Juhjuj

Typical ‘Indie Stereotypes’

Some of the immediate, dominant representations the public perceive of the

Indie sub culture can be overly negative

For Indie Girls - . Bleached blonde short hair, vintage dresses, red lipstick,

drug dealing/taking, love for art and photography

For Indie Boys - Vintage T-shirts and sunglasses, V neck shirts, plays

acoustic guitar, wears makeup (emphasis on eyeliner), Drug taking/dealing,

ear piercings (expanders)

Not all of these stereotypes generated have any credibility and I believe some

of these representations put this sub culture into a negative light.

Although the music genre of my music product ‘Fleet’ may have a negative

connotation of indie sub groups to be drug taking and weird I have tried to

come across to the public they are not what they are perceived – I have

achieved this through different visual camera effects

My Perception Of Indie Sub Groups

The image on my magazine connotes social

expression and confidence to the audience.

The two models are dressed in ‘typical’ indie

clothes with one wearing tie dyed shorts and

the other a vintage styled army jacket so they

are following traditional conventions of normal

indie sub types – however both females are

dressed classily as opposed to messy and

disorganized which is not what the public

would normally perceive them as. Both

females have the hair kept in a smart style

disregarding the idea that all indie women

have ‘messy blonde hair’. There is also a lack

of piercings and drug use/mention of them

clearing the perception that these music fans

engage in reckless behavior

Pricing the Magazine

Because my magazine is mostly aimed at students who are likely to be

attending college or university (due to the age range of 16-25) I thought it

would be appropriate to price the magazine at £2.00 – neither too expensive

to potentially discoruage people from buying it but no low priced as this would

deterimentally effect the profit income of the company. I find this a suitable

offer as most students regularly have part time jobs so should be able to

afford the product whilst still having enough disposable cash remaining to

spend on other necessitites.

My selected Institution

After consideration over all the companies I had on offer to choose from I selected Future Publishing/Bauer Media Group to distribute my finished product to the public media. This institution revolves around ‘specialist’ publications in the industry, this would be beneficial to my magazine as it is specializing in alternative/indie music, which is a specific genre and therefore is ‘specialist’ in its music articles. Another positive point about this company is that they are based in a country other then the United Kingdom, so this marketing strategy would allow my publication to be distributed internationally around the globe, this would introduce other countries to the genre of music focused upon and hopefully establish a fan base in these continents and a wider selection of readers. A major concept of my product is to reveal new artists/bands in the alternative genre to the public, there is however other existing markets who are searching for these undiscovered artists. In my audience research it was revealed that 62% of readers searched for ‘undiscovered artist and bands’ however most found them on company websites such as Youtubewhich made me realize that I would need to have a feature/article specially designed and relating to these undiscovered artists, whilst still linking to the magazine. I took into consideration distributing and uploading my product to the internet as a media centered platform as it appeared from audience research my readers tended to rely on the information world wide web to find unknown artists, this would be an effective marketing strategy to get the audience redirected from that site to mine to continue their search for new music.

I believe the color scheme I

used helped me to attract my

target audience of choice.

From browsing through

traditional indie/alternative

magazines during my research

stages I discovered many

opted for traditional house

colors (red,black,white,yellow)

and this helped them to identify

with the rock/indie sub culture

they were aiming at, so when

constructing the palette for my

cover I incorporated some of

their ideas so that the reader

would be able to recognize the

distinctive style therefore they

would know the genre being

focused upon. The combination

of bright and neutral tones

helps everything to stand out

therefore it is more noticeable

to the wandering eye.

I used a wide range of distinctive cover lines to attract my

potential target audience. To do this I took the names of

famous artists in the indie/alternative genre (the likes of Lana

Del Rey and Muse) This is aimed at my readers because of

the musicians choice of music style and is aimed at people

who enjoy this type of music.

Potentially I believe I addressed my

audience through the use of the main

cover image. I appealed to them by

model costume design, the clothing

the artists are wearing is a direct

reference to the indie/alternative style

that is currently popular within fans of

this genre, army jackets, tie dyed

clothing and unusual accessory

patterns (such as on the tights) is

heavy reference to the types of things

you would see these people wear so

hopefully they can identify with the

artists and therefore the concept of

this magazine. The artists are also in

the desired age range of 16-25 which

will allow the audience to see them as

role models for their age group.

Here on the content page I used

a variety of different colorful

images to attract the interest of

the reader. There is no male

artists featured on this page –

this has nothing to do with sexist

traits (as I struggled to obtain

male models) but I hoped both

genders could relate to the

female images, women could

identify with them as it shows

that music isn’t just a male

dominated industry and these

could be looked up to as role

models whilst for men it

provides something attractive to

look at. I repeated the use of the

same artist from the front cover

to maintain continuity

throughout the product and to

emphasize they are the main

attraction. I included information

about some of the articles such

as previews of what they will

entail to entice the audiences

attention and encourage them to

continue reading the feature.

Here I have inserted a subscription box,

this is a marketing strategy to draw the

target audience in – if I can intrigue

them with potential offers that would

seem beneficial to them (such as the

likelihood of getting discounts and free

promotional merchandise) then this may

successfully earn more money for my

company by getting the reader to spend

more disposable cash.

I repeated the use of the cover

masthead inside the contents

page to provide a sense of

consistency within the product – I

need to re-emphasise to the

audience which magazine brand

they are reading so that the

articles they read will stick with

them so they know which

magazine to buy to get more

interesting features in the future.

Consistency allows the product to

flow in rhythm, therefore it does

not appear cluttered with many

different things and wont be

perceived as unorganised and

semi professional

There are two pull quotes included in the double page

spread, I aimed to entice the audience as much as

possible here by giving an almost ‘preview’ of what the

artist was saying in the article, the most important quotes

were used so the audience would be intrigued to explore

what else the artist had to express hopefully encouraging

them to read the rest of the spread.

The question and answer format is quite short

in appearance with the artists responses not

being overly long so as to put the reader off

from viewing the article, each scripted answer

is of appropriate viewing length being easy on

the eyes hopefully this would be enough

assurance for my audience to persevere with

the rest of the interview.

There are two visually appealing images on the double

page spread – one is black and white and the other full

color. I hoped that the difference in quality of shots would

provide a variety in my product therefore it would be

interesting to view wouldn’t make them lose attention

I repeated the use of the white and yellow

background from the front cover onto the spread

but ade a slight alteration by switching the

position of the yellow with the white, this provides

consistency within the product by repeating the

colour palette