Country-Pop Genre Research

Background Information

Country music is very popular in America and the joining of Country and Pop became started in the 1950s and originated in Nashville. The genre came about when Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley wanted to create a new type of music that would appeal to a young adult crowd. Older artist such as Dolly Parton, Olivia newton-John and Kenny Rogers made the genre popular in the late 70s and 80s and now younger more current artist such as Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum and Carrie Underwood are braking into the charts and appeal to both teenagers and young adults. 

Typical Conventions of a Country-Pop Magazine

Typical Country-Pop magazines will consist of brown, red, pink, blue, white and yellow and will have a more American feel to them. The main image on the magazine will normally be a current Country-Pop artist, older Country-Pop magazines have a more natural feel to them, where as more current Country-Pop magazines have a younger more friendly feel to them, this will appeal to the current target audience of about 18-30 but can appeal to some younger of older fans too. This genre appeals to both men and women, however over 50% of fans are women. Generally Country-Pop magazines will have a bold title that stands out, with a current artist on the front and will have a main cover story with a few feature stories around. 

Representation of Men and Woman

Country-Pop music is popular for both male and female artists such as Billy Ray Cyrus, Shania Twain, Taylor Swift and Tim Mcgraw. County-Pop artist now have both traditional and modern features, the men are presented with cowboy hats, sunglasses and a country background, however they have tattoos with a bad boy image. The women are presented with heavy makeup, feminine with a male accessory. By combining both traditional and modern feature County-Pop magazines will appeal to a wider range of audiences, the traditional style will appeal to older people and the modern style will appeal to a younger audience. 

Country Pop Mood Board

Audience Research

Different genres of music magazines will have a different target audience, when making a magazine you have to think about the layout, colours, artists and general theme of the magazine, so that it will appeal to the target audience. 

Pop Magazine Audience

Pop magazines will generally be aimed at teenage girls ranging in age from 11-17 depending on the magazine. They will mostly be read by people in the demographic E (students) and will be bright and colorful to attract the target audience. There will also be young artists on the cover and the articles will consist of gossip, fashion and the latest music. 
Some sub genres of Pop are:

• Bubblegum Pop (Pre-teens and younger teens)
• Country Pop (Artists include Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood)
• Dance Pop (Up tempo music, late teens, early adults)
• Electronic Pop (Influenced by Punk Rock and Disco)
• Pop Folk (Fusion of Folk and Club music)
• Pop Rock (Older artists such as Elton John and Rob Stewart)
• Power Pop (Mixture of Hard Rock and Pop)

Rock Magazine Audience

Rock magazines are generally aimed at older people around mid 20s however this is not the only audience as rock magazines can appeal to people around the ages of 14-30+. The demographic of Rock  magazines will be in the social class of C/D with over half of the readership being males. Rock magazines will consist of dark colours such as black and red and will consist of concert information and both current and older artists.
Some sub genres of Rock are:

• Rap Rock (Mixture between Rap metal and Heavy metal)
• Hard Rock (Early roots of Rock, Artists include The who and Aerosmith)
• Blues Rock (Uses a range of instruments such as electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drums)
• Death Rock (Often used for themes to horror and sci-fi films)
• Experimental Rock (Artists experiment with instruments and singing styles) 
• Folk Rock (Arose from America, artists such as The Beatles. 
• Indie Rock (Very diverse originated in the UK and the US in the 80s)

Country Magazine Audience 

Country magazines are generally aimed at people aging from 18-55 with just under half of the audience falling between the ages of 18-35 and is most popular in America. The main demographics of Country magazines will be E/D however 39% of county music listeners will be in the top demographic and will be targeted at both males and females, with females being over 50% of the general readership. Country magazines will consist of browns and yellows and will have both recent and older country music artists on the front cover. 

Some sub genres of Country are:

• Classic Country (Older music, older audience)
• Country Folk (Singer-songwriters)
• Country Rock (Began in late 1960s, artists include Bob Dylan and The Byrds)
• Country Blues (Popular in America)
• Texas Country (More intimate connection between singer and audience)
• Country Pop (Artists include Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood)
• Christian Country (Christian audience)

R&B Magazine Audience

R&B magazines are mainly aimed at people at an age range of 13-25 and would be in the demographic of C/E/D. The majority of the audience is females with them being over 60% of the readership. RnB magazines will consists of red and blacks with a young attractive artists on the front which attracts the female audience. The majority of R&B fans are teenagers and young adults, R&B music particularly appeals to  women as the songs are about being in love or heartbroken and the fast passed songs will involve a lot of fashion and stereotypically fans come from a black background because of the soul roots. R&B combines rhythm and blues, pop, soul, funk and hip hop so appeals to a wider audience.

Music Institutions

Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group (UMG) is an American-based but French-owned multinational music corporation and its head quarters are in Santa Monica California. It was founded in 1934 as DECCA Records USA, Universal Music Group is the worlds largest music content company. UMG also owns the copyrights to the musical compositions so they can do public performances, recording and for film advertising. UMG has worked with many successful artists such as snow patrol and Rihanna. Universal Music Group is situated in New York where it also manages other labels such as Decca Records, Island Record sand Def Jam Recordings, it also owns Universal Music Publishing Group which is the second largest publishing company in the world.

Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group (WMG) is an American global record company based in New York and is the largest American owned music conglomerate in the world. It was founded in 1958 the company owns some of the largest and most successful record labels including Warner Bros Records, Parlophone Records and Atlantic Records. In may 2011 WMG announced its sale to Access Industries and with a multi million dollar turnover WMG has operations in more that 50 countries world wide. In 2008 WMG had troubles with Youtube, they wanted more money for the music videos they uploaded to the site but Youtube said no and WMG took all their videos off Youtube, later in 2009 They agreed on a new amount of money.

EMI
EMI was a British multinational music recording and publishing company whose headquarters were in London. EMI was founded in 1931 as the electric and music industries and was the smallest institution  in the big four. The original founder of EMI was the inventor of the gramophone, Emile Berliner and some of its record labels included Angel Records, Blue note Records and Virgin Records. They recently closed down in 2012 but they were the forth largest business group in the world, some of its record labels included EMI Records, parlophone and capital Records. EMI had financial troubles with $4 billion worth of debt and they sold their music arm to the Universal Music Group in 2011 for $1.9 billion.