Research Summary

I have found that by doing lots of research for a music magazine, it has helped into designing my own music magazine that will be appealing to my target age group of females of age 14-17.

I began by analysing front covers and double page spreads of existing music magazines so that i could see what conventions they used to make the magazine appealing. Many magazine follow typical conventions on the front cover of the magazine and this attracts more people as they feel 'safe' with the layout.

Many magazines use a typical colour scheme and fonts for each issue so that the cover is recognisable to the particular magazine and so that the audience can recognise it. A typical convention followed is having the masthead in the centre and top of the front cover.

I made a questionnaire for typical teenagers of my target age group and form these made ideas for my magazine. As well as this, i made a focus group of 3 people between the ages of 14-17 and asked them more in depth questions about my magazine to gain a better insight into what teenagers of this age group would want from a pop music magazine.

From my research, i found out that many existing music magazines such as NME and Top of the Pops magazine also have features on television programmes and films and therefore, i would challenge this convention by producing a magazine that is just based on music.

Inconclusion, my research has helped me to find out what i would need on my magazine and what features to include so that it will appeal to my target audience.