Because I chose my demographic to be young teenage girls, I had to follow certain rules and stereotypes so that my music magazine appeals to my demographic. The person I choose to put on the front cover was chosen because when I did my research I found that the people that completed my questionnaire, the majority preferred a female singer on the front cover rather than a male or band. I chose someone young and playful so that it reflects my demographic and appeals to them. Children would want to see something or someone they can aspire to be on the front cover.
In class we conducted an experiment where we had 6 images of women, 3 were air brushed and 3 were normal. We then asked a group of young girls to put in order what they thought was the most attractive and what image they liked the best. They all placed the airbrushed images first and said what they liked about the image, whereas the normal images they said the women were not attractive and that some looked like they were drunk or on drugs. This is why I have chosen to airbrush my images, because they are seen as attractive and socially acceptable in society today.
My demographic will be girls aged 11 – 16. They are typical teenage girls that have just entered adolescence and care about their friends, love interests, TV shows and celebrity crushes. My magazine will be target them because there could be a lot of money made out of them. The music industry could also make a lot of money out of them as they are less likely to download illegally and would want to spend money to go see their favourite artists in concert.
The clothing worn by the female on the front cover was chosen because it’s something my demographic would wear and the flowery top is quite girly and playful. The denim is seen as very youthful clothing and represents the youth itself. The long curly hair also represents the whole girly childlike look and is seen as very playful and innocent. If it was a more sophisticated and intelligent magazine she would wear her hair up in a high bun. My mode of address represents my readers in the fact that the words used in my magazine are the way my readers talk, the clothes worn are the kind of clothes the readers would wear, the things mentioned and talked about in the magazine are what represents my audience.
Girl magazine are stereotyped to be bright colourful and pink, and my magazine follows this stereotype to a certain extent. I did some research and found that with young girl magazines the majority had layers and layers of copy and images. I’ve tried to include that in my magazine.
The girl on the front cover would be seen as an archetype, someone that’s good and a recognisable character. It represents my demographic and they will be more likely to buy it because it represents them and are more likely to see their selves like that and want to be like that.
The images that I have used are consistent with the Male Gaze theory. The Male Gaze Theory was developed by Laura Mulvey and she was influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud. Mulvey argues that classic Hollywood films and movies used and presented women as a visual pleasure to men. The audience was expected to be men therefore they are the ones that they should appeal to, identify with, admire and aspire to be. She implied that women are shown on screen in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have an ‘erotic impact’. Women were made to look childlike and placed in positions that make men think they are more powerful and superior. A lot of media images are edited and photo shopped because that is what the audience finds more appealing.
My demographic are young teenage girls; they are most influenced by the media and easily represented. They see photo shopped images all around them and think it a norm. They aspire to be the ‘beautiful’ women in magazines and TV that they see.
I have used images that follow the concept of the male gaze in my magazine and used them to represent particular social groups. This image follows the concept of the male gaze as it has been edited so that it seems more appealing to my audience and she is playing with her hair which is very childlike and follows the male gaze theory as it makes the reader or audience feel more at power. She is standing in an unnatural and recumbent position which is one of the examples of following the male gaze. The camera is also looking down on her which gives her a lower status and makes her more vulnerable. She is looking directly at the camera which creates a mode of address and makes the readers feel she is looking at them so they feel part of the magazine.
Here is another example of an image that follows the male gaze. She has been edited to look more appealing and more interesting to look out. The background has been kept to give it a more real life feeling to it and make it look more 3D and not so flat and boring. This is good because this is the kind of thing that my audience will want to see and she is presenting that particular social group by the clothes she is wearing and the fact that she has a musical instrument reinforces the idea that this is a music magazine and that she is representing the more intellectual music playing audience.
I have chosen to use images that follow the Male Gaze because at the end of the day, that is what people want to see and what they find attractive in magazines, especially young girls. They find edited, photo shopped images more appealing because they are influenced by the media and taught to find it attractive and see it as a norm. It is the main reason why magazines do so well. It targets the primary audience, which is my chosen demographic, young teenage girls, as well as the secondary audience which are young males. They both get something out of the magazine whether consumers buy it because they idolise the model or whether they buy it for visual pleasure.
I used this image because it is a very stereotypical image of young males especially in the music industry. They have been made to dress and pose in a way which would make the audience identify with them because that is the way they dress and behave. Because they are familiar with this style they are more likely to buy the magazine because they can relate to it.
There are many different stereotypes of males in the music industry; one of them is the typical R&B Hip Hop and Pop look which includes wearing hoodies and hats usually at an angle. They would wear the hat at an angle to give it a bit of an edge; they are being risky and breaking the norm of wearing a hat the right way round. Most young males would look like this and wear these types of clothes so my target audience will be able to identify with them and find it appealing. This is the reason why I have chosen to include this type of image in my music magazine.
I used this image because he represents a particular social group on his own. He is the kind of artist that has been brought to fame through Disney therefore he has to set an appropriate example for Disney’s target audience which are similar to my target audience. He is not the rock kind of artists or R&B and Hip Hop which is why he is not dressed in a stereotypical style that you would usually associate with Rock artists and R&B artists. He has been made to look more mature and intellectual but also at the same time young and carefree. He looks directly into the camera which engages the audience with him because they feel as if he is looking directly at them. He has also got his head slightly tilted to the side which is a childlike thing to do and gives him a sense of innocence and purity because of his white shirt. All this things help represent a particular social group.
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