The Research.

Researching one of my main pieces came as quite a surprise really. When I found out that Carl Palmer was coming in to the University to talk about his life and career, I instantly thought that would be an excellent choice for a feature on how musicians break off from the bands to persue solo careers on other musical mediums. So, it was fairly easy to get the interview, all it took was some simple networking. I had found out when and where Carl was going to be through Martin James. I went along to the talk he was giving, armed with nothing but a dictaphone and managed to catch Palmer just before he left, fighting my way through his publisists. Already knowning about some of the acts he had been a part of, like Emerson Lake and Palmer, it wasn't hard to compile questions to ask him. Although I did research some of the work and shows he had planned for the future, as well as finding out some of those things through the interview itself.
When it cme to building my portfolio, I decided not to put this into my magazine design. Initially I just thought it was to large of a piece to fit in the space we were given, which was very true. But the I took the reader demograhic into account. I realised that most of the people who would be reading BLAG wouldn't have any idea who Carl Palmer is, apart from maybe a select few students on the performace course. Thats how I came to choose the 'Do they know they're local bands?' article. I felt it was more relevent to the readers of the magazine. It was a topic I hoped the readers would understand more clearly.
Considering the age group of the readers and of the bands envolved in the project, I thought it would appeal to students at the University. Given the students I had asked about their music taste, the conclusion I came to was a variation of rock and metal. So once I found this out, I knew, because the bands envolved all played similar genres of music, I would at least have some readers.
Magazines like NME and Mojo reflect on things like subcultures and genre. They have features and articles aimed at specific age groups and markets. For Example, NME readers are mainly teenage males, who really just follow the masses like sheep, and listen to whatever NME tells them to do. Which they do quite well. Mojo on the other hand is aimed more at the older demographic, the Dad generation. Featuring the 'heritage acts'. News on comebacks of older bands, with much bigger, in depth articles that are more likely to be read by adults. Most teens or students skim through magazine like NME, unless there is a specifc article they're interested in, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I think BLAG is quite similar in that regard. The target market for it is students. It needs to have writing that will draw in its readers. Which I hope, given my work, has done the job. Also, because of the content (A cover of that Christmas hit, 'Do they know it's Christmas') and the time of year, I thought it tied in nicely. Gender wise, my articles for example are, what I would say, non-gender specific. Others on the other hand may have done something different. Typically with University, it's a very diverse market.