Sara Zanjani (aged 16) is a student living in Leicester. She studies Media, English Language, History and Science. Among her favorite artists are Pixie Lott, Cheryl Cole, Girls Aloud, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Nicole Scherzinger, Take That, Miley Cyrus, The Black Eyed Peas, Ciara, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Enrique Iglesias, Mumford and Sons and The Saturdays. As you can see, a large proportion of Sara's music diet is mainstream pop. Sara dislikes heavy rock/metal as she finds it sounds like 'noise', hardcore dance music as it lacks a tune and serious rap music as she doesn't find it easy to listen to someone who sounds angry. This is extremely helpful as this is the kind of music taste I would like my audience to have.In her spare time Sara likes to do gymnastics, socialise with her friends and boyfriend, read magazines, listen to music, go to music festivals (She attended Summer Sundae in 2010, and is attending Glastonbury 2011) and go out into town. Whilst socialising with friends she would usually consume alcohol and play games such as 'lips' on the xbox, which features a majority of mainstream music in which you can karaoke to. Her favorite shop is River Island as she feels that it is contemporary and up to date with trends, which, again is ideal as judging by the planned style of my magazine it will reflect fashion magazines. Sara likes to read Elle, Vogue, Glamour and Q Magazines, all of which are contemporary and could be related to the style I aim to go for.
Her favorite films are the Harry Potter's and RomComs such as the Bridget Jones' and Love Actually. Sara also likes comedies such as Superbad, The Ugly Truth, Stepbrothers, Elf and Get Him to the Greek. Evidently she doesn't have a particular preference when it comes to films yet likes to delve in a lot of genre's, which is like Pop music as all pop music can fall into subcategories.
Will is a 17 year old student studying Psychology, Maths, Physics and Biology. He aspires to have a successful job in the future in one of these area's, yet is unsure on which. Will tries hard and likes to achieve, yet he also enjoys a lot of activities out of school. Will's main hobby is rollerskating, as he films/edits videos of him and his friends skating at local skate parks. He has a lot of input to his video's and chooses the music involved.
He usually employs his music taste in these video's, as he enjoys to listen to fast remixes of Rihanna, Adele, Example, Katy Perry - "anything with catchy lyrics and a good tune to it, I'll listen to it. I listen to the original versions of songs when I'm chilling, then while I'm skating I listen to remixes of the songs". Will, alike Sara, Doesn't like heavy rock/death metal and heavy rap. Otherwise he enjoys listening to a broad variety of music, mainly top40 music.
Wills hobbies include Skating, Editing, Filming, 'Chillaxing' and socialising, such as partying and meeting up with his friends. "While I'm at parties I use the software on my laptop to mix different songs to really create a good atmosphere" He says after Christmas he will start properly DJ'ing with a new kit he is getting. Will's other interests include going to music festivals such as NASS, Reading and Leeds and Oxygen.
I also asked Paige, who is a 22 year old student at Leeds Metropolitan University studying Advertising and Marketing Management. She says music is important to her as it helps her to relax and concentrate whilst studying. She would describe her wardrobe being predominantly from Topshop, being a contemporary clothes store she feels as if she is up to trend and has a keen interest in fashion.
Working in advertising, Paige finds whilst producing an advert it is more successful to use a completely new soundtrack, or use one that is currently in the charts. "The reason the Morrison's advert sticks in your head is because they use 'Shine-Take That' which is a popular contemporary song"- so she has good knowledge of what is in the top40, and finds that she liked to listen to music of that genre most of the time. Like Sara she enjoys reading fashion magazines, and says she spends hours browsing for different unique looks on the Internet - yet nearly always ends up buying her clothes from Topshop. She would say her musical idol is Beyonce, who arguably could fall into the genre of Pop.
I found by asking members of my target audience a greater insight on how the style of music they are interested in affects their fashion taste, therefore the fashion magazines they read; which will relate the style I will try and involve in my magazine.
Really good work on building an audience profile Izzy but are you focusing just on it being a female publication?
ReplyDeleteGood overall sense of identity Izzy, Mrs Somel raises a valid concern about a female centred magazine, you'll need to do some audience research and see who would buy a real Pop magazine.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you can prove that there is space in the market for a Pop magazine (women are the biggest consumers of magazines) and that Girls would be willing to forgo a copy of Grazia or Vogue in favour of a music magazine (I hope that doesn't sound sexist) the you can make this. Also whilst obviously style is key it can't encroach too much and become a fashion magazine.
Finally, and quite why I know this I have no idea, 'girls' like magazines which are able to fit in their hand bag so you'd need to make one that size, Conde Nest pioneered that size.
Excellent work though.
Thanks sir!
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at pop magazines I think it would be better to do a magazine aimed predominantly at females as it would be a lot harder to have it equally aimed at women and men.
Ah ok i'll keep in mind that women like smaller magazines!
And yes, I do need to keep in mind that I am doing a music magazine and not be too heavily influenced by fashion magazines.