Main task: Analysis of a range of music magazines

Title: NME

Audience: 16 - 26 year old aspirers and radicals, hedonists and post-modernists.

Main contents: New, up and coming indie bands (from around the world, but mainly english), as well as bigger acts e.g. Lady Gaga, Eminem etc...

Brand identity: An informal magazine for a younger teenage audience who want to hear more underground music but with a sprinkling of mainstream. A magzine for people who enjoy popular music, but don't neccesarily take it seriously.

Title: Classic FM

Audience: 26-50 year old succeeders, carers, traditionalists and achievers.

Main contents: A mixture of classic composers/musicians as well as new and up and coming composers/musicians (new artists playing old music). It looks like they're trying to make classical music (which is generally consider to be something middle/upper class older people listen to) into a "cool, modern and sexy" genre. Which is why you'll find people like Myleene Klass on the front cover - a modern audience recognise her and like her, she appeals to a younger target audience.

Brand identity: A formal and sophisticated magazine for older classical music lovers, but also a magazine for younger students perhaps - this is certainly what the denotations and connotations tell us.

Title: Top of the Pops

Audience: 8-14 year old aspirers and underachievers, post-materialists and hedonists.

Main contents: Mainstream, generic artists produced only to make money - all the artists they use have a squeaky clean image and child friendly lyrics, the chances of finding a band who fight dominant ideologies (e.g. Fucked Up), is hugely improbable. They all fit into Theodore Adorno's idea that the products of the culture industries are formulaic, simplistic and emotive - they are pseudo-individualist artists, produced by major record labels.

Brand identity: A downmarket publication for younger people who enjoy mainstream artists, watch mainstream television (e.g. X Factor) and film.