Audience Research (Focused): Kpop vs. Western Magazines

As I am focusing on Kpop, a not very well-known genre of music around South London, I am intrigued about what non Kpop fans and Kpop fans think about music magazine covers from western (American, English) magazines and Kpop magazines. Not only will this give me first-impressions from fans and non-fans, but it will help me spot what is different &/or similar between Korean and western magazine covers. Because I feel like it is not accurate nor fair to judge all Kpop/Western magazines by just showing one music magazine cover, I am going to show my interviewees a printscreen of what google images shows when I search 'music magazines' (I would not have to refer to 'western' as the most well-known music magazines are British and American) and 'Kpop magazines' to show a more accurate representation of the typical styles of the magazines. I have decided to interview three young people, one fan and two non-fans; I chose two people who are not fans of Kpop because I wanted to get more first-impressions.

Interviewees: Martha (15/non-fan), Naya (17/non-fan), Annastasiya (18/fan)

1. (Before I showed the images below) From experience &/or own-knowledge, what do you think of when you think of a typical western music magazine cover? How about a Kpop magazine cover?

M: (Western) I think of classic colours like black, white and red. My dad has a lot of magazines from the 80s and 90s and they're a lot more colourful than magazines nowadays. (Kpop) I have never seen a Kpop magazine before, they're not as well known, I guess.

N: (Western) I collect a lot of music magazines, my favourite one is Q and it's very popular and covers a lot of different artists. I know its logo is in a red box which catches my eye every time I go out to buy the newest monthly issue. They usually have one artist on the cover and use the colour red a lot, mainly because the title is red for it to match. The cover stars often look sexy, powerful and even intimidating. (Kpop) I have never seen a Kpop magazine so I am quite clueless. I would say very colourful and in-your-face because I have seen Kpop fashion and what some girl groups wear. It is all very quirky so I can imagine a very bright, colourful cover. 

A: (Western) I don't buy magazines often but I know red is a popular colour for magazine covers, probably because it pops out to catch your attention. In western culture most artists pay attention to looking sexy in their music videos so I can imagine female cover stars wearing revealing clothes or in seductive poses. (Kpop) I don't have a favourite Kpop magazine because all different ones feature my favorite Kpop group, EXO, in them so whenever I see a magazine with them included in it, I try my best to buy it even though it is very hard; I am lucky that I have a relative that lives in Seoul, Korea and they send me merchandise and magazines with EXO in them. Because I have seen quite a lot of different magazines, I am aware they are usually very simple and neat unlike western magazines that are covered in lines of texts, but like an art/artistic magazine. A lot of white, then black and a soft, light colour. However you do get some very bright, colourful ones and in my opinion they are much more interesting-looking and catch my eye more when im searching for new magazines online. You don't find a lot of them but that makes them look exclusive and very unique. The title of the magazines usually have 'Kpop' in them which I quite like because its simple.

2. Do you see any differences between the styles of western magazines and Kpop ones, if so what exactly?

M: Oh definitely. The colours are very different; the American magazines use a lot of darker, harsher colours than the Kpop ones. I never new Kpop magazines used so much pink. But thats mostly for the girls, the guy ones are darker and use black, white and grey but still are lighter than Western magazines.

N: Western magazines seem to use more closer-type shots and with solo artists. I have a friend who is obssessed with Kpop and she has all these posters of boy and girl groups so the Kpop magazines seem to use longer shots depending on how many people in the group.

3. Do you see any similarities between the style of western magazines and Kpop ones, if so what exactly?

M: Even though a lot of the cover stars on Western magazines are presented in a more sexy way, the guys in Kpop magazines seem to be presented kind of sexy too. The girls not so much since they're so girly.