Indie music research

 Indie music scene:The indie music scene usually comes from the term of independant music, artists who have just been discovered and artists who create a sense of music, away from the orginal pop, rock genres. Indie music is mainly classed in the middle of these two genres.  Another major defintion of indie would be that most indie artists are not connected with major record labels such as Sony and Univeral, just small record labels making the artists orginal and selected. I beleive that indie music is generally used through the british music industry, Indie hasn't really been that popular through the music audience, with new bands such as Florence and the Machiene, Marina and the Diamonds etc, only just brining a sound to the indie music scene.

The indie music scene was defined as late as the 1980s, as indie music was generalised through british bands, trying to accomplish a new sound on the music scenes. This music scene's popularity in the 90s through Frankz Ferdiand and The Killers, however, this bands defied the point of Indie, after being signed to major record labels and domianting the sales charts.
The differences between Indie music and commercial pop music, is that Indie music is more self expressed, written songs of their own instead of branded and materalised through the industry. Indie music is more scene, more private and local. While popstars such as Britney Spears,  Katy Perry and Rihanna embark on their UK tours around the main arenas in the UK, indie artists would stay more locally, organise gigs which would be more seculded for their music audience, the only main venues indie artists would play to would be the summer festivals.
 There are defintions in theIndie music scene. Indie rock and indie pop, these two genres being the most popular.  The difference between these two genres is  instrumentation or sound, as both genres include distorted guitar-based music based on pop-song conventions. The key distinction from how strictly they follow cultural constructions of rockist "authenticity". There is also indie dance, which comes from a fusion of indie pop and electronic/dance music. Crossover between electronica (mostly glitch) resulted in so-called indietronic, electronic indie or indie electronic, for example some artists on the German Morr Music label, or The Postal Service.

Indie Album covers: 

Ting Tings 2007                                                            Arctic Monkeys 2006

                                                                                                           

Killers 2008   

Indie albums reprsent the music they offer, orginal and creative. I have produced three examples of indie music albums,  showing the different types of genres in indie music. The Tings Tings, part of the Indie pop genre, Killers, representing Indie rock and Artic Monkeys representing Indie alternative. All three of these album covers attract and appeal to their audience in different forms and conventions.
The Ting Tings:
A bright red background, making the album cover stand out from the shop shelves. Pop albums tend to have bright colours on their background as to stand out from the competition of other ablums. The Ting Tings being no different , use a defiant red to draw attention to the album. Indie covers, are most known for being more creative using simple ideas, this album cover being no different. By using the effect of  looking like the name of artists have been stuck on to the album cover, creating a 3D and then having the name of the album wrote on a pair of hands is an orginal idea, which would attract the audience. The cover being so simple yet so orginal, no fancy fonts, buzz words or major images, just simple art used on the cover of an indie album cover. I beleive that this album cover is effective as it attracts it's audience, the design is so simple yet so orginal defieng the audience by using simple conventions such as using primary colours on the album.
Blue and red.Killers:The Killer's album 'Day and Age' is a mosiac image of a africa plain against a moonlight, creates a relaxing yet rocky atmosphere. The dull colours in this image, shows me (as a member of their target audience) that this album is a more rockier indie genre. The domiant colour in this image is purple, normally purple is connected to rock albums, showing the audience that this album has a sense of rocky music in this album. The use of other colours used on the cover, whites, green etc, shows the target audience that this album also contains elements of other music gneres besides rock, i.e indie.
The image used on the album, is so orginal and creative. Hence the whole idea behind the indie music scene. In conculsion i beleive that this album is effective as ti delivers the message that this album is full of rock indie music beats and appeals to the audience. By having a mosiac effect on the album, it stands out from the shelfss and attracts the target audience stright away.Arctic Monkeys:
I like this album more then the others, for the basics and orginality of this album cover. This album cover, stright away shows the target who the audience of this album, yet in a way, shows the roots and ways of life, this band has been Accustomed to.  The image of a man aged 29-35 smoking, represents  some, not all. working class middle aged men. When I (as an member of the target audience) see this album cover, it

Instinctively reminds me that this band is a British band which is not in the main stream of music, i.e pop, other wise there would be an image of the band in a posey pose trying to act ' non-  chalet '. However failing. This album cover out of the three, is the most representative album cover for indie music. It shows the orginality of music, yet so simple ideas. More importantly, that indie music is some what different to main stream music in the industry today. Yes some Indie bands are now managed by big music labels (The Killers managed by Island Music) however, classic indie bands such as Artic Monkeys, are still standing by their independant music label. This still creating the orginality of indie music.

Q magzine anaylsis

Q magazine is an alternative music magazine. It covers  all types of music genres from Rap to pop  to Rock.
On the cover of this month's magazine, Q shows the wide range of genres shown in the magazine. Lady GAGA representing pop,  Jay Z represnting rap David Ghorl from foo fighters representing Rock.   All three images are in a full shot, which means that the editor of  the magazine wanted the images to stand out and grab the readers attention, making the three images the more important images and infomation on the front cover. The editor did this knowing that it's advertising to new readers who like those kinds of music, this creating a wider fan base for the magazine.
The  image of  lady GAGA has been layered over the Q logo, showing the readers that the dominating image of the three music stars are the most important information on that front cover.
The logo for the magazine and the name of the magazine are both the same. Q. The Q is in a white font text surrounded by a red box, making the  white text contrast against the red and therfore making the Q eye-catching to passer-bys.
Below the logo Q, there are the headings for the three dominant images centered in the middle of the front cover.  Once again, all text are surrounding the images and hardly any text have been layered on to the three images, once again giving the impression that the three images are the most important information on the magazine.
All three of the headings are in a orangey colour accompanied by small black text. The headings are made to stand out to the readers by having them in an orangey text and making them into a big size font. The reason for this is to show the readers who don't know yet, who the three images are so the reader doeesn't have to go flicking through the magazine to find out who they are.
Below the headings is the bar code. This is a legal requirment for all magaziness, to have the bar code on either the back of the magazine or mostly the front  of the magazine.  On the bar code are the other legal requirements that all magazines have to have on the magazine, date, issue number and price.  These legal requirements are put in the corner so they can be easily found however they don't drag attention away from the main infomation placed on the cover.
Layered below the images is an orange banner with black text and white text in, The banner has a white cross with a black background attached on to it, i think this has been done to create an 3D effect for the banner, so the banner stands out from al lthe other big texts. Inside the organe banner, there is black and white text establishing who is being featured  for this issue. The black text stands out more clearer then the white text does, this showing that the infomation placed in the black text is more important, or that the words in black are part of a sentence and therefore you have to read the whole banner in order to establish what is  inside the banner. This is a clever straterdgy that magzine editors use to get the reader to read the whole banner instead of just snipets. Also the text in black are famous music stars, so the audience of the magazine would reconise them quickly and would want to read about them in the banner.
At the top of the cover, there is another black banner with white font and a semi circle cut into it. The black and white contrast against each other, making it easier to read the text and for the text to stand out ot the readers.  The text in white is the slogan for this month's edition of Q.  The orange semi circle contains the caption for the dominant images centered in the middle of the front cover.

NME Magazine analaysis

NME is a popular music magazine which features interviews from famous rock bands. The contents of the magzine includes gig context showing the readers which gigs are where, chart lists of favourite and popular singles and downloads forom the past week and interviews and letters from fans and readers who have complaints or fan mail which they would like to share with the magazine. The NME magazine is a conterversial music magazine and has a older audience, pressumably 14 years-30 years. I'd say this age because of the conterversial use of language used in some of the interviews i.e, 'Fucking' and 'Bitch' although this feature would appeal to them, however the actual  content of the magazine would not appeal tothem. I'd say 14 year olds would be old enough to understand to understand the content of the magazine as they would have more of a chance of listening to the music displayed in the magazine.
 Of course NME would appeal to older generations who still go to gigs and enjoy interviews from  the rock bands normally featured in the magazine. NME covers a wide range of rock bands dating right back to the 80s and has interviews with the bands all the time.
The front cover of the magazine is very basic, yet it appeals to the target audience. In the top hand corner of the Magazine is the tittle of the of the magazine; NME. This  establishes the idenity of the magazine. The colour of the name never changes so the readers can clearly idenitfy the magazine on the shelves of a convenice store. The colour of the name only changes for special editions with speccial guests or aniversarys.  The size of the name of the magazine is a  middle size, the name takes up the top left hand corner of the magazine, so the name isn't to big but yet is clearly visible to the readers. The contrasting colours of the white background and the red colour used on the font ,helps to make the name of the magazine to become more clearer.
Above the name of the magazine is the leagal requirments every magzine should have on their front cover; the date, number of issue and the price. This is situated above the NME so when the reader goes to see the name of the magazine they can immidatly look at the legal requirements. 
The background of this cover is white, making the name stand out even more with the red and white contrasting against each other. The dominant image of 'The Libertines' takes up the whole front cover, again an advertsing technique used by the magazine. The target audience will see this image, read the headline and sub heading and will immidiatly want to buy this edition of the magazine. The dominant image of 'The Libertines' takes up the whole front cover of the magazine so its clear that this is the main marketing technique used on the front cover.  The image cuts of part of the name of the magzine, but because of the colour of the name, contrasting against the whiote background the name is still visibly clear to the readers. Layered on top of the image are the headings for that photo, enticing the readers into reading/ buying that interview.  The subheading is above the acterual heading . The sub heading  in an italic font with gold writing symoblising royalty. This is showing that The Libertines are highly respectable in their genre of music. Another reason for the use of 'royalty font', could be irony. The Libertines are a rock band and most rock bands have public dramatic fall outs creating scandal and gossip among the music inudstry, the use of the heading could mean irony by stating that they do not stand together yet they stand against each other, this creating irony or sarcasm.
The sub heading being in a different font and above the actual heading could mean that the sub heading doesn't acturally have anything to do with the interview in the magazine and is used because its always linked with 'The Libertines'.
The heading is in white block writing making the heading stand out to the readers. Again this is another marketing technique used along with the dominant image of 'The Libertines'.  The writing is in block font so the readers can read the heading clearly and become hooked into buying/ reading the interview; if the font was in a posh ittalic text, then no one would be able to read it, there go no one would buy the magazine becuase they didn't know what the interview would be about.
At the bottom of the front cover are a string of images which come with their own headline. These images  are showing the readers who else is being interviewd in this magazine this is, once again another selling point making the reader want to buy and read the magazine. The headline for the different images are in yellow font colour, this making the text stand out because it's so small so its easier to read and can also stand out on the front cover.  The images are used to show who is being interviwed so the readers can reconise and will immidatly want to buy/ read the magazine.
At the top of the front cover is a  slip covering the whole top of the front cover. This slip is an advertisment showing the readers what else is inside the magzine. The slip is advertsing interviews from Leeds festival 2010, this being a popular music festival has its own logo and colour scheme making the  slip stand out to the readers, who have attended the music festival.  Two main headings accompained with the logo of the music festival is based on the slip, however that's all it takes to make the slip stand out from the magzine. The yelow text goes with the colour scheme of the music festival and the white text contrasts with the black background used on the slip so it makes the text stand out.
Next to the name of the magzine is the buzz word 'FREE'. This will directly grab the attention of the readers and will want them to buy the magazine to gain their 'freebie'.  The buzz word 'FREE' is advertising a free poster for every reader who buys the magazine.  The buzz word is in medium text so it can be readable and also it doesn't take up to much space on the front cover.  Once again the font colour is black so it contrasts against the white background. It could be  said that because the infomation is less important than any of the other infomation, its in a black font, whereas all the other infomation is in a coloured font.
Below the name for the magazine is a rosette like figure showing the colours for leeds festival  with guns n roses in the middle. By using these colours the readers can instinctivly know that the rosette like figure has something to do with leeds festival 2010. Also by using Guns N Roses in the middle of the rosette, the readers will be intrested about the interview with guns n roses and to see what they  thought about the guns n roses set.
In conclusion, this magazine cover is appealing to its target audience, by using different codes and conventions to make the cover appealing.  It uses different colours for certain types of texts, using different types of formations, i.e. layering images onto text.   I think the reason why this cover of NME is so appealing to it's audience is because it keeps to the minimalstic look while still gicving enough infomation out to appeal to its target audience.