Research into my magazine genre of music, potential target audience and similar products

Now that i have completed my preliminary task, I am starting to gather ideas into my genre of music I am going to base my main task of a music magazine on. I am either going to chose my genre to be Rock/Indie or Pop music.

Rock/Indie

Background information
Indie/rock music were both genres of music that started off as 'rock and roll' around the 1980's in the from of Grunge, indie rock and britpop. Ever since rock/indie music has made its way through many cultural and social movements such as the Mods and Rockers in the UK. Rock music has also had an influence on changes on social attitudes such as drug use, sex and race. This now may be portrayed through their images in modern day society.

Target audience
Based on an online survey, I was able to see that the main target audience for Indie rock music is between the age of 16-25. This survey also showed me that the main gender that listen to the music is males, however a large amount of females also listen to this genre of music. 

To make sure this information was correct, i completed some research into magazines which supported this genre of music. One of these magazines was NME. It is published by IPC and i was able to research its target audience via the IPC website. 
The IPC website said that Indie/rock music 'intensely engaged audiences of 16-24 year olds'. This successfully supported the data that i had researched from the online survey. The website also showed me that the target audience was from '66% male and 34% female'. This suggested to me that the online surveys data wasn't entirely accurately for me to base my target audience on. 
From this research completed I now know that if i was to make indie rock my chosen genre of music for my main task, I would have to base it on  a target audience of mainly men and some women between the age group of 16-25. 

Based on my target audience age range, I am able to make a judgement that most people are;
- Students
- Spend a lot of time with friends
- Listen to music on the go (ipod/phone) 
- Shop in high street shops such as Urban outfitters/Topshop/HMV/Vintage

Again, based on this imformation i am able to know what my type of audience is going to look like...

Knowing what my likely target audience will look like will allow me to know whether my magazines appearance looks as though it will fit my target audience or not. 

Similar magazines

If I to chose Indie rock as my chosen genre, it is important that i know what sort of magazines do a similar genre of music as mine. Due to my research i was able to find out that magazines such as NME, Kerrang, Rock and Q magazines are similar/the same as my chosen genre.

If i chose indie rock as my chosen genre of music, then I will need to make research into these magazines and gain ideas for my main task. 

Pop

Background information

Pop music is a term that originates from the word 'popular' music. This genre of music originates from the 1950's and has became even more popular ever since. Pop music borrows elements of music from urban, dance, rock and even latin music. Pop music is seen as a genre of music that has a mass market and makes music to appeal to most people. 

Target audience

Even though pop music is seen as a genre of music that appeals to a large mass market, it is mainly targeted at young teens from age a age range of around 13-17. From my research, i also found out that pop music is also more popular within the gender of girls rather then boys. 

Based on this i am also able to make a judgement on what my target audience will be like;

- Students

- Spend alot of time with friends

- Listen to music on the go

- Into girly subjects 

- Shop in high street stores such as Newlook, Miss selfridge and Forever 21

Again based on this i can properly predict what my target audience for my magazine will look like...

Similar magazines

If i chose Pop as my genre, it is important that i know what similar magazines to my genre of music look like. From my research i found that magazines such as Top of the pops, glamour,seventeen and glamour are all magazines which suit my genre of pop music. If i choose Pop as my genre of music, i will need to do more research into this genre so that i know how my magazine should look and begin to gain ideas for my main task.

Completing this research task has enabled me to gain knowledge into different types of music and help me decide what genre i will use.