Music magazine questionnaire analysis

After completing and having 15 people answer my questionnaire on music magazines, I then had to analyse my results. This is part of the process which enables me to create relevant material in a music magazine for my target audience. I have analysed my results question-by-question, and this is displayed below. Some people answered more than once on some questions, explaining why not all of the votes add up to 15.

What is your favourite genre of music?

1. Rock                                                                                      3 votes                                      
2. Pop                                                                                        6 votes
3. Hip hop                                                                                  2 votes
4. Dance                                                                                    1 vote
5. Other (please specify)                                                            4 votes

The most popular answer to this question was 'pop music'. At the moment some of the most listened to pop music artists include Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and The Wanted. This shows that, although some more rock-y bands such as Kings of Leon are becoming more and more popular and successful in the mainstream market, pop music is still the genre of music that most people listen to. The types of music specified in the 'Other' category included acoustic and dubstep, an increasingly popular genre descending from garage, and concentrating on syncopated rhythms and emphasis on the bassline.

How do you typically listen to music?

1. iPod/MP3 player                                                                      12 votes
2. CDs                                                                                          1 vote
3. Radio                                                                                        1 vote
4. Internet                                                                                     2 votes
5. Other                                                                                        0 votes

The most popular answer to this question was iPod/MP3 player, by a vast majority. This shows the increasing amount of people owning personal music players, presumably due to their convenience. This survey has shown me that very few people purchase music on CDs any more, most people use downloads in order to listen to music. 

How often do you buy music magazines?

1. Never                                                                                       12 votes
2. 1-2 times a month                                                                      3 votes
3. 3-4 times a month                                                                      0 votes
4. 5-6 times a month                                                                      0 votes
5. Other                                                                                        0 votes

The answers to this question indicate that very few people actually purchase music magazines, let alone on a regular basis. This could be because few people are interested in music to the point that they would spend money reading about certain bands and artists, or because there are no music magazines that cater for their interests.

Approximately how long do you spend listening to music weekly?

1. 1-4 hours                                                                                  1 vote
2. 5-9 hours                                                                                  5 votes
3. 10-12 hours                                                                              5 votes
4. 13 – 15 hours                                                                            2 votes
5. Other                                                                                        2 votes

This section shows that people spend various amounts of time listening to music throughout the week, but most people spend more than 5 hours listening to music per week. This shows that they do no necessarily listen to music at every opportunity, but they do spend a relatively long amount of time listening to it. Some people listened to up to 24 hours worth of music per week, once again showing the variety of different time periods spent listening to music by my target audience.

What is, in your opinion, the most important part of a music magazine?

1. Exclusive interviews with bands/artists                                         7 votes
2. Support for unsigned bands                                                        4 votes
3. Gig reviews                                                                                2 votes
4. Album/single reviews                                                                  3 votes
5. Other                                                                                         1 vote

The majority of people thought that the most important feature in a music magazine is exclusive interviews with bands/artists. This, therefore, will be featured in my music magazine, as it shows that this is what my target audience want to see in a music magazine. Another of the features that people voted as important was support for unsigned bands; therefore I will combine these features by creating an interview with an unsigned band, in order to appeal to my target audience.

How do you usually purchase music?

1. iTunes                                                                                          5 votes
2. CD                                                                                              3 votes
3. Illegal download                                                                           6 votes
4. File share                                                                                     1 vote
5. Other                                                                                           0 vote

The most popular answer in this section was 'Illegal download', closely followed by 'iTunes'. These answers both show that the age of 'hard copies' of music is long gone, and the digital download is now the most common way to listen to and purchase music. The fact that most people in my survey selected 'Illegal download' as their answer shows what is happening in the music industry today; artists are not making much money from their music as people are, in effect, stealing their music by using file sharing and illegal downloading in order to purchase music.

Name your top 3 favourite bands/artists

The most commmon answers to this question were Katy Perry, Eminem and Drake. Katy Perry is a pop artist, and is very popular particularly amongst girls as she is seen as a role model; she also recently released a new album and so is very current. Eminem and Drake are both leading rappers, Eminem being something of a veteran and Drake seen as one of the most exciting up-and-coming artists of the moment. This diversity, amongst other genres such as Indie and Rock, show that mainstream music is the most popular at the moment; readers want to know about and listen to artists featuring in the latest charts, and tend to focus less on unsigned acts.

What was the last song you downloaded?

There were no repeated songs answered in this part of the questionnaire, therefore it is difficult to make a comment, especially seeing as the songs featured were very varied in terms of genre and artist.

What was the last gig/festival you went to?

These answers varied from big summer festivals, mainly Reading - portraying the audience's interest in rock music - to smaller, local gigs, showing that the audience often spend money watching local bands and artists showcasing talent in the area. Both perspectives show that the audience have a passion for music to the point that they are willing to show support not only for large bands but also smaller, unsigned acts, as well as to spend money doing so.

What was the last album you bought?

Very few people answered this question, suggesting that not many people actually purchase entire albums, they tend to buy individual songs. The lack of response could be due to the wording of the question; many people perceived it to mean 'CD', and so the answers that were written were mostly albums released at least 5 years ago, as these were the last CDs that people purchased. Therefore, this shows that none of my target audience really buy CDs anymore, another useful factor to consider when creating my music magazine.


This questionnaire has been very useful to me with regard to my music magazine; it has helped me to get to know more about, and further establish, my target audience, and this will therefore enable me to create a music magazine which will further appeal to them.

Preliminary task - specific questions, evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My product uses some forms and conventions of a school magazine. For example, I have included features such as an outline of the year ahead, and a welcome from the headmaster. These often feature in a school magazine. However, I have also tried to challenge these conventions; I have included different articles which may not necessarily be included in a school magazine. For example, I have included two features entitled ‘Names to faces’, in which there are pictures of pupils and staff with their names underneath. I did this because I want my magazine to be informative and interesting, as well as being individual and unlike other school magazines. I hoped that this would give my magazine some kind of brand identity.

How does your media product represent paticular social groups?

My magazine represents new students in a school. I tried to convey this in particular on my front cover,where I have included a picture of a boy being waved off to school by his father, on his first day. I wanted to do this so that the audience would straightaway be able to identify with the magazine. I also tried to do this by including features which I hoped would help new students, by considering what I would have found useful myself as a new student.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magazine is intended to be distributed by a school, as it is for school students. In particular it should be distributed by the Priory School in Hitchin, as the magazine informs students of events, pupils and staff at this specific school.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to attract my audience from the front cover of my magazine. I did this by including a photograph of a boy leaving his house for his first day of school, and being waved off by his father, as I wanted to give the audience something to identify with. I also informed the audience on the front cover of what type of magazine ‘Nouveau’ is. I did this first and foremost by putting the line ‘The Priory School’s magazine just for new students’ on the bottom of the page, as I hoped that this would make it clear to the reader about the type of magazine it is. I also did this more subtly by naming my magazine ‘Nouveau’; this means ‘New’ in French, a language which most school students study. I therefore hoped that some people would recognise the word and it’s meaning, and therefore be interested in my magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through creating this magazine, I have learnt a lot about how to use the PagePlus and PhotoPlus programs. I have learned how to edit photographs, how to create different  coloured backgrounds and how to make different typographic effects. This can be seen on my contents page, where I have faded the word ‘contents’ on the left hand side of my page. This preliminary task has enabled me to experiment with the software available to me, and I will now find it much easier to create my main task; a music magazine. Though this is not to do with the technology that I have used, I have also learnt a lot about the way in which space can be used effectively in a front cover and contents page, another factor which will be useful when creating my main task.

Target audience - NME magazine

As part of our main task for our AS Media, we are going to be creating a music magazine. As part of our research, we looked at different music magazines and studied their target audience.
The magazine that I used was the New Musical Express (NME), and I used the October issue. I had to answer two questions based on a specific article - I chose an article on American artist Darwin Deez - the answers of which are below.

1. How does the double page spread you have looked at use a layout (text and image) to suit it's target audience and style?
The double page spread has been split into two halves horizontally. The top half is a picture of the featured artist - Darwin Deez. The background of the picture is simple and bright blue, so the main focus is on the artist. The colour of the background is not gender specific, yet it is bold and playful, making connotations about the kind of artist that Darwin is. The title of the article is 'Let's Dance', another suggestion that the artist and article is more fun as opposed to serious. The fact that there is half of the page taken up by image makes the article look smaller, and therefore this would suit the target audience- young people- as they may not have the concentration, interest or time to read a really long article.

2. What type of mode of address is used by this magazine to appeal to its target audience? Pick out words and phrases as examples.
The magazine addresses the audience in a friendly and informal way, using words like 'douchebag'; this shows a colloquial tone. This shows that the target audience is supposed to be a young one, who will understand these modern terms. There is reference to circulating YouTube videos ("Being a D*ckhead's Cool"), once again showing the youth of the intended audience. This, combined with reference such as Nirvana and The Prodigy portrays an appeal to young people who listen to recent rock, indie and electronic music.

Preliminary task front cover

The image below shows the front cover page of my preliminary task; a school magazine with target audience of new students at the Priory School in Hitchin. 

I decided to name my magazine 'Nouveau', because it is the French word for 'new'. This therefore is appropriate for my magazine, as it is intended for new students. I also thought that the word 'Nouveau' would appeal to some of my intended audience, as often in school students learn French. It is a relatively basic French word, and therefore pupils will recognise its' meaning and hopefully be interested in it, if only to tell other friends what it means; to show off a little! For those that can define the word, the title of the magazine also gives the function of it, and is therefore informative.

I have used a simple colour scheme, including baby blue and bright red. I thought that these colours complemented each other, and neither are particularly gender specific. This reflects the fact that my magazine is not aimed at any particular gender, and the use of these 'ambiguous' colours will hopefully mean that neither boys nor girls will be uninterested due to the colours used. I decided to use this red colour because it is one of the colours featured on the school crest, and some of the school jumpers. I therefore thought that this would give my magazine some sort of brand identity, as people would recognise that it was aimed at students from the Priory School. I also tried to do this by putting the school crest and name on the bottom of the front cover.

The crests, school name and tagline ("the Priory School's magazine just for new students") all help to give some information about the intention of the magazine. I thought that it was important to include this information on the front cover not only because the magazine itself is new, but also so that any potential readers will know what they are about to read. I hope that, by including this information, more people will want to read the magazine, as they will know what it is about before they pick it up.

I tried to make the front cover 'grab' the reader by including pictures. The pictures that I included are all of school students, and I also tried to be informative with the shots that I used because I wanted readers to know what they were potentially going to read. As I needed to include a medium close-up of a student, I used the main focus of the page as the photo of the boy being waved off to school by his father; I thought new students would be able to identify with this image. I put this picture in the middle of the page so that it was in the readers' eye line, and took hold of their attention. I also included three pictures underneath the main photograph, all set in a working school environment. I put them underneath the main photo as I thought they were less important and eye-catching as the main picture.

I also included a snippet of what to expect in the rest of the magazine on my front page. I picked three of the most contrasting and interesting features from my magazine, and advertised them on the front page. I did this because I wanted to once again inform the reader of what they could see in the rest of the magazine. I positioned this writing on the gate of the main photo, in the blue that the background is in. I put it here and in this colour because it contrasted with the dark colour of the gate, and as a result it stands out from the photograph and will hopefully attract the reader's attention.

Preliminary task contents page

Below is a picture of the contents page which I created for my preliminary task; a school magazine.

I once again included the logo of the magazine, and the school crest, on the top of my page, as a means of creating a brand identity for my magazine. I wanted to make my magazine recognisable, consistent and familiar, especially seeing as the target audience - new students - will probably be feeling rather overwhelmed.

I have kept the colour scheme (baby blue and bright red) the same as the front cover, again in order to give some consistency and a recognisable brand identity for my magazine.

When deciding how to include the contents of my magazine, I knew I wanted to do something original. I also wanted to continue with the theme of a school. Considering these ideas, I came up with the idea of using a cartoon image of a piece of note paper, as I thought that this would be an interesting idea and would be in keeping with a scholarly theme. Coincidentally, the image that I found best suited my page had a red pin attached to it, and this perfectly fitted my house colours. The typography that I used for this part of my contents page was serif, as I wanted to create the effect of handwriting, once again to fit the setting of a school. I used a red font in order to make it stand out on the pale background, as well as to once again fit the house colours.

I labelled my page as a contents page by putting the word 'Contents' down the left hand side of the page. I did this because I already had the logo of the magazine going along the top of the page, and so I did not think it would look particularly effective if I was to have too much of the text in one place. I used the same font to write the word 'Contents' so that the magazine would further establish its' brand identity. However, I put this font in black and faded the last few letters; I did not want too much of the page to look monotonous and, therefore, dull.

Saying this, I wanted to keep the contents page fairly simple, especially seeing as I had the note paper detail as the main focus of the page. Therefore, I did not want to include too many photos as I did not want to distract from the intended focal point. I had one photo which I decided would look good in particular, and this was an effect which I had created using coloured pens to spell out the word 'NEW'. I put two versions of this picture at the bottom of my page, one as a reflection of the other. I thought this created an interesting and playful effect, yet was not too much detail that would distract from the main focus of the page, the contents of the magazine. 

With regard to the actual contents of my magazine, I thought hard about what to include. I myself started as a new student at the Priory last month, and whilst deciding what I should feature I considered what I would have found useful personally. This is why I have included two 'Names to faces' features, because I find it difficult to learn names and would have found it useful to have a literal photo of everyone with their names underneath! This is also why there is an 'Unspoken rules' feature; I still make errors as I have never been told some rules, as they are just permanently in place and everyone knows them, (apart from the new students!). There is an advice column entitled 'Dear Sally', where students can anonymously write in and have their personal questions answered by a counsellor. Finally, I included a pullout diagram of the school, including classroom numbers, because this can obviously help to ensure new students don't get lost on their way to lessons!

Typography

As part of our preliminary task school magazine , we need to create a masthead for the front cover of our magazines. I experimented with different fonts, drawing three contrasting styles in order to try and find one which I thought would best fit the theme and ideology of my magazine.

Preliminary task research 2

I decided it would be beneficial if I researched a school magazine with relation to the target audience, so that I would know what to use in my own school magazine front cover and contents page.

At a first glance, it is obvious that the magazine is intended for school students. We can see this because the model on the front cover is wearing a rucksack and carrying stationery, and the magazine is entitled 'back to school', making it evident that this is who the magazine has been created for. The magazine is therefore aimed at  the relatively mass audience of school students, presumably in the age bracket of approximately 12-18 years of age. This can be said because it advertises features such as '5 answers to your school safety questions' and 'backpacks: ten tips to lighten the load'. The latter feature would be more useful to older pupils as they tend to need to take more items to school. The colour scheme used on the front cover is also indicative of the target audience; as the colours used are vibrant and are not generally attached to any gender (like some colours represent sexes stereotypically, such as blue being a 'masculine colour' and pink representing females), this shows that the magazine can appeal to both males and females. The fact that the magazine has been printed in the first place shows that the institution - presumably a school - is successful, as it has the facilities with which to create a magazine of this standard. It can also cater for an active audience, as a quiz is advertised. This enables the reader to get involved in the magazine, and engage their brains, which is also indicative of a school setting.

Preliminary task practice

As our preliminary task for AS Media, we are going to be creating the front page spread and a mock-up of the contents page for a school magazine. My idea is to create a school magazine for new students, who are entering any year group between years 7 and 13. I am planning to call this magazine 'Nouveau', as this means 'new' in French, and I believe it is a catchy and original title. It also references the fact that it is specifically for new students, and so is a practical title too. At this stage in the creation, I do not yet have pictures for my magazine (due to technical difficulty), but have begun to consider the layout of the front page of my magazine, which I have included below. I used a picture which I found on the internet for the purpose of the exercise; to learn more about the program I am using (Serif), and to begin to experiment with different layouts. The picture that I used had a lot of 'white space'; as with the desk and the blackboard in the background, so I tried to use this to my advantage by including text in these places. I tried not to use too much text in order to clutter the page; I wanted to create a minimalistic front cover that looked interesting. In order to provide more interest for the audience, I put different coloured fonts on the page, in order to attract the audience's attention. I have defied the convention of putting the mast head at the top of the page, and I think this is effective in catching the audience's attention for this reason, and the fact that it is in black against a beige background. I used a white serif font when showing the publication date, on the blackboard, as I wanted to create a 'handwriting' effect; this helping to achieve the 'school' setting. I also used the white space on the books (right hand side of the page) in order to put cover lines so that I could advertise what else was in the magazine.

Preliminary task research

The preliminary task that we have been set for our AS Level Media is to create part of a school magazine. As a research exercise we had to look at some other school magazines , and think about the ideology of the magazine. I did so for the magazine 'fly'; a school magazine. My annotations can be seen below.

The magazine serves the interests of young people who are at school; presumably aged around 11 to 17. The magazine is not neccesarily specific to an individual school, and so it can cater for a relatively mass audience. It represents these young people, as it has advice and opportunities aimed specifically at them, and was created by school pupils. The magazine may also appeal to parents of children who are still at school, as it could help them with facing issues that their children may be facing at school. The magazine features school children, and possibly adults. It may also feature some other people who work in schools, but generally speaking it will only contain information on and written by the students, as this means that the audience will be able to identify well with them. The fact that it is written by students means that it will be using language that students understand, and will probably be quite colloquial and have slang terms. The magazine suggests that the school is successful, as it has technology which enables students to create a magazine cover of this standard. People who are older may not trust entirely what is written in the magazine, but the students may be writing about things from a different perspective to what others, for example teachers, may see at school. The magazine's general effect is to provide information and advice for fellow students, and to provide helpful hints to peers. It also gives details of various opportunities to win competitions, such as a 'free school magazine' and '£100 worth of revision books'. These materials will be useful in pupils' learning, and so the opportunities are educational and will benefit them. Other people may judge that the magazine is a state school, as the pupil pictured in the photograph is wearing a sweatshirt and, generally speaking, independent schools tend to have a blazer as part of the school uniform. Others may say that the magazine is boring, as it focuses solely on the topic of school; and a minority may describe the magazine as rebellious, as it advertises '10 ways to customise your boring uniform', and this may show a disobedience against authority. It raises the issues of stress for young people, one which is predominant during the summer period. This magazine was published in November, so it is probably aimed at students in the sixth form who have exams in January.