Ideology of Music

Every genre of music has its own ideology (a set of beliefs).

An example of a big dichotomy is between the pop and rock genres. These ideologies affect the representation of the genre's musicians and fans.

The ideology of music affects the representation of that specific genre visually through the choice of font, colours, images and themes within a music magazine. For example, a rock magazine such as 'Kerrang!', uses a bold font with a smashed effect that relates to the ideologies of rock music in that it is loud, looks abrasive and is represented as scruffy, untidy and uncaring in the appearance of the title which reflects the ideologies of the genre itself. The colour scheme isn't like that of a pop magazine in that it uses darker colours to suggest a more serious tone to the genre of magazine. Further more, the main images in the two examples shown both provide a direct mode of address with the artist's conveying serious expressions, which is not as clean cut or as conformist as you would see in genres like pop. Although this is done to appeal to the target audience of adults of whom no longer want to conform to what is mainstream or 'in' at the time but wants to take their taste in music more seriously. The layout of the magazine cover itself does not effect the representation of the genre as many magazine covers layouts are very similar, although some themes suggested in the main images is further affected by the ideology of the genre. The rock genre's ideology consists of themes of sex, drugs, anger and violence which mirror their loud, abrasive and sometimes deliberately offensive to mainstream music representation. The rock genre is referred to as 'classic' in that its music is built to last, and that it is genuine, real and authentic. This can be seen in the choices in the main images of the magazine due to the fact each cover is unique and specific/accurate in the representation of that artist.


Audience pleasures:

Schadenfreude

Predictability

Narrative Resolution

Intertextuality

Entertainment and Diversion

Familiarity

Surveillance

Consumption of the familiar

Identification

 

In my magazine I will be incorporating the audience pleasures of intertextuality, identification, consumption of the familiar and surveillance.

Uses and Gratification Theory:

This is the theory that explores why and how individuals seek out specific music magazines to meet their specific needs. This theory is an audience-centred approach to understanding mass-communication; the Uses and Gratification theory focuses on what do people do with media rather than what does media do to people. 

Audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts; these audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways. As early as 1948, Lasswell suggested that media texts had the following functions for individuals and society, surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission (ideas shared by similar cultures).

This theory stated that individuals might choose and use text for the following purposes: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.  

Hypodermic Needle Effect/Magic Bullet:
'This is the idea that the mass media is so powerful that it can target an audience directly and the audience is powerless to resist' - This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers. It assumes that the audience are passive and heterogeneous.

A difference between these two theories is that the Hypodermic needle theory sees the audiences as lazy where as the uses and gratification theory views the audience as more involved within the media and intelligent.

Social Identity Theory

Henri Tajfel (1979) - He proposed that the groups, (such as social class, family, football team etc.) which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. These groups are said to give us a sense of social identity.

To increase this self-image we enhance the status of the group we belong to, we can do this by saying our group is 'the best' or promote it positively. We can further do this by discriminating against opposing groups and acting prejudice towards the out group. The 'out' group is a reference to the group which we don't belong. 

We thus live in a divided world, divided into 'them' and 'us'. This is based on social categorization (social groups).

Social Identity Theory Outline

Tajfel and Turner (1979) proposed the 3 mental processes that are involved in evaluating others as 'us' or 'them'/ 'in' or 'out' groups.

1: We categorize objects in order to understand them and identify them. We do this similarly with the categorization of people in order to understand the social environment.

2: Social identification - We adopt the identity of the group we have categorized ourselves into. With this there will be an emotional significance to the identification within a group, also your self-esteem will become influenced within the group you're a part of.

3. Social comparison - Compare the group we are in with other groups which can lead to conflict and competition.

Through this social identity theory we can create different tribes by categorizing individuals into different groups. These tribes are proud of their own tribe but can have conflict with others in competition for who is a better one. An example of theses tribes would be within  music genres such as the pop and rock followers. These are genres with which their ideologies contrast and so they separate themselves into what the social identity theory conveys as 'tribes'. These tribes further go on to contrast through which 'tribes' are 'in' or 'out'; this is distinguished through the popularity of the 'tribe'. 'Out' groups are 'tribes' that are unheard of  and therefore they are unpopular and not well known amongst the other 'in tribes'. The 'in' groups are therefore part of a popular or trendy 'tribe' that are more well known.

 

An example of this is the ideology of pop; the pop genre has a large following that all retain similar characteristics, the artists also retain these characteristics and promote them to their audiences. Pop is a genre where its ideology is based on conformity; artists mainly have a clean cut image, are good-looking, perform songs about love and non-threatening or sexual subjects, they perform in a conventional way (typical song structure, sing well and contain catchy hooks), their ability to play live is not important, they conform to the norms, they are manufactured by those in the industry, they are ephemeral and are mainly targeted towards children or those very young.

Music magazines incorporate a genre's ideology through the main image; this can be seen in pop magazines through the clean image produced, with no nudity, drug/drink references or subjects of violence.

These two examples of pop magazines represent the ideology of pop music artists. The clean image and innocence presented appeals to the young target audience. These types of covers are also mirror images of many other pop music magazine covers and they lack any individuality or uniqueness which could be seen in a genre such as hip-hop/rock which conveys quite a rebellious image. We can therefore identify a group of artists or audience by their image and the way they act through their conformity to what they believe is the 'best' way to be. therefore through the representation of artists and genres through media such as music magazines we are able to distinguish 'tribes' and their ideologies. 

Collecting Data - NSR

NSR Collecting Data

The NRS provides research in use for print and digital advertising trading in Britain. The National Readership Survey focuses on readership; this is the statistics of the people who read particular magazines. It was established in 1956 and now covers over 250 of Britain's major newsbrands and magazines whilst covering the size and nature of the audience that these specific newsbrands or magazines achieve.
e.g.





How will this help with the development within my own magazine?

These statistics would help in developing my magazine through the fact that I can research within the genre of music media magazine I will be pursuing and accurately develop my target audience. Although the three music magazines in the example are all similar genres of rock they clearly represent their target audience in gender, age range and ABC1 category. This will help me understand who my magazine will appeal to and therefore will help me in the choices made whilst developing my own magazine.

ABC
The ABC focuses on the circulation of magazines, which is research focusing on the amount of copies sold of a particular magazine.
This would help me in the development of my own music magazine in that I can research the most successful music magazines and analyse the characteristics within the magazine that made it successful and try and incorporate some of these into my own magazine.

Penumbra Effect:
This describes the small group of individuals that are not in the specifics magazine target audience as they don't fit the stereotype, but they do purchase or read the magazine. Niche magazines may have a Penumbra effect in that the magazine has been targeted specifically to a group, although there is still a small group of people within their audience that do not fit into the specific group. This can further occur in any type of magazine, TV programme or film.

Developing in my research for my own music magazine

 To develop ideas for my own music magazine I researched iconic music magazines throughout history. A few examples I found incorporate a cartoon or animated style to the main image; this is something I would not incorporate myself in my music magazine as I do not believe it fits in with the genre of music chosen. It adds a certain comical element which also appeals to the younger audiences.

 

 

 

Other magazines I researched incorporate sex, nudity, drugs and violence to appeal to their target audiences. The better magazines, I believe , are the ones like "Rolling Stone" and "Vanity Fair", due to their simplistic design.
The main image therefore is the main attraction to the magazine which I would like to try and incorporate into my own music magazine.     

What makes an iconic magazine?

In a lot of different music magazines there is a pattern in representing nudity in the main image or sometimes violence. To make a music magazine cover iconic, it has to memorable therefore by incorporating certain aspects that would shock the reader or appeal to them it is profound in standing out from other magazines. Many magazines become iconic due to the fact that sex sells.

 

Bauer Media Group

Bauer Media Group is Britain's largest magazine publisher.  Some of their brands of magazine consist of Mojo, Kerrang! and Q.



MOJO
Mojo is the UK's biggest music magazine; this magazine is for those obsessed with music whether its classic, modern rock, folk, soul, country, reggae, electronic or experimental, Mojo includes it all. Mojo differs from other magazines in that it doesn't publish the popular music of the moment but chooses what to publish based on the quality of the music. This then means that any age of music can be included in Mojo music magazine. Their audience consists of men aged 41+ and 70% of the social class of ABC1. Mojo is a monthly music magazine with 30 pages+ of "the best of that month's music".

Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a popular rock magazine and is said to be "the most exciting youth culture brand". It is the biggest selling weekly music magazine in the world, selling three times as much than their rival magazine brand NME.
This brand was founded 34 years ago. Since then the Kerrang! brand has expanded from just being a magazine to a radio station, a TV channel as well as going on tour with many of their rock bands performing to their target audience. Kerrang! is a globally popular magazine. The magazine itself refers to their readers as being obsessed with the magazine and it being the best rock magazine globally. The brand Kerrang! defines their target audience, the magazine itself is unique and this is therefore reflected in the individuals who read it. Kerrang! describes their target audience as "highly intelligent, opinionated, with a lust for life and a great loyalty to the Kerrang! brand".  The magazine also targets their content to individuals of whom want to be in the magazine themselves one day.
                                                                  
Q

                                                            
Q magazine focuses on modern music or popular music. This magazine is well-respected by modern artists and labels which therefore ensures that this magazine can gain access to some of the biggest names in music. Q is a monthly music magazine; it has a website, social media channel and a partnership with Absolute Radio. It reaches over 1 million music fans every edition; it is a magazine that appeals to every type of music lover in that they "deliver something for the novices and the experts in everything we do". Q magazine target audience's profile is 71.8%  of ABC1, the median age of those who read the magazine is 34 and 70% of readers are employed. Q has access to some of the biggest names in music and with their passionate articles the reader can experience the feeling of being in the room with the specific artist. Q magazine says "no one gets you closer to music and the stars that make it". Furthermore on Q's target audience, they are serious about music and like exploring all genres. Q thus provides an knowledgeable insight into these genres. Q magazine is very serious in providing the best, in-depth articles about an artist and genre for their readers whilst still being entertaining and something their target audience would love. Q magazine also has their own music award ceremony called 'The Q Awards'.

Research notes

1) Quantitative

    Data = statistics and numbers

 

Advantages:

This type of research allows the researcher to analyse and measure date; the relationship between the dependent and independent variables are studied carefully and in depth which would then help the researcher be more objective.

Disadvantages:

The context behind the quantitative research is ignored; the things being studied are not studied in their natural setting as well as quantitative research does not take into account the meaning behind these things to different people. Also, these type of research needs a large sample to ensure that the results are accurate which is time consuming.

 

2) Qualitative

    The human touch = interviews, surveys and observations

 

Advantages:

Qualitative research gives the researcher the freedom to let their study unfold naturally as there is no need for a design plan for their research. The researcher can also gain more detailed data in the form of comprehensive written descriptions or visual evidence. Furthermore, this type of research focuses on context and its affect on individuals.  

Disadvantages:

The results are biased as the researcher interprets the research according to their biased view. Also, this research method is also time consuming and take months or years.  

 

3) Secondary research:

    Using others research to help your own/using research that already exists.

 

Advantages:

Time and cost effective.

The data collected is extensive; it covers a large spectrum of issues, from this the researchers can filter the issues down to what they are focussing on.

Disadvantages:

Data definitions may cause issues as a term may have different definitions amongst different people. Furthermore, as this researcher uses another's research there is no way to ensure the data is accurate and not biased. The information the research is based off may be too old in that times have changed and the information no longer applies to modern times; also there may be proprietary issues, this means that the origins of the research being used has been copyrighted and has been used without permission which can lead to legal issues.  

 

4) Primary research:

    Conducting new research (own research).

 

Advantages:

The data interpretation is better as the data collected can be interpreted by the researchers based off their needs rather than the interpretations made by the researchers during secondary research. Also, unlike secondary research, primary research is more up to date and so the results are more accurate as they are more in the modern times. Furthermore, primary research belongs to the collector of that information which means the research/results do not have to be shared with competitors, which is an advantage for the collector.

Disadvantages:

Primary research is much more time consuming and costly; also this type of research requires more resources which are not accessible in the needed large quantity.  

 

 

 

I will mainly be using secondary data to help my research be less time consuming although I will use it alongside primary research to ensure that my research is unbiased and up to date with the times. Furthermore, I will be using Qualitative research to ensure that the data I collect is more accurate than if I used Quantitative, as well as Qualitative focuses on the context and its affect on people which I believe will be an advantage when creating my own music magazine as I can further ensure that it appeals my target audience.

History of 2 Music Magazines

V magazine was launched in 1999; this magazine was made off the limited edition magazine of Visionarie. V relies on the bases of its visual effects therefore the magazine is visually-driven and the main image on the front cover is a large factor into what they magazine is about. The magazine does not only focus on music but fashion, art, film, as well as other features. Here I have chosen two pop icons as the main image of the magazine although the magazine does feature indie music. Indie music is a genre I am interested in pursuing for my own music magazine as well as pop and so V magazine is a good example of both these genres. The use of the V over the main image is unique and is eye-catching.

Wonderland magazine is independently published which offers a unique perspective on talent across pop culture, such as, fashion, film, art and music. It was first published in 2005. This magazine appeals to both females and males in the age range of 22-35; the magazine writes that they're "about inspiring, rather than dictating their readers." Once again I have chosen two pop icons on the cover of this magazine, although in my opinion I believe this style of image and its effects match the indie genre more; with my own magazine I will be following an indie style of music magazine to contrast with my genre of pop music, which is similar to that of Wonderland magazine. These specific covers are very simplistic in the text and so the focus is on the main image. The two main images portray the pop artists differently to the way other magazines such as "top of the pops", Wonderland portrays the artists in a new way by contrasting their pop genre with an indie genre appearance.