Function & Audience

The predominant functions for music magazines are to inform, entertain, persuade, promote and gratify their audience, however each of these sectors harbour several different strategies adopted by companies enabling them to appeal to their audiences and engage their interest. In order to inform the readers, music magazines can intergrate quotes which they will embed into either a detailed prose or a simplistic Q & A structure. Detailed prose is usually employed to capture more sophisticated audiences whereas Q & A is generally adopted in magazines of which appeal to a younger audience for example pop and R 'n B, in essence this structure is significantly easier to understand due to its direct simplicity. They also inform audiences of what exactly they should expect from specific albums, informing them of general information such as the tracks they consist of. Furthermore, music magazines are also designed to entertain; the use of superlatives which express a superior quality, hyperboles which exaggerate situations making them seem much more dramatic and interesting, colloqualism which makes readers feel as though they can relate to the text, humour which generates a light-hearted sense, celebrity interviews and also gossip factors which is clearly an aspect which absorbs most readers. In addition, music magazines are also manipulated to promote things and persuade their audience to buy artists albums/singles, the implementation of linguistic techniques such as direct address where lexical choices such as ''YOU'' are used regularly and emotive language, collectively help to reinforce ideas ultimately generating sympathy, perhaps altering readers perceptions of artists. Similarly, the frequent advertisements also promote artists albums, fragrances, concerts, etc... Moreover, music magazines also aim to gratify their audience, as they believe that readers gain somewhat of a sense of pleasure from reading magazines.