Evaluation Question 3 (Script)
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Global Group (This Global Limited) are the media group that own the radio station XFM, which was launched in 1997, as an Alternative/Indie Music radio station. As there is currently no magazine that goes hand in hand with this radio station, it is my thought that there is a gap in the market here, so I must first find the similarities between my audience, and the audience of XFM. Looking at the front page of the XFM website, I notice that the bands on the front are similar to my music magazine’s acts. On the Xfm website, I saw an article about The Libertines having a big reunion gig at Hyde Park, and I wrote in my research that The Libertines were very influential over the music I put in my magazine.
Global Group (This Global Limited) are the media group that own the radio station XFM, which was launched in 1997, as an Alternative/Indie Music radio station. As there is currently no magazine that goes hand in hand with this radio station, it is my thought that there is a gap in the market here, so I must first find the similarities between my audience, and the audience of XFM. Looking at the front page of the XFM website, I notice that the bands on the front are similar to my music magazine’s acts. On the Xfm website, I saw an article about The Libertines having a big reunion gig at Hyde Park, and I wrote in my research that The Libertines were very influential over the music I put in my magazine.
When I went to the ‘Artists’ page, which lists all artists
played regularly on XFM, I could see Jake Bugg, The Stone Roses and David Bowie
all clearly listed, which shows the similarities between my audience and theirs
as they are the acts with article advertised on the front and contents page of
my magazine. The pictures on the website are also quite bright, and while this
may not appeal to the hardcores and emos in my target audience, it does work
very well in attracting Skaters and Hipsters to the radio station and website.
When looking at the recent changes to the radio station, I
found that there have been several expansions and some downsizing to the radio
station in the past ten years. In 2006-7 the radio station was expanded to have
branches in Scotland, Manchester and South Wales. The branch in Scotland was
soon rebranded to Galaxy Scotland and then Capital Scotland. The South Wales
station was then sold and became Nation Radio. On the 7th April Real
Radio XS will be rebranded to XFM. This is to swap from taking Real XS
Manchester’s networked shows to XFM London’s. These many changes to the company
both increasing the station’s reach and decreasing it show that Global Group
are always interested in making more money. XFM itself even started out as an
independent London station until they were bought by Global in 2000.
My idea is that as there is a shared demographic between XFM
and my magazine, Global Group would definitely be interested in expanding XFM
once more to get publishing rights over PICK magazine, as it is an altogether
new way for the radio station to spread awareness of it’s existence, while
being a strong brand to put on the front of my magazine.
How House Style is Established
To establish a house style, the first thing you need to do is come up with a colour scheme that will closely be followed throughout the magazine. This house style must be one that reflects the feelings and emotions of the magazine's target audience. For example, a metal magazine would be likely to have lots of browns and reds and blacks as they are all colours that would suggest anger. An electronic music magazine would be more likely to have bright colours like pink and blue contrasting with darker shades to show the wide variety of emotions displayed in the music of the bands. For my particular magazine, I am targeting an Indie Rock audience, so I have decided to go with a red, black, yellow and white colour scheme as Indie Rock has several artists who associate their music with relieving stress.
As we can see from this copy of Kerrang! magazine, both the contents page and the front page share the same colours of fonts and background colours, with the occasional reversal of colours (i.e a white background instead of red)
The second thing to consider when it comes to establishing a house style is the consistency of your fonts. The most important thing in creating the correct image for your magazine is the font used for your masthead and headings. For example, if you use a font that seems fancy and is reminiscent of calligraphy then you are unlikely to attract the attention of a metal fan. Once you have decided upon the desired font for your masthead, it is unlikely that you will move away from this style as it can lead to the page looking disproportionate.
This is an example of how NME have similar fonts
across their masthead and their headings on the front page.
This will most likely carry over to the contents page and the double page
spreads as well.
across their masthead and their headings on the front page.
This will most likely carry over to the contents page and the double page
spreads as well.
The cover lines of NME also show yellow and white font that is an easily readable san serif font.
A font similar to this is used on the contents page to show consistency in the design of the magazine.
Initial Brainstorm for Research
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| Here is a brainstorm I drew up that explores my initial ideas for the direction I wish to take with my research |
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Secondary Target Audience Research
According to Wikipedia, my main target audience are those from ages 14-35 who listen to bands such as The Stone Roses, who are big in the indie rock industry. In order to find a formula that gets a lot of attention from this target audience, I searched on google for magazines that made articles regarding the Stone Roses in a positive light. The first result to come back was NME, showing that it is the most popular magazine searched for on the internet in association with The Stone Roses. I have selected my basis to be upon this band in particular as they have a wide reach amongst multiple generations. As I could not find any specific target audience group on the UK Tribes website, I have decided to target all subcultures included in the "Alternatives" category, which includes Emos, Hardcores, Young Alts and Skaters as each of these subcultures listen to a wide range of music in the rock/indie genres. On the UK Tribes website, they are described as "Taking inspiration from the indie band culture", with keywords associated with them being "Independent" and "Rock".
Emos
As Emos are associated with teen angst, taking inspiration from the 80s punk rock scene, it is key that the writing within the magazine article withstands a certain amount of anger and perhaps even hatred towards the mainstream music scenes. Based upon this, it may be a good idea to involve some form of rivalry between my main artist and a real life artist from the pop scene.
Skaters
As skaters are viewed to be the current major influence on music culture and fashion across the world it is important that my magazine appears to be influential and almost ahead of its time in the views that it throws out, in order to attract the like minded Skater scene to read it.
Hardcores
On the UK Tribes website, punks are mainly associated with the heavier forms of punk rock, which when conducting my research into a brief history of indie rock, I had found to be one of the key routes in the formation of modern day indie rock. Therefore, it is key that this demographic of my target audience is not ignored. Whilst they are associated with being angry and depressive people, punks and hardcores actually tend to be quite joyful people with strong views on the class systems. It is for this reason that I maintain that my magazine is best to have a light hearted tone to most, if not all of the article.
Young Alts
UK Tribes' idea of Young Alts is that they want to avoid the mainstream and continue to listen to songs by independent artists. It is for this reason that within my magazine I am choosing to avoid any interviews or exclusives with artists that may be considered of the pop genre as it is the most mainstream genre of music in the eyes of many.
Summary
From what I have read on each of these demographics, it is key that I avoid writing too much about mainstream acts, that are dominant in the music industry and focus more of my writing on being about music having deeper meanings but most of all about having a good time in general. It is for this reason that I wish to have bright colours throughout my magazine, however it is acceptable to have a contrast to darkness at some point. I think that, if I choose to have a darker page, this will be on the double page spread.
Emos
As Emos are associated with teen angst, taking inspiration from the 80s punk rock scene, it is key that the writing within the magazine article withstands a certain amount of anger and perhaps even hatred towards the mainstream music scenes. Based upon this, it may be a good idea to involve some form of rivalry between my main artist and a real life artist from the pop scene.
Skaters
As skaters are viewed to be the current major influence on music culture and fashion across the world it is important that my magazine appears to be influential and almost ahead of its time in the views that it throws out, in order to attract the like minded Skater scene to read it.
Hardcores
On the UK Tribes website, punks are mainly associated with the heavier forms of punk rock, which when conducting my research into a brief history of indie rock, I had found to be one of the key routes in the formation of modern day indie rock. Therefore, it is key that this demographic of my target audience is not ignored. Whilst they are associated with being angry and depressive people, punks and hardcores actually tend to be quite joyful people with strong views on the class systems. It is for this reason that I maintain that my magazine is best to have a light hearted tone to most, if not all of the article.
Young Alts
UK Tribes' idea of Young Alts is that they want to avoid the mainstream and continue to listen to songs by independent artists. It is for this reason that within my magazine I am choosing to avoid any interviews or exclusives with artists that may be considered of the pop genre as it is the most mainstream genre of music in the eyes of many.
Summary
From what I have read on each of these demographics, it is key that I avoid writing too much about mainstream acts, that are dominant in the music industry and focus more of my writing on being about music having deeper meanings but most of all about having a good time in general. It is for this reason that I wish to have bright colours throughout my magazine, however it is acceptable to have a contrast to darkness at some point. I think that, if I choose to have a darker page, this will be on the double page spread.
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