Music Magazine : Research & Planning

Examples of music Magazine  

Here is just an example of  four different music magazine cover I will use these magazines to analyse and decode to help me with my music magazine , VIBE, KERRANG, XXL and BILLBOARD

After researching and analysing a lot of different genre music magazines, I felt that the more R&B and Hip Hop genre magazines were more appealing to me as that is the type of music that I enjoy listening to and I know a lot more about a lot about the artists that fit into those genres in comparison to magazines like 'KERRANG' or 'MOJO' .When I was researching the different magazines I was making sure I was taking note of what stood out to me, what I really liked, and what I would have changed  and my favourite magazines in the R&B/HIP HOP  genre that I found were: Vibe; Rolling Stones;XXL and Billboard.

What I found it during my research was that with Music Magazine ( in comparison to Fashion Magazines) is that the main image is the one of , if not the most important thing to them as that is the real selling point of the magazine and not just because the magazines are popular big name magazines but because both the artist and the magazine are trying to promote themselves and sell their  music, which is a lot harder to do that to sell clothes.

What I really like about 'Rolling Stones' is that they feature a wide range of artist in their magazine and not just a specific genre and whats even more interesting about their covers is that they when they photograph artist they always manage to get the photograph that suits  the artist personality, genre, style which makes it feel more raw and unpredictable ,for example the cover on the left with singer Adele on the cover really stood out to me because I remember looking at a cover of Adele on Vogue and how they managed to portray her there is different to this cover.On this cover it feel more organic, well thought out and all about the artist , which is one of the most important thing because that's be the selling point.As well as that, the magazine just has an effortless flare to it that still really sleek and polished more specifically the way the positioned the main cover line 'Adele- heartbreak superstar' and I really liked it because when you look at the image you get the feeling like shes a rockstar who just had a big argument with her boyfriend and that's kind of like a mugshot of the aftermath.

I also looked at this cover of VIBE  featuring Keri Hilson and I was comparing it with the Rolling Stones cover to see what it was that I really liked about them both.VIBE being the more urban , R&B/HIP HOP style magazine it usually features artists of the same genre to name a few , Nicki Minaj ,Beyonce,  Kanye West,  Usher and Eminem.What I really like about VIBE more specifically this cover is that the always give the artist a character to play for their cover so for example if you look at the main cover line 'Keri Hilson  has been a very bad girl ' and then look at her image she is really portraying that bad girl image and she look like she in control of the image and ready to take charge and also the way that the played with the coverlines as the album she was promoting at that time was 'No Boys Allowed' they managed to make a link in a subtle but clever way.Moreover the colour scheme on this magazine is a lot more cooler and toned down which makes the image the main focus and the real selling point of the cover.


Overall, I feel like the amount of research I have done is a good starting point and its definatley given me a clear direction to go with for my music magazine, I just need to make sure I do further research into who my target audience is, the age group and what they're interested in.The next step for me is to ask a group of people who are into the urban scene or maybe create a questionare so a can get a sort of a tally vote of what they would want to see in a magazine and what interested them and hopefully this should help me progress with my magazine.