Music genre initial research

Before I choose which genre I will be making the main focus of my music magazine I want to explore what kind of music would feature in a magazine of a certain genre and what kind of things those genres include in their magazines. I will also be looking at target audiences and looking into who actually buys certain magazines.

A lot of artists mix in their genres (for example Rihanna is an artist of both pop and R&B genres) so I will choose artists that specialise only in that certain genre.

I will analyse only main genres and not sub genres. These include: Pop, R&B, Rock, Classical and Alternative.

Pop:


After a lot of research into the pop genre, there aren't many magazines out there that cater solely for the pop genre. There are magazines such as Sugar and Vibe in the UK but there aren't many more. I have seen Sugar in shops but I have never seen Vibe. When I found the magazine on the internet I didn't think it was familiar but I thought I might have just missed it but when I looked in 3 places that sold magazines, I didn't come across Vibe at all.
With only one mainstream pop music magazine, I think the industry could benefit from more, or at least one more. I think there would be an audience for it too. To me, Sugar looks as though it is targeting 12 year old girls and I know that no adult is going to want to walk around or even admit to reading Sugar if it looks like it is made for teenagers.

R&B:


This genre is where I also place rap and hip hop. The rap and hip hop artists tend to be R&B music. R&B artists tend to be associated with gangster images and contemporary pop artists.

Rock:


The Rock genre already has magazines such as Kerrang! and Classic Rock. These magazines have been around for a long time (the the rock genre) and have devoted fans that will buy the magazines weekly and constantly support the music. Other genres have this too but this one seems to have less of a wide audience because people  who don't usually listen to rock would usually want to steer clear from it. Whereas, with the other way round, most other genres are played in the mainstream much more (on the radio) so rock lovers would hear it everywhere. There are also rock centric radio/music channels that are dedicated to the genre more than there are of other genres because most other stuff (pop, r&b, indie, etc.) is so mainstream.


Classical:

Like rock, most classical music is not mainstreamed so there are specialist channels, magazines, radio stations dedicated to the genre. Most classical music is covered over and over again so I believe that classical music isn't a genre that people want to read about. The artists cover the same songs and it gets quite boring. The target audience for this genre is also not very broad and the magazine would have to be very specific to cater to a very small audience.