For my focus group I took three students from my sixth form and asked them some questions first about music and then music magazines, then I showed them two front covers of the same magazine and asked some more questions about that.
These are my questions:
1) Do you like to know what is going on with artists you like or the genres of music you like?
2) Would you get information from music magazines or in a different way?
3) What do you think are the most important conventions of a music magazine?
4) These are some rock magazine front covers, what makes it obvious to you that it is this genre?
5) What do you like or dislike about the front cover? What works well?
The students I asked:
Yusuf Shivani Neel
Question 1:
Yusuf - Yeah I do but I don't look anything up unless I want to know about new albums.
Shivani - Yes I do as I find it useful to know what's going on with the artists I enjoy, especially if there's new music being released. I also like to know when my favourite artists are going on tour so I have a chance to go and see them live in concert.
Neel - I don't really need to keep up to date with the artists I like because I just listen to their music instead of knowing more about them, also if there's new music being released I'll know about it anyway from other people talking.
Question 2:
Yusuf - No, I don't buy music magazines, I don't want to waste my money on them. I just find out stuff on the internet.
Shivani - I do occasionally get information from music magazines because there's a couple I enjoy reading because you can get more detailed information as well as exclusive things hat you can't really find anywhere else. However I also find out a lot online as well because information tends to be put out a lot faster there rather than a magazine which last for two weeks, so if information is released during that period, they won't release it yet.
Neel - I don't really read music magazines to be honest, not unless someone wants to show me something in one. I just use the internet instead because it's more easy to access plus the information comes up quickly.
Question 3:
Yusuf - The picture on the front should look nice because no one will like it otherwise.
Shivani - I think that the colour scheme is really important because it makes the magazine look really well put together and professional, especially if everything matches, adding to this professional look, if the layout is neat it also really helps. Of course the image on the front has to look good as well and relate to the magazine otherwise, like Yusuf said, no one would like it too much and be attracted to buy it.
Neel - I think, what Shivani said sums up what I think quite well, to me the colour scheme is the most important thing because it brings the whole magazine together and makes it look more professional.
Question 4:
Yusuf - The people on the front look a bit different to normal people, there's a lot of black and other dark colours. Also the name of the magazine looks a bit messy.
Shivani - The most obvious thing to me is the image, the clothes that they're wearing aren't like your typical pop artists outfit or anything, they look different to most. The facial expressions also relate to the genre as rock tends to be seen as quite angry or weird and their expression could suggest that. The colours used also stand out to me as the running theme seems to be black but on both magazine their is a highlight colour- red or yellow. Also the fact that both covers are quite chaotic represents the genre well because there is often a lot going on in the music and rock covers a really broad spectrum of music.
Neel - I think that the colour scheme makes it look like a rock magazine because there's a lot of dark colours like black or grey but they do have another colour, like red, that makes the magazine stand out. The masthead also makes it look like rock because it looks a bit broken up or something. I can see a lot of graphics too which makes it look more like rock, for example the lightning bolts.
Question 5:
Yusuf - I don't like the pictures on the front because they don't look very normal, I think the colours they used in the one that has a lot of yellow is good.
Shivani - I like that you can obviously tell what genre of music the magazine is, everything about it shows it off. I like that the banner on top looks likes it has been ripped and there is an overall distressed look to the covers, also demonstrated in the masthead. One thing I don't like is how messy the cover kind of looks because there is so much going on.
Neel - I like the colours they used because they look good together, also the colour theme doesn't really change on either cover so it makes it look more professional. On the second magazine I don't like the background because it makes the cover look messier because it's too much happening.
Model consent forms:
Shivani Neel
Yusuf
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