Aims and Introduction

Aims and introductions

My target audience is younger people (13-17 years) specifically girls. This is because it’s going to be female orientated due to the colour scheme and content. Because of the age, it’s not going to be expensive as many people don’t work before they are 16 or 17. The genre I have decided to go for is pop, because I think you can have a lot of fun with creating it, with bright colours and silly cover lines. It will be similar to what is already out there in terms of pop magazines for girls but it will have something that is its USP (unique selling point).
It will be affordable to everyone, but the audience for pop is typically young so it will be cheaper than majority of the magazines. It will appeal to mainstreamers, a psychographic that means they buy typical and popular things, and pop is the most ‘pop’ular music.

I got the inspiration from a magazine I saw in a shop, and thought it looked like something that would be fun to make because there were so many different visual elements that worked well together. There’s not too much information pushed onto the reader and it’s usually about everyday things or celebrities, with the music being the top 40 or admired boy bands. I studied Q, acoustic, rolling stones, mixmag and Kerrang! None of these magazines are actually pop, but they did help me to gather some ideas for what to put on my front cover. I particularly liked Rolling stones because of its simplicity and the clarity of the image; however the cover lines advertised articles that young girls definitely wouldn't want to hear about. I would classify my magazine as ‘mainstream chart music magazine introducing some new talents’ This is because the content will focus on pop singers and bands, with typical interviews with individuals and the other usually things you get like celebrity news. This means that the cover lines have to be ‘tweenager’ friendly, in that there can’t be any swearing and slang or alliteration is usually used to make it more interesting and age appropriate. The basis of this issue will be introducing a new up and coming boy band, they will be interviewed in the double page spread and feature prominently on the front cover. This means the whole magazine will be focused mainly on selling this band as something new and exciting to be admired. The band themselves is called ‘The Fall’, and it’s your typical pop boy band. This will appeal to girls because of what they look like and could mean some young boys aspire to be them. They sell pop music and work with a charity, which makes them seem caring and that in turn will make more people interested in them.

I want a lot of different images on the front cover, quite a few on the contents page and one main and large one that I like the most on the double page spread. The boy band I’m using will consist of 3 or 5 boys who represent all the popular boy bands at the moment, like The Wanted and One Direction. The shots will all be natural, as though I’m catching the band just hanging out without the use of studios for a more ordinary effect. The lighting will also be natural because I want the readers to feel as though they can relate and are close to the band, and anything artificially could create a void which makes the band seem untouchable. The clothes will be relaxed and what boys typically wear when it comes to fashion, e.g. chinos and polo shirts. All the photos should show a relaxed group of boys having fun and seeming normal so that the audience can relate. My favourite shot will be decided by how natural and simple the boys look whilst having fun and looking nice. My feature article will be the one about the boy band, an interview as a way to introduce them to the world. The unique part of the magazine will be that a few selected young bloggers will give their views on the band and their music in a small side article, which would appeal to the audience more because it could include some of them.

My front cover has been influenced by pictures of other pop magazines, specifically top of the pops. I like the almost cluttered atmosphere created the volume of colours and images and little sections of text seeming randomly placed. However, I don’t want mine to be too hectic as I do like the simple approach as shown by the rolling stones, so I may try to find a balance between the two. I will be obeying the rule of thirds with some of my title and cover lines prominently on the left side so that it could be seen on shop shelves, and I will include the generic things that are usually in every magazine, like competitions and posters. The contents page is inspired by acoustic magazine, as it has enough images for there not to be too much text which is good because it’s only the contents page. It seems like most of them are over two pages, so I will make mine that size too. However, they included musical objects whereas my magazine is all about the people playing them. The double page spread will be in interview format, with clear separations between the question and answer shown through the use of different font styles. There will be an introductory paragraph stating who the band is and some of their achievements so far or how they were discovered etc. A small side article will be the bloggers chosen by an imaginary past competition who have written in their thought on the new band and why they should be listened to. I’m going to pull quotes from the text to break it up more and include a lot of images so everyone knows who the article is about.

My magazine is called ‘Dazzle’. This is because of the common concept associated with stage lights, that they dazzle you. Because majority of artists will have or are performing on stages I thought it was quite fitting. It will also fit with who I was aimed at because it’s fun sounding and works with the genre of pop.