What is a Music Magazine?

A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture and are created to inform people about the latest music updates. They include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, reviews, concert reviews and more. They can often include a free gift such as a mix tape, these gifts are called covermounts. Music magazines focus particularly around specific genres such as Pop, Rock, Indie, Hip-Hop and more to attract a niche audience and appeal to all types of people with their different music tastes. A niche audience is a small, select group of a wider target audience that share a similar interest such as sports or music.

Comparison of genres

There are key differences between magazines of different genres. For example, NME features mainly Indie and Rock music which would appeal to a more alternative audience as well as Kerrang! which features more Rock and Metal bands. This caters or people who prefer this type of music without having other genres involved in the magazine which makes them specific to a niche audience and would encourage people with these music tastes to find an interest in them.

Vibe magazine majorly includes hip-hop and R&B artists. On this cover the audience is shown that it is Drake being featured which would attract fans of him and his type of music and genre. By including artists/music groups on the front cover of the magazine, it reinforces what genre the magazine is based on and attracts the people interested in them.

Pop music magazines focus on the popular music of the time and feature the mainstream artists and groups. They include gossip pages as some of their articles which is informative to readers who aspire to be like the artists featured. These gossip pages aren't often found in Rock magazines and they provide information purely about music and have an atmospheric look as they are targeted to an older audience, whereas pop magazines are aimed at young people and teenagers.