Background into being Indie

I decided to look into what makes a person Indie, looking at all aspects of life, hair clothes shoes accessorises and where they shop to how they make their own clothes. By doing this piece of research it allowed me to see what sort of clothing my model should be wearing to ensure people the target audience will be able to immediately tell it is an Indie Mag. Also by doing this piece of research it allowed me to connect with my target audience, so I can see what they are like as a group.






I decided to look into what makes you Indie, so I can see what will be appropriate and who will be appropriate for my magazine to ensure I get the look right, and people will see that my magazine is targeted at a specific genre off music which is Indie.

How Women are presented in Music Magazines

I decided to look into how women are presented on the front page of music magazine's and What they are wearing the mise-en-scene and the props that are involved in the shoot, so I can get ideas from them and put the ideas into my magazine. (As I had previously decided that I was going to use female model.)

This gives me insight to what the target audience could be expecting and what defines a music magazine a music magazine and not just any magazine. I will have to add certain aspects to define it as a music magazine and to fit my genre of indie.

As we can see, over time the presentation of Women has changed dramatically, from a girlie magazine such as 'Top of the pops' which target audience is aimed at 10-14 year old girls, so the images that are shown on the magazine are less raunchier and revealing than the target audience of Q because Q's target audience is higher than Top of the pops, this means that the target audience could reflect the image and the explicitness of the image. 

The type of image used a front cover, all depends on what age the target audience is aimed at. 

Target Audience

Referring to the UK Tribes website which has been published by Channel Four, they were analysis and grouping the different types of people. They done their research by:

The output was categorising the youth of the United Kingdom into social groups, they made constant updates because new tribes were made and remaining ones differed.

Get paid crew, DIYers, Blingers, Trackies = Urban. 

Overall Channel four categorised the Urban group consisting of the above four categories, they said they are members that are influenced by what they see around them in their 'urban environment' in clubs and social network, YouTube and Facebook are most effective to them. They also enjoy music with their friends. Hooded tops could be seen as intimidating however they are conversation friendly and their personality is laid back and open-minded. They mainly choose the American style of music genre and style icons, they do like big label brands such as JD Sports and Adidas.

Ravers,  Townies, Chavs, Boy Racers, Sports junkies, Street Rats, Casuals = Mainstream.

Channel four  put the above groups into a big group of mainstream, they wear clothes from the likes of Primark and Sports Direct. Mainstreams go against the celebrity dominated fashion world by perhaps choosing the less expensive and 'in' clothes. They spend most of their time listening to the Radio Stations, they also spend a lot of their time on the internet but using it for socialising and interaction. Keen YouTube watchers. They read the likes of OK Magazine, The Sun Newspapers and lad mags. They are also keen on sportswear, football and drinking. Although chavs come under the mainstream category, they have a more tacky fashion sense and anti-social behaviour. Ravers are the most party loving and fashion leaders. Boy Racers love cars and bass music.

 

Hipsters, Geeks, Craft Kids, Indie Scenesters = Leading Edge. 

'Classic hit makers, and youth marketing' is how channel four describe them. The leading edge are act older than they actually are. With the age grows knowledge and understanding of the leading edge group, in particular the geeks and craft kids. They also learn the wider cultural influences in fashion and also music. The craft kids are a small 'tribe' but a influential on fashion, food and creativity. They may alter there clothes through their own ideas. Have love for knitwear and art. Geeks, Indie Scenesters and Hipsters are the youth market, they have a influence of the popular culture, however personality can be hard to predict. Indies like music particularly with guitars involved, hipsters stay on the fashion trends and are often ahead with fashion, they like the newest and best selection in music media and fashion. 

Trendies, Rahs =  Aspirant Mainstream.

Open minded and willing to socialise and willing to interact with anyone. This lifestyle is mainly for girls, the Rahs are mainly free with their money. They will browse designer clothes but won't wear it, they spend their money mainly in H&M and Hollister. In terms of magazines they read Billboard and Vogue.

Members also spend big on the basics like jeans, bags and makeup. The Rahs are either loved or hated, there isn't an inbetween, they follow celbrities at the like of Peaches Geldoff.  Rahs are easy to spot with their showy fashion and shouty, braying voices, and they tend to move in big clans, dipping into urban and indie trends.

Skaters, Metal heads, Emos, Young Alts, Scene Kids, Gamers =Alternative

Members of the Alternative tribes are vaguely rebellious but don’t yet have a specific focus to rally against their parents may well have helped shape their Alternative views. They are influenced by their peers, they are open minded about fashion, they are determined to be different.They are extremely passionate about music, and spend a huge amount of time online. For them to be contacted is through social media such as facebook.

Magazine Title Ideas

To discover what I will name my magazine I decided to look at some indie female artists and look at there song titles, which I have arranged above. My next idea is to pick the top four which I think will be appropriate for a music magazine title and for the 'Indie Genre'.

 Best title ideas:

1. Body Eletric
2. Brite Lites
3. Smoke&Mirrors
4. Broken Doll 

I selected the above four out of all the contender which were all posted in the posters above, I chose the final four by me thinking which ones would fit best with the Indie Genre.

FEED BACK: However when asking people what they thought they felt because they were all songs of well known Indie musicians they thought the magazine would become to focused to a well known artist and it wouldn't be unique or individual.

I then decided to Google 'Musical Terminology' and use

thesaurus to look up 'Indie' and I then narrowed it down to two:

1. Headliner
2. Flipside 

I decided to ask my class which are around the target age of the audience that I will focus my magazine on, so they all had to tick one out of the two suggestions and the majority wins the name title:

Therefore, the title of my music magazine is Flipside.

Magazine Analysis Kerrang

The company that produces Kerrang is 'The Bauer Media Group' the target audience for the magazine is 15-19 year old's mainly focused at Men, and for the target audience of people who are interested in rock/punk/grunge/indie music etc. I get this impression because of the bands listed at the side of the cover who will be inside the issue and because of the central image of the magazine they are of the rock genre. The magazine costs £2.20. It is published weekly. The circulation of the magazine is 42,077.

The title of the magazine is Kerrang, the title connotes the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar. The strapline of the magazine is 'Rock's greatest heroes' this is the strapline because it is in the centre of the page and it is what draws your attention to the page. The main image is the background to the magazine, it is the main image of a band, the facial expression of all four members are different, perhaps even a gaze which could be seen as intimidating but it represents the rock genre which is the magazine type. The direction of gaze would be straight towards the camera, the clothing of the band members is quite casual but again clothing that would represent the rock genre, also the hair reflects the genre of the magazine. This would all engage the reader because they know exactly what the target audience wants and the magazine is engaging the reader of a certain genre. Other images such as small versions of the posters inside appear on the front cover, this shows what is involved inside the magazine and shows value for money. The content which is promoted by the cover lines is focusing on the target audience such as a university guide, and exclusive interviews with people, again showing what the target audience wishing to buy the magazine will get for there money, the fonts used to get these messages across are bold ones, and in the house style of yellow and red, although some of the text isn't in bright colours you can still get drawn to them because they have used a bold fonts, and fonts that stand out on the page. Also the magazine producers have used banners, circles and arrows to put some of the information on to again stand out and make the magazine look different to others. Although there isn't a lot of language and written information on the page the language which has been used is to just describe the artists that are in the magazine, so although the writing doesn't necessarily match the music genre it's hard to judge because it is only music band names.

The cover talks to it's reader by showing exactly what is on offer, the cover doesn't look that similar to other magazines of the same genre type such as NME, because NME is much more structured, Kerrang takes the more messy look, and piles a lot of information and images onto the front cover.

Throughout the whole magazine there are 63 pages in total with 13 of them being adverts. This therefore would question value for money with so many pages revolving around adverts. Howevermost adverts are music related to do with tours and gigs and up coming music.

Here below are some off the advertisments offered:

Feedback

Letter of the week

Tweets off the week

Royal Republic Tour

Garage Tour

Kerrang Notice Board

Yellowcard Tour

The Maine Tour

Rival Sons Tour

Trivium Tour

(Bold related to music industry)