More Research- Analysis of band images PAOLO NUTINI...

Yet again even more research has to be done boohoo! but this time i get to look at an artist i like and analyse posters, CD covers etc yay!!! and see how they represent their target audience. I am going to be looking at Paolo Nutini as his music genre is indie pop, finally someone is making a breakthrough in the indie pop genre!


I have found the album cover of Paolo's new album "Sunny Side Up", the album is extremely eye-catching as the bright colours attract us straight away, the colours can be classed as either masculine or feminine colours therefore suggests that his target audience is both male and females. As he is a male artist he may be targeting more towards a female audience which may be why bright colours are used as females generally like brighter colours more than dull colours. The image used shows him sat down eating a meal which could have been made for him which refers to males as they usually get meals made for them and sit eating.

His first album "These Streets" is also very bright and colourful making it eye-catching and recognisable. Race might have been represented in the album through the use of dark and light colours which could resemble a large variety of ethnicity broadening the target audience. Paolo Nutini's name has been written in an old fashioned fountain pen style, this style might attract females as the pattern is swirly and pretty which is what many females like. However i have noticed that the design of these albums aren't too "girly" for example there are no feminine colours used such as pinks and purples and the artist has been dressed appropiatly so not just appealing to a female audience.

This weeks download top 40!!!

I have looked at this weeks UK top 40 to analys the most popular music genres today.

I am narrowing the top 40 down to the top 10 as these are the most listened to genres that are in at the moment. The top 10 for the week of 24/01/2010 are:

1. Owl City- Fireflies
2. Iyaz- Replay
3.Glee Cast- Don't Stop Believin'
4. 30H3 Ft Katy Perry- Starstrukk
5. Sidney Samson Ft Wizard Sleeve- Riverside
6. Example- Won't Go Quietly
7. Journey- Don't Stop Believin'
8. Alexandra Burke- Broken Heels
9.Lady Gaga- Bad Romance
10. JLS- One Shot


A variety of gernes are actually in the top 10 which shows that more gernes are being accepted and becoming popular. Genres in this chart range from pop (Glee Cast), R n B (Iyaz and JLS ) Dance (Sidney Samson), Electro (Owl City and Lady Gaga). This shows that the genre indie or indie-pop is lacking in the music industry therefore proven that there is a gap in the market.
Biffy Clyro an artist who i would say is indie is further down the chart standing at number 20 which shows that this genre of music is slowly creeping into the music industry and charts.

Circulation Figures...

They're definatly right when they say you learn something new everyday, up until today i had no idea what circulation figures were until google provived me with the answer. I have found the circulation figures for music magazine of the genre "indie rock" i have been unable to find any for the magazine genre which i want to do which is "indie pop" so i have found the figures for this indie rock genre and some for the "pop" genre. This shows that there is a gap that needs to be filled in the magazine market for this genre.
These figures have been taken from the months of January 2008- June 2008 and shows that the market in the magzine industry is rapidly changing, this may be due to the ever on going new genres that are being heard every year or new technology such as the internet where people cannow access articles and new on celebrities via websites for music magazines. Also more of the indie type magazines such as NME and mojo have less sales than those of the rock genre also showing that a new magazine should be introduced to help increase these sales.


Classic Rock 66,632 (67,399)
Kerrang! 60,294 (76,937)
Metal Hammer 48,540 (45,809)
Mixmag 34,073 (35,817)
Mojo 106,367 (106,218 )
NME 56,284 (64,033)
Q 113,174 (131,330)
Rock Sound 22,527 (23,021)
Terrorizer no figures (14,952)
The Fly 105,212 (103,051)
Uncut 86,925 (91,028 )
Word 33,775 (33,217)

Searching for circulation figures for a pop magazine was harder than i thought, the only thing i have found is circulation figures for teen magazines from 2006, however this inclides the phenominum that was Top Of The Pops!!!! The statistics show that top of the pops was down by 16.6 percent to 116,858 in the first 6 months of the year, however as no other magazine like top of the pops is out there at the minute another gap needs filling in the market. Therefore it is ideal that the genre i have chosen for my music magazine is "indie-pop"

Article Analysis...

After searching for what like seemed forver!! i finally found this magazine article about an indie band. A feature article should be spread over a double page with headlines and subheadings which jump out to the reader and explain the story, these usually being artists names, new albums and tours etc. This article does exactly this as the two page spread allows us to see everything that has been published and the dominating image of the band and the bands name "The Teenagers" catches out attention immediatly. There are also other small images around the article which make the article seem more interesting, in this article the small images have been used under the caption "Everyone's Talking About" this appeals to the reader as they are more than likely going to know who the people are who others are talking about.
The text "Need to Know" brings the reader further into the article as we are now thinking to ourselves hmmm we should read this as we need to know about it. Quite a lot of white space has been used around the text area to make there seem that there isn't a lot of text, this is suitable as we all know that teenagers and young adults aren't ones for reading.

Research- Magazine Covers!!!!!!

I am analysing a varity of magazine to covers to help me establish how i want my magazine to look like. I have chosen this cover with Oasis on the front as it shows the two main singers and as my up and coming artist will consist of a duo i need to figure out what the best camera shot and angle to use and ideas on how to position the image with the layout of the cover. NME magaizne is aimed at a target audience of around 16-24 which is the same of mine, however it is more aimed at males than females so i will need to take into consideration what featured articles, colours etc will be different on mine.

Firstly this is a striking cover as it attracts your attention immediatly, bright, bold colours have been used to make the cover stand out. The leading caption definatly dominates the page here as the word is in capitals and is coloured in white which contrasts with the mixture of colours in the background. A lot of red has been used in the straplines, featured articles and the title of the magazine which instantly draws your attention to them and the main primary colours, red, white and blue have been used as these are genually classed as "boy" colours which resembles the target audience. I particularly like the dominating image of the celebrities as it overpowers the page and as the faces of Liam and Noel Gallagher are situated near the Title we instantly recognise them as much as we recognise the name of the magazine.

I have chosen this magazine to also analyse as Miley Cyrus is a worldwide phenominum and appeals to a wide variety of audiences, however as Elle magazine is aimed more at people in the age range of 16-24 and females it is a similar to what i am basing my magsazine on.

This cover is suited more to an older audience than the typical young audience many think Miley is suited to, this can be seen throught the colour palette that has been used, this being neautral colours, the use of pink and "girly" colours havn't been used to show a more adult appraoch to the magazine. I really like this as it isn't too "bamn" in your face but it still stands out as the colours are unusual for a front cover and the big amounts of white space enhance the picture making it stand out more. This shows that for my magazine i will have to combine feminine colours with neutral colours in order for it not to look too young but i will have to add more interesting and in your face features like the NME magazine in order for it to be eye-catching. I have noticed also that the title's of these mags are all filled in with colour so i will definatley have to make sure i use a font which enables them to be filled in as previously shown in my prelim task. InDesign you are totally ruining my chances of getting a good grade with your non fillable texts!

Research...

So i guess that best way to start my research is to firstly look at some magazine covers and assess the conventions of a music magazine. All magazines should follow the same rules when designing the front cover, these of which being:

• An image and logo/header- this should fit the contents and the target audience.


• The mode of address- most common of which being direct address which invites the reader in.


• Stars and Celebrities- these draw the audience in as many people are inspired by them, celebrities on covers also increase sales and profit.


• Bright, interesting and eye-catching- front covers should attract the readers attention straight away and resemble the genre of the magazine.


• The leading caption- this should dominate the cover and should focus on the featured article.


• Subheadings- these should be of the main stories featured in the magazine.


• Straplines- these are usually situated at either the top or bottom of the page and highlight stars or stories in the magazine.

I have done a bit if research into different styles of magazine covers to see if these follow the conventions and to analyse how the magazine cover is successful and how mine will do the same.

This Rolling Stones cover features Lady Gaga as the main celebrity, this will attract a wide range of audiences as Lady Gaga is a big breakthrough act at this moment in time and a lot of people are inspired by her and her unusual fashion and music. Pink is the main colour used which shows that this feature is targeted mainly at females, pink is also a bright colour which stands out to a lot of females therefore attracting them to the magazine. Direct address has been used here inviting the reader in, however i think that instead of using a long shot of Lady Gaga, a medium-close up should have been used to draw the viewer to focus on her direct address which will stand out more. There are two leading captions on this cover, " The Rise of LADY GAGA" and " The HOT LIST" these draw the attention of the reader in, as lady gaga and hot list are in capitals we are instantly drawn to these and as we are familia with lady gaga and hot list meaning more famous stars making us want to read into the article more. Further subheadings have been added to the right hand side of the page to show other featured articles/stories in the magazine. Overall this magazine cover is very successful as it features many of the conventions and the layout has been kept simple.

For my magazine to be as successful as this, i will need to produce a bright and eye-catching cover with a striking image of a new band whilst using direct address. My leading caption should attract the attention of the reader straight awa, also as the magazine will be a new magazine the title will need to be noticeable and the title will need to be rememberable.

Preliminary Task!

Here is my preliminary task, a cover for a college magazine. The front cover was created using InDesign, as it was the first time i had used this software i decided to play around with all that i had learnt. A medium-close up shot has been taken of a student, this allows the viewer to see what the main topics are going to be in the magazine. The image fits well as the students face is at the top of the cover allowing room for text to go underneath and around the image. Direct address has been used in the image to meet the criteria of a magazine and also shows that the magazine is aimed directly at the students. The key Contents have been situated in the middle of the page as this is a focus point for most people. The colour scheme is used was red, black, white and yellow, i chose this as these are colours that are visable on the students clothing and also stand out,"Exam" has been printed in red as for many students this is seen as a daunting and horrible time for them. However not all went well in this task as the font that i chose would only allow the outline to be coloured in red, this hasn't made the title of the magazine stand out which is a negative point as the name is how the magazine is advertised. For my final magazine cover i will have to find a suitable font that will allow the centre of the letters to be filled with colour.



Creating a contents page was part of the preliminary task, so here is my version of what i would like a contents page to look like. Images should dominate the page therefore i have made sure that there are more images than text and that they are large and catch the readers attention. The title of the page should also be on, i have decided to put my title down the side of the page to make it more unique as not many magazines do this, it also catches the readers attention as the side of the page is the side which you see when flicking through a magazine so more people are likely to see it and view it. A list of contents can be seen down the left hand side of the page under a variety of headings, this allows the reader to go directly to the section in which they are most interested in however the main featured articles will be shown through the images on the page.

Initial thoughts and ideas.

I have decided to create a music magazine that will focus on up and coming new artist for the genre "Indie Pop". The magazine will be targeted mainly at females in the age group of 16-24 year olds with new acts suited to their age range. I chose this genre as it is a popular sound that i like to listen to and i havn't yet found a music magazine that solemly focus' on this genre, i think that a magazine is needed for people of my age and slightly above that is suited to us as most magazines are aimed at younger audiences or more on males. A lot more artists are breaking into the music industry as late teens or young adults who want to have a fan base of people similar to their age, therefore this magazine will suit this audience. My USP (Unique Selling Point) is that my magazine will be targeted at late teens/young adults of females who are interested in indie pop music and new talents, this selling point is unique as not many magazines cater for this audience and this genre. It's now time for things to change in the magazine world...