Genre

For the genre of my music magazine, I have decided to focus on alternative music as it is the music I tend to enjoy the most.

Alternative music is often known as Alt-Rock music, and it is a genre of rock music that emerged from independent music in the late 1980's, becoming popular in the 1990's. The genre is literally defined as anything that is not what would be typically found in the charts of music today. Our society is culturally dominated by pop culture, with aspects of it everywhere, so pop is not often found within alternative music, instead, we find genres such as pop-punk, rock, indie, and even culturally diverse music such as J-Pop or K-Pop. For my magazine in particular, I would like to focus on the genre of pop-punk, which is typically borderline rock music with aspects of pop and pop culture within.

Popular artists within this genre include:

Panic! At the Disco - A five person, all-male alternative rock band from America.
Paramore - A five person alt-rock band with a female lead and four male members.
All Time Low - A four person, all-male pop punk band, with British and American members.
The Killers - A four person alt-rock band, all male, with American origins.
Coldplay - A four person, all male, alternative British band.
Marianas Trench - A four person, all male, Canadian rock band.
Fall Out Boy - A four person rock band, all male, originating from America.

Magazines that already focus on this genre include:

Kerrang - Kerrang is focused on targeting young people aged 13-19, offering novelty gifts and posters, with bright colors. The tone of the magazine is one that is not too serious, so would not put of those not as literate, which is backed up by the vast number of, and focus on, photographs and pictures.
NME - NME is focused on a slightly older audience, possibly mid 20's-30's, who still have an interest in the genre but also in more mainstream music. Although the article has featured bands likely to be in Kerrang such as Paramore and Muse, it also focuses on artists such as Adele, who is unlikely to be seen in Kerrang.
Rock Sound - Rock Sound bears a lot of similarities with Kerrang, however is less likely to offer novelty gifts and contain bright colors. It is therefore targeted at a more specifically older audience, possibly mid twenties and older for people who still enjoy the genre but would like more detailed stories. Instead of offering novelty gifts such as tattoos, Rock Sound offers its readers a free CD every month, which again is likely to target an older audience as young people typically do not listen to so many CD's, due to the mass free collection of music available online in mere seconds.

Fans of the genre and fashion associated:

The fans of this genre are typically teenagers, aged around 13-19, of both the male and female gender. There has been controversy within the media speculating the danger of pop-punk music, with tabloid articles claiming that the popular, now separated band, My Chemical Romance, is capable of promoting an unhealthy lifestyle of introversion, self-harm, and the glamorization of mental health issues, eating disorders and suicide. These articles were extremely controversial, and caused young people to protest (peacefully) on the streets of London in late 2008, outside of the offices of these tabloid papers. Young people are often the targets of tabloid attacks, with a lot of these attacks based around this kind of music. This shows that the people who do listen to this music and are fans of it are typically very strongly opinionated and are likely to stand up for what they believe in, which means whilst producing my magazine it is important that at the same time as being honest, the culture of the young people must not be demonized as it is likely to cause unrest.
During the protests of 2008, when hundreds of fans of pop-punk and alt-rock music gathered in London, you could see a common theme within their fashion sense, a lot of young people interested in this culture are likely to wear black, typically t-shirts with slogans on or band names, with tight skinny jeans and boots (converse and dr martens are typically popular). Beanie hats are also quite common, with chokers for accessories and wristbands, typically with spikes on to represent their deviance from common society.