth and detailed analysis of it.

Front Cover

The title of the magazine runs across the top of the page in large, bold writing, and the date, issue number and barcode are at the bottom in the middle, which is actually quite unusual for a magazine, because this part is usually closer to the title. Everything on the front cover is situated around the main feature/cover star so that the main attention is paid to them. The largest font on the front cover is also associated with the cover star in the form of a quote from the interview that celebrity had with the magazine. Other special features have been circled or put into a box to show importance but not detract attention away from the main article. Another device which has been used to draw in the reader's attention is the use of alliteration: "107 brilliant bargain buys" - this makes the statement a lot more catchy and interesting. In addition to this, the "107" is in a much larger font than a lot of the other font on the front cover, and so this draws attention to that part of the magazine. The things that have been put on the front cover are clearly things that the production teams think are going to make the magazine sell the most. This is then emphasised with tricks or play-on-words. For example, in the box which says "Hitched or Ditched?", there are 2 famous stars, who you would assume to be in a relationship from the way in which the writing has been worded, but once you actually look inside the magazine, you find out that they are not dating each other but completely random people. This tricks the readers into buying the magazine, because they think that two famous celebrities are getting together, when in fact, the article does feature both of them, but not within the same situation.

Contents Page

The contents page is separated into several different simple sections to break up all of the different articles within it. This is helpful for the main target audience (kids to teenagers) because it is then easy for them to find the exact articles they are interested in reading.

The most relevant/exciting/best articles or parts of the magazine have been highlighted so that readers can easily find the pages they want to be looking at. This is also aided by the small picture of the front cover which has been inputted onto the contents page and annotated to emphasise exactly where the main articles are situated.

The colour scheme on the contents page is very similar to that of the front cover, which inkeeps with the house style.
Instead of the headline/heading of the contents page being the most obvious "Contents", the magazine has tried to make itself sound cooler and perhaps more appealing to the target audience by headlining it "Inside the mag...". The abbreviation of "magazine" to "mag" is typical of a pop magazine aimed at kids and teenagers, because they are trying to use the same kind of colloquial language that younger people in the hope that they become more easy to relate to.

Double Page Spread (Interview)

The title of the interview is a quote from within the interview, which is likely to be the best or most shocking quote from the entire interview. This single line is often enough to make the reader want to read the whole article. For example, in the case of this issue of 'Top Of The Pops' magazine, the quote from Justin Bieber is as follows, "Yes, I was bullied!" Seeing as Justin Bieber is such a huge star all over the world at the minute, thousands of fans are going to want to know why anyone would want to bully their idol and what exactly it was that the bullies did to him. There is also another quote in a smaller font further into the interview which reveals slightly more about what the interview is about. Before the main quote, there is always some kind of tagline to introduce the celebrity and the subjects that they are being quizzed about. For example, the tagline from this particular interview states, "Even the world's biggest star isn't safe from the haters, as JUSTIN sadly admits." This clearly gives information about both the celebrity and the topics/issues being raised.

The box in the top left hand corner of the double page says, "Exclusive interview" which really emphasises how famous the interviewee is and how privileged/lucky the magazine is to have been able to interview this celebrity.

At the end of the interview, there is a box giving advice to anyone who has problems with any of the issues raised within the interview (bullying, in this case) just to make sure the readers don't feel as if the issues have been brushed over and ignored because the interviewee is now a huge star. This obviously is not added to every interview, but for interviews that address sensitive topics, then this is essential. The fact that the interview with Justin Bieber is all about bullying makes it a lot more personal because when people are bullied, it is often quite a private issue which you don't want to open up about. Interviews which get stars to reveal secrets or issues from the past are often the most successful and I will have to think about this when I create the interview for my own magazine.

The photographs of the celebrity being interviewed have to be relevant to what the interview is about, and so in this article, Justin Bieber has been dressed up as a school student because this is where a lot of bullying tends to take place. For example, he is wearing a rucksack, carrying school books and holding a basketball, which is often a hobby taken up at school. This is something else I will have to consider when I am deciding on the locations and people that I want to have in my photoshoot for the double page spread of my magazine.

The colour scheme within this double page spread is a drastic change from the colour scheme on the front cover and the contents page, but perhaps this is to highlight the fact that a famous celebrity is being interviewed and they need something completely different on the pages they are featured on to really make them stand out.

Subverting Conventions

To subvert a convention is to go against the normal conventions and rules. For example, if someone wants to produce a magazine that subverts conventions, then think will have to think carefully about the graphic design of their magazine, which includes the layout, font style and style of the pictures or photographs they use.

An example of a magazine which subverted conventions is 'Ray Gun', which was an American rock magazine which was first published in 1992 and abolished in 2000. David Carson graphically designed the magazine and created many different strange front covers which were totally unexpected in the magazine industry.

Advantages of subverting conventions

• People like the magazines because they look different and people wanted to be associated with being individual and different.
  
• The magazines draw the attention of people because they don't follow conventions and look so different to any other magazines on the shelf.
  

Disadvantages of subverting conventions

• Some of the magazine designs are so random that people don't even realise what the purpose of the magazine is or what the magazine is about.


• Magazines don't tend to sell that well because they are totally unexpected and completely different to the majority of magazines. (Magazines have clearly been made in a particular way because it increases sales, so why go against this?)

As I will be producing a pop magazine for the main part of my task, I have decided that I will be designing and writing to appeal to a conventional audience, due to the fact it would be very hard to create a controversial pop magazine because nothing about pop is very controversial. This means that my magazine will be appealing to a mass market/audience rather than a niche market/audience. At the moment there is actually a gap in the market for a pop magazine, but it would definately need to be one that does not subvert conventions if it wants to sell well, especially after the major decline in pop magazines that there has recently been.

Research Methods

There are 4 different types of research methods:

- Primary

- Secondary

- Quantitative

- Qualitative

Primary

This is any personal research that you have done through the use of surveys, questionnaires, letter, emails and textual analysis. So far, the only type of primary research I have done myself is textual analysis. For example, I have analysed several magazines surrounding the music genre I am basing my music magazine on. I am also hoping to carry out a questionnaire at some point soon to help me out with what exactly my target audience want when I come to produce my final piece.

Secondary

This includes any research that has already been carried out. So for example, the internet and books. Most of my research so far has been internet based, and I haven't really looked at any books because they tend not to be as current as the internet because facts and information change so quickly and constantly that books are not always up to date. The most useful media aspect to research with the use of books of the layout and the design of magazines because this has stayed fairly consistent for many years now, and so the information in books will be accurate. There are two types of internet websites: industry and individual. An industry website is any website set up by a company or certain brand (e.g. Kerrang! website).

An individual website can be something like a blog where an individual is stating their views and opinions. The internet is extremely useful to me during research because it is so fast and so easily accessible both at school and at home. In addition to this, I don't yet have to personally pay the internet bills, which makes it even more convenient for my use.

Quantitative

This type of research includes anything to do with numbers or patterns or trends which can be found when people take out questionnaires. For example, if a lot of questionnaires are distributed, when they come back, they can be analysed in detail to find any particular trends that the answers follow.

Qualitative

This type of research is much more meaningful and much more focused on the thoughts and feelings of people. This kind of information can be discovered during interviews, which are much more personal than giving out surveys or questionnaires.

Analysis of 'Top Of The Pops' magazine

Now that I have decided for sure that I am going to be creating a pop magazine, I thought I should create a blog analysing 'Top Of The Pops' magazine, as this is going to be my style model.

'Top Of The Pops' magazine is a monthly periodical which was first published in February 1995 by the BBC and is most famous for giving The Spice Girls their well known nicknames. The magazine started off as a weekly magazine, but as the readership levels have gone down, the magazine has been changed to being published only once a month. The magazine is based on the television show of the same name and surrounds the world of pop stars. Any new pop artist or band is bound to be featured in 'Top Of The Pops' magazine. For example, the February 2011 issue of the magazine features Justin Bieber, who is clearly one of the biggest pop artists around at the moment. When 'Top Of The Pops' magazine first came out, it was had almost 100% music content, whereas nowadays, there is very little on celebrity music careers and more about celebrity style and relationships. (See earlier posts).
The colour scheme throughout the majority of the magazine consists of the colours white, bright pink, red and bright blue, although each issue has a slightly different set of colours. The name of the magazine runs across the top of the front page with the "of the" part of the name encircled in the centre. Unlike a lot of magazines, the name of the magazine isn't repeated on every page throughout, but each page has the same kind of basic structure, with the page number being in a black semi-circle in the centre of the bottom of each page.

The content of 'Top Of The Pops' magazine consists of a lot of interviews with pop stars, although very few of the questions are actually about their music. For example, in the February 2011 issue of the magazine, the interview with Justin Bieber does not include a single question about his recent singles or album; it's all about how he was bullied at school. How does this have any relevance to music? - the reason for him being famous. The lack of music information is shown all the way through the magazine, with the main focus being on celebrity love lives and the latest fashion statements of female music stars. This causes the audience of 'Top Of The Pops' magazine to be mainly women/girls. The National Readership Survey shows that only 41,000 'Top Of The Pops' magazine readers are male, whereas there are 123,000 female readers. You would expect most of these readers to be kids from around the age of 10 years old up to teenagers of around the age 16. You would also stereotypically expect them to be avid users of Facebook and their Blackberries and to be interested in any type of celebrity gossip. The NRS also shows that the majority of the magazine's readers fall into the C2DE socio-economic category (109,000) and only 55,000 fall into the ABC1 category. This is probably due to the fact that 'Top Of The Pops' is not a very glossy or expensive magazine, and so isn't as appealing to the higher or upper classes.

Function of pop magazines

I have decided that I am going to produce a pop magazine for the main part of my task, despite there being a limited number of pop magazines being published these days. The function of pop magazines are to inform readers about the most recent, chart-topping artists. Pop magazines nowadays are not like they used to be when they first originated, which makes it harder for them to be my style model. For example, when they first came about, they completely epitomized the new music industry. These days, although the magazines feature new, up-and-coming artists, there is very little information about the actual music that is being produced; there is much more of a focus on celebrity love lives or celebrity style. Perhaps this is because people's interests have changed and if the magazine was completely music based there could be a huge shift in the readership levels, but what is the point in calling a magazine 'Top Of The Pops' if only a tiny percentage of it actually focuses on pop music? I recently bought a copy of 'Top Of The Pops' magazine and was shocked to find how little it could tell me about music. Of course, every subject matter surrounds a pop star, but it is very rarely about their new singles or albums as you would expect it to be. This has a clear link with one of my earlier blogs which addresses the issue of declining pop magazines. For example, due to the fact that most people now research music online, the music content of magazines no longer stays an interest, and all that people want to do is delve further into the lives of celebrities, which goes far beyond their music careers.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we had to produce the front page and the contents page of a new school/college magazine. These had to include photographs of students and appropriately laid out text.

My magazine was a magazine especially for sixth formers, to help guide them through the changes that they would experience as they moved on from year 11 and into year 12. For example, one of the main features of my magazine was "How to create the perfect work and revision timetable!" which was clearly stated on both the front cover and the contents page of my magazine.

For the front cover of my magazine, I thought carefully about what exactly I wanted it to convey and how this would reflect the way in which already established school magazines go about their choosing design and layout. For example, the main photograph on the front page features students of different ethnical backgrounds/races laughing and seemingly having fun. I wanted to use a picture like this to show that sixth form isn't all about work, it's an experience in itself because it's so different from school is when you are in the lower years. I chose to photograph students of different races to show that the school has an openness and welcomes cultural variation. I also felt that this picture showed the students seeming a lot more independent, which is typical of sixth formers. Despite wanting the photograph to look happy and fun, I made sure that the students in the photograph were carrying books, to show that school work is still extremely important if you hope to do well. Clearly a school magazine wants to give off the impression that it has hard working students, so this is why I made sure the students had hold of some text books and exercise books. In additio

n to the books they were carrying, one of the students was carrying an apple and another was carrying a bottle of water. I added these into the picture to try and get across the idea that the school promotes a healthy lifestyle. Finally, I wanted the school to seem as perfect as possible, so I made the students pose in front of a green area, to try and show that the school is environmentally friendly. I have included the school logo on the front cover of my magazine and consistently used the school colours (black, white and red) on both the front page and the contents

page. I have used mostly the same font on both pages as well. The language I have employed clearly surrounds the subject of school and the sixth form. This is shown through words such as, "revision timetable" and "UCAS".
The front cover of my magazine follows the conventional ways of stereotypical school magazines by the way in which it really tries to show off the school and make it sound and look as perfect as possible.
The contents page of my magazine has a very simple but structured layout which I would assume to find in most school magazines. I decided to include a quote from the Principal of the school because a Principal is the most authoratative figure to be giving information and advice in a magazine that not only students read, but possibly parents read as well.

When I get onto the main part of my coursework task, there are a few things I would like to do differently to how I have done them in my preliminary task. For example, I will obviously be spending a lot more time on my main task and I will create several drafts before I create my final piece. I think time is the main factor in making a magazine look professional. I will also pay much more attention to detail, such as the width of the margins and font types so that the magazine is consistently presented. I won't leave anything looking slightly unfinished either (which is how I feel my pre-lim piece looks) because this makes the magazine look as if it has just been thrown together quickly and without much care.

The decline of pop magazines

I have decided to produce a pop magazine aimed at teenagers for the main part of my coursework task (rather than a magazine such as 'Q' which is what I originally thought I would like to produce), but I have noticed that pop magazines are no longer as popular as they used to be as of late. I have done some research into when pop magazines started to become unpopular and why exactly this began to happen.

The two most well known pop magazines are probably 'Smash Hits' and 'Top Of The Pops'; one of which is still available to buy in shops now, and the other which sadly had to be abolished due to poor readership ratings.

'Smash Hits' was a fortnightly pop magazine which started out in 1978 and peaked in the 1980's when it was becoming recognized all over Britain as "the new pop magazine". By 2006 though, the sale of 'Smash Hits' had greatly decreased and publications had to be ceased. And it's not only the UK version of 'Smash Hits' that is no longer published; the same thing has happened to the Australian magazine. The decline of magazines is turning into a worldwide problem!

One of the main theories to explain the reason for the decrease in sales of the magazine is the fact that the internet is taking over everything. Almost every household in the UK has access to the internet these days, and so rather than teenagers going out to buy a magazine to find out about the latest music, they will just surf the net instead. This obviously causes magazine readership to decrease, which in turn causes both magazine production and publication companies to lose money and eventually magazines end up having to be abolished. This type of decline is likely to cause major worry for magazines because the kids and teenagers who are no longer reading magazines are the future generation. So not only will there be a decline in the readership of kids and teenage magazines, when these teenagers become adults, magazines aimed at adults will also suffer. If teenagers aren't buying magazines now, then they are not going to suddenly want to start reading magazines when they become adults. This could potentially cause magazines to become extinct altogether!

Although 'Top Of The Pops' magazine is still up and running these days, it is probably the only teen pop magazine around and it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as popular as it used to be when I was the typical age at which people read it. I remember buying 'Top Of The Pops' magazine regularly, and I know that a lot of my friends bought it too, but I very rarely see it in any shops anymore, and I am not aware of anybody that reads it. Does this perhaps mean it is heading in the same direction that 'Smash Hits' has?

Pop Magazines: Mode of Address

Pop magazines are made to look extremely glossy and highly professional with high production values. The main aim is to make everything sound as good and as new as possible in terms of technology.

Pop magazines are also very commercial. For example, both pop music and pop magazines are made to appeal entirely to an audience and to make an enormous profit, instead of for the passion or the emotion the artists feel in the music that is produced.

Pop magazines tend to have a very informal register with chatty, friendly and bubbly language, which makes every article seem upbeat and quite cheesy in some cases. For example, a lot of abbreviations and contractions are used to make the magazine sound "cool" and as up-to-date as possible. These abbreviations often come in the form of colloquialism. For example, words such as "business" would be shortened and altered to read "biz", and the word "pictures" would be changed to "snaps". Made up slang words such as "Eek!" and "Cringe!" are regularly used as well. This gives the whole magazine a much more fun vibe. In addition to this, alliteration, superlatives and exclamation marks are used to increase the cheesiness. The use of 2nd person pronouns and direct address such as "you" and "your" helps to really engage the reader and make them think that the articles within the magazine would be personally relevant to their lives.

Ideology of Pop Music

The word “pop” music was first used in 1926 and was described as “a piece of music having popular appeal”. (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pop-music-history.html). Pop music originated from rock ‘n’ roll music and was solely based around the theme of love, just as it is these days. It is made mainly to appeal to a younger target audience and is often associated with quite cheesy, simple songs.

Radio stations such as the BBC would not play this new genre of popular music when it first came about, as it was not seen as respectable or at the same standard as the more classical types of music. Consequently, pirate radio stations were set up to secretly play pop music. Although at first these stations were completely unknown, this was how pop made its breakthrough.

Pop properly became commercialised in the ‘50s when young adults became classed as “teenagers” and no longer abided with their parents’ rules. It was a kind of rebellion against old-fashioned rituals or ways, which included older styles of music such as classical music. The introduction of pop music also brought along the introduction of the “Top 20” chart, which then lead on to the “Top 40” chart.

Pop music first started in the form of boy bands. For example, the Beatles were obviously a huge influence on the pop genre, although nowadays they are more regularly classed as a rock band. This trend of male pop stars continued up until the 1990’s when it was interrupted by the likes of The Spice Girls, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears.

A characteristic often associated with pop music is the idea that the production, recording and technology are more important on the record than live performances are. This is because any kind of new editing or sound techniques that can be used are thought to be essential for use on pop records. This is a complete contrast to rock or indie artists who revel in performing live. In addition to this, pop music is made almost completely on the basis of appealing to the masses rather than for the sheer love of writing and performing songs, which is normally the case for other genres of music. Despite this, a lot of pop songs which start out with no intentional meaning actually become meaningful songs after they have been released to the public, because everyone has a different reaction to a song, and in some cases an emotional one.

Pop music is associated with feminism, whereas genres such as rock seem very masculine. For example, a male pop star will always come across as quite effeminate, whilst a female rock star is always portrayed to be masculine.

Pop music changes all the time, depending on exactly what style of music is getting the most coverage and good reception at the time. Stereotypically, people who enjoy listening to pop music have a very fashionable and up to date image because they are interested in new trends of clothing and styles, just as they are interested in the new trends of music. Pop music fans generally become engaged in anything that is current and up-to-date.

Genres of Music

Rock – Melodic, Soft, Hard, Glam, Garage, Surf Rock, British Blues, Merseybeat, Mod, Skiffle, Math Rock.

Pop – New Wave, Bubble gum Pop, Traditional Pop, Synth Pop, Power Pop, Pop Punk, Downtempo, Indie Pop, Pop Rap, Psychedelic Pop, Accoustic (a lot of pop has elements of other genres within it, e.g. Indie Pop and Pop Punk)

Punk – Anarcho Punk, Cowpunk, Gypsy Punk, Hardcore, Psychobilly, Ska Punk, Street Punk, Dream Pop, Noise Pop, Riot Girl, Grunge.

Metal – Thrash, Death, Heavy.

R’n’B – Neo Soul, New Jack Swing, Quiet Storm.

Hip Hop – Hard core, G-Funk, Electro, Crunk, Old School, New School.

Classical – Opera, Baroque, Renaissance, Western, Non-Western.

Reggae – Ska, Rocksteady, Roots, Dub, Dancehall.

Dance – Techno, Trance, Goa Trance, House, Big Beat, Drum and Bass, Gabba, Happy Hardcore.

Jazz – Acid Jazz, Calypso Jazz, Jazz Funk, Jazz Fusion, Modal Jazz, Ragtime, Swing.

Blues – Acid Blues, Country Blues, Boogie Woogie, Piano Blues, Rhythm and Blues. 

Rap – Gangsta, Southern, Battle, Hyphy

World – Bhangra, Salsa

Indie – this is mostly classed as a sub genre of rock

Soul – Motown Soul, Deep Soul, Southern Soul, Psychedelic Soul, Blue-eyed Soul.

Country – Death Country, Hillbilly, Outlaw Country, Progressive Country, Rap Country, Red Dirt, Rock Country/Rockabilly, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk, Western Swing.

Personally, my iPod is clearly dominated by pop music, but this doesn’t necessarily mean all of my favourite songs are pop songs. For example, my all-time favourite song is “Naïve” by The Kooks, which would come under either the punk or alternative music genre. Closely following pop on my iPod is rock and R&B/hip hop, and I really like these genres up until the point where rock becomes “shouty” or "screamo" and R&B/hip hop becomes completely dominated by rapping.

Analysis of 'Mojo' magazine

I have chosen to analyse 'Mojo' magazine because it is in many ways similar to 'Q' magazine (which I have already analysed) and this is the style of magazine that I want to reproduce when it comes to producing my coursework piece.

'Mojo' is a monthly magazine which was first published in 1993 by a company called Emap. 'Mojo' continued to be published by Emap up until 2008 when it was taken over by the publishing company Bauer. The very first issue of 'Mojo' magazine displayed Bob Dylan and John Lennon as its front cover stars, in keeping with the general rock theme that goes with the magazine.

The magazine's typical content consists of a main feature article on either a band/artist or a particular genre of music. A significant different between 'Mojo' magazine and 'Q' magazine is that 'Mojo' magazine tends to have a lot of articles and information about artists from the past and more classical rock acts such as Jimmy Hendrix. Because of this, you would expect the typical audience of 'Mojo' to perhaps be the elder generation of men, but the National Readership Survey from October 2009-September 2010 proves that although the majority of readers are men (200,000), most of the readers are between the ages 15-44 (136,000) compared to the over 45 age category (64,000). The contents of 'Mojo' magazine tend to include a lot of long, wordy articles which means it appeals more to the percentage of the population who are in the ABC1 category. 'Mojo' is almost likeThe Observer or The Guardian of music magazines - it appeals to the upper classes. The National Readership Survey shows that 130,000 'Mojo' readers are classed as the ABC1 population, whereas only 69,000 readers would be placed into the C2DE category.

The colour scheme of 'Mojo' magazine is a consistent black, white and gold throughout, with the main title on the front cover being in bold, black font on a white/grey background. The more recent issues of 'Mojo' have featured the main band/artist on the front cover in black and white rather than in colour, perhaps to relate to the way that previous eras of music are often written about within the magazine. Furthermore, part of the title on the front page is always partially hidden by the feature artist/s. Just in the same way that 'Q' magazine does it, 'Mojo' prints its name on the corner of every page next to the page number so that the brand name is repeated throughout. Another similarity between 'Q' and 'Mojo' is that 'Mojo' can be found in shops such as Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, WHSmith and HMV, just as 'Q' can.

The social groups that would tend to read 'Mojo' are represented as fairly well educated, upper class people. This is mainly displayed through the way in which the articles are all quite long and written in complex ways, which perhaps not the entire population would completely understand. I personally think that the magazine also gives the impression that the social groups that read it are very keen on "old-school" rock and would brush aside or shun any of the new styles of rock that are out in the charts or played on the radio nowadays.

Analysis of 'Q' magazine

‘Q’ magazine was first published in October 1986, and stood out from other music magazines due to its higher standards of photography and printing. In its early days it was subtitled, “The modern guide to music and more”, whereas it is now subtitled “Discover great music”.

‘Q’’s typical content consists one or two main feature interviews with artists or bands, and then smaller interviews with a few more – perhaps less well known or someone who hasn’t recently recorded – artists. There is also a weekly feature in the magazine called “Q50”, which states the Top 50 songs of the month which are recommended to listen to. In addition to this, there are reviews of new singles and albums, and news of upcoming artists that are thought to achieve success. Another very noticeable aspect of the magazine is the amount of advertisements for gigs that are going on. This is a significant feature because the readers of ‘Q’ are obviously all very interested in music and are likely to regularly attend gigs, so an update of upcoming tours is essential.

As you would expect, the majority of ‘Q’ readers are male and the age range spans from late teens to middle aged men. I can back this up with information from the National Readership Survey (NRS), which shows that 366,000 of ‘Q’ readers are male, whereas only 160,000 of them are female. To back up my point about the age group that ‘Q’ most appeals to, the NRS proves that 459,000 of ‘Q’ readers are between the ages of 15-44, and only 67,000 of them are over the age of 45. For the most part, readers of ‘Q’ will be fans of indie or alternative genres of music, because this is the genre that the magazine mostly writes about. Despite this, there are occasional feature articles on artists such as Rihanna or Lady Gaga. These issues clearly appeal to a wider readership with a slightly different taste in music than the typical audience have, because the likes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga come under the pop genre of music.

'Q''s housestyle has a consistent colour scheme of black, white and red throughout the entire magazine, with the main 'Q' logo being a white 'Q' on a red square background. This logo is also repeated on every page corner next to the page number. In addition to this, the letter 'Q' entitles a lot of the pages. For example, there are sections of the magazine named "Q Mail" and "Q Review" and "Q Now", and so there is a constant repetition of the brand name.

‘Q’ is published by the institution Tower Publishing and distributed by the company Frontline. It can commonly be found in any big chain supermarkets (for example, Tesco, Asda or Morrisons) and also in book or music stores such as WHSmith or HMV.

The typical social group that would read ‘Q’ magazine are represented to be quite narrow minded when it comes to music and don’t conform to the more popular genres of music such as pop music. They seem to be very opinionated about the type of music they like and only listen to indie styles of music which are not traditionally as popular. I would imagine that when there are feature articles on mainstream artists such as Lady Gaga, the magazine would lose some of its regular readers that are huge indie fans, and in turn pick up some alternative readers who are fans of pop music and wouldn’t usually read magazines surrounding the rock, punk or indie genre.

Something interesting I have noticed from analysing ‘Q’ magazine is that there are some sections of it that are actually based on more mainstream, worldwide artists such as The Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga. From looking at the front cover of the magazine, I personally don’t think that this is something you would expect because the magazine seems as if it would be completely indie, punk or rock music based.