Textual Analysis (Classical Music Magazine)

Classical Music magazine is a british magazine and is sold in Britain and America as of September 1976. It contains question and answer sections, news, premiere information and reviews. The magazine has a wide target audience which is both males and females, aged around 15+, that are interested in classical music. The cover of this magazine is fairly simple and minimalistic. It follows the 3 colour scheme of red, blue and yellow. Primary colours are very eye catching and aren't gender specific which can appeal to a wide audience. There is more than one font in the title which isn't very conventional. One font used (on 'classical') is serif and looks very scripted and grand which is typically associated with classical music. Also the use of the colour (silvery-white) is classy and formal and represents purity. The artist on the front has a direct mode of address and is smiling which makes the magazine look friendly overall. There are not very many cover lines which means it doesn't reveal a lot about the contents.

Analysing Music Magazines

I decided to do some textual analyses of 2 current music magazines. I decided to do 2 different genres of music which were classical and a indie/punk magazine. I thought a textual analysis would be useful becuase I am able to deconsturct the covers and find convensions and patterns throughtout music magazines. I used the internet to find a front cover page of my chosen magazines and looked at different things including: the talent, colour schemes and fonts.

Target Audience, Ideology and Representation

Every magazine has a target audience.
The magazine design appeals to the target audience. The representations of people, and the use of fonts, graphics, colours etc... will reflect the ideology of the genre.

An ideology is a set of beliefs a person or group holds. Different genres of music have different ideologies and this affects how the represent themselves.

Convensions of Pop, Rock and HipHop.

Pop
Pro-Social
Posative
No Drugs (Anti)
Sexless
Non-Violant
Never to Abrasive
Not Political
No Swearing
Good Looks/Glamour is Important
Designed primarily to appeal to all

Rock and HipHop
Anti-Social
Drugs
Sex
Violence, Aggression
Loud
'Political'
Swearing
Looks not so important
Expresses the 'feelings' of the artist (pretend to be?)
Less bothered about commercial success


The ideology of the music will affect the design. A pop magazine will use bright, primary colours and smiling popstars. Rock magazines will be clashing, using agressive fonts and colour and have more grimacing bands, sometimes making rude gestures.

Media Terminology

Tropes and Memes

Meme: A meme is a belief or thought that is spread from a group or individual. This means that the original idea or thought from the smaller group is spread to the majority.

Trope: a trope is a reoccuring thing that vastly grows that came from one groups/individuals idea. For example, a new song could be released with a different and edgy element, other artists like this idea and use it in their own music.

Research Methods

There are 4 main types of research. All of these can help me gather research for my coursework. These four
types are:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative 

Definitions of these types of research.

Primary
Primary research is finding research yourself. For example, through personal interviews and questionnaires. The internet would not be an example of primary research, as it is other peoples work that you can read and copy. The main advantage of primary research is that it is more likely to be true, as it comes from the original source. However, this method does carry some disadvantages. Primary research is often very time consuming and and can be expensive.

Secondary
Secondary research is research that has already been done and this can be copied by anyone who is interested in this topic. This is the most common method of collecting information and it does have some good advantages. For example, researching in this way can save alot of time and money. There are methods that make this research very easy, like accessing the internet or a book. However, the main disadvantage of this research method is that the information given can not be completly trusted to be true and reliable. Some information can also be out of date.

QualitativeThis is research on a small scale and gives valuable insight into specific forms of data. In this method data is categorised. An interview is an example of this type of research. Qualitative data provides a rich, detailed picture to be built up about a topic.A disadvantage of this is that it is difficult to be done on a large scale.


Quantitative
This is research done that is measured by a numerical form. They also can obtain a large amount of data. An example of this type of research is a questionnaire. An advantage of this method is that data can be easily analysed. However, it might not reflect a true value, just the closest one to it.

Which ones will I use?
I think for my coursework I will mainly use secondary research. This is because it can be quickly done and this helps because I need to meet a deadline. I will also be using a questionnaire (primary method) as I want to get information directly from my target audience.

Genres of Music

I have decided to do a list to help me think about what genre of music I want to use for my magazine. I thought this would be a good idea because I can list all the genres down (without missing any), and look at things associated with them, for example instruments, colours and artists. I will then analyse some front covers of magazines with different genres to help me decide.