Institutions: RESEARCH

Research into Institutions:

Music Magazines

I found this part of the research most difficult and this is mainly due to the lack of dance/hardcore magazines distributed to audiences commercially. The ones which I found were not extremely commercial and were not produced for profit; meaning the magazines which I found was not sold directly to the public. The magazines I discovered were instead distributed to the public freely, usually outside events which were ran by the music record label ‘Raverbaby’ or similar events which were involved within the dance/hardcore musical genre. Music Magazines are significant as they supply an outlet from the artist to the public, whereby the artist can be advertised by the music institutions directly towards the demographic audience. Therefore I realised I must include the music magazines within my research, as they will directly relate to the music adverts we will have to create alongside the music CD cover and video. The main magazine which I found that was directly for the dance/hardcore genre was ‘Ravin’ eye’, which, akin to the record label Raverbaby, began in 2001 when the hardcore scene experienced a huge revival.

Ravin’ Eye Magazine:

During research, I found this explanation of the history of the magazine from the magazine executive, who explains why and how he started ‘Ravin’ eye’:

Website: http://www.fantazia.org.uk/Scene/magazines/ravineye.htm
How it all began:
”The idea of Ravin’ Eye began driving back from a rave in Salisbury in 2001. We had all loved Hardcore for years and had been raving week-in-week-out for a long time. One of our crew had been thinking about putting a hardcore newsletter together and suggested that we all got involved. Although there was information on Hardcore out there it was only available on the internet and we knew there were a lot of ravers who didn’t necessarily get to see it, plus there was also a lot of negativity about the scene on the net which we were sick of reading. We wanted a hard copy of something that you could hold in your hand and read, so the initial idea was just a sheet of A4 paper, photocopied. We also decided from day one that if we put a free newsletter together we would always focus on the positives of our scene.”
Where did the name come from?
”Not sure really, we all came up with ideas and that was the one that stuck.”
What gave you that initial push?
”We just wanted to do something for the dance/hardcore scene that we loved. We talked about our ideas and decided we’d try to do an A5, 6 page newsletter. We approached DJ Sy for our first interview, never actually believing that he would get back to us… but he did. And to be honest, it was getting that reply from Sy that made us go ahead with the first issue – Thank you to DJ Sy!
(DJ Sy renowned in the dance/hardcore scene)
What is your main ethos with the magazine?
”To provide ravers with a free, publication focusing on the positive aspects of the current Hardcore scene.”

This magazine is an example of a non profitable organization produced by the demographic audience, for the demographic audience. Therefore if I was able to advertise our artist in it our even arrange an interview this would allow our artist a wider demographic audience, which could result in more exposure and profit for the music institution.