Research and planning: Task 1: Essay

Discuss the representation of people in your chosen genre of music magazine: 
Genre: Indie

I chose the genre of 'Indie' for my magazine. I chose this because it is a genre that appeals to a lot of people, because it is interesting and different. People are so used to seeing the same 'POP' music magazines in shops, so I thought I would do something that people are not used to seeing. There are a few INDIE magazines around at the moment, such as ''INDIE'' and ''jmag.''

Mise-En-Scene
The 'Mise-en-scene' in these two magazines are both very different. ''INDIE'' magazine is very bare and simple, it has a simple photo of one person; it is never more than one. It then has it's title big and bold at the top of the page, with it's tag line positioned directly underneath it. It then has a bar-code in the left corner and a piece of text in the right corner. ''Jmag'' has a very busy front cover, it has different colours and fonts all over the A4 page. It has a group rather than one single person, and the title is positioned behind the heads of the group. They also have their bar-code in the left corner, but they have a lot of cover lines all over the page. Even though both of these magazines have different ''Mise-en-scenes'' they are both indie magazines and it shows that they can be different and still appeal to the same audience. It seems as if ''Jmag'' have made their front cover crazy to fit the band, because the band look a bit mad. Whereas, ''INDIE'' have simplified their magazine to suit the people; because the models they use look simple. This can help me with my magazine.

Representations
"Indie" may include music that is not independently produced, and most independent music artists do not fall into a single, defined musical style or genre and usually create music that can be categorized into other genres. Indie musicians represent a certain image, such as.. 

Florence and the Machine

Indie POP

Jake Bugg

Indie FOLK

As you can see, all indie artists are different. They all represent the same thing (Indie Music), but they are all different. Whereas, in every POP artist looks the same and produce the same kind of music. All INDIE artists look different, and they produce very different types of music. They support an image of ''difference'' and they show their fans and others, that it's okay to be different.

People that listen to 'Indie' music (fans), are also known as ''hipsters.'' They are also different, they don't follow the crowd. As shown by them listening to indie music. The people that listen to INDIE music, usually attend festivals such as..

So I have to take into account when making my magazine, that my target audience like to be different. Therefore my magazine has to be different, and it has to show a range of different indie music that appeals to the audience. After discussing the representations of indie music, I have a clear idea of how my music magazine should be.