4.1 Data Analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

For a music magazine to keep on surviving and publishing in printed format, one of the ways is to repackage and use a new design approach. Magazine with fanzine looks such as cut and paste and hand-lettering text can attract readers to keep on buying them because of the sense of intimacy. It can also be very eye-catching compared to other magazines on the newsstands. 

58 respondents have given a positive feedback to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was done to get the results of which fanzine graphics, styles and formats they prefer to be used in a music magazine. This answer the first research question;

1.    Do the music magazine readers agree if fanzine graphics were used for music magazines?

The readers like the idea of adapting fanzine graphics into professional music magazines. 93% of the participants prefer more than one fanzine graphics from the options given in the questionnaire. 

Figure 12: Preferred Fanzine Graphics chart

a)    What are the most preferred size and format for a music magazine?

Most participants think that A4 size is the ideal size for a music magazine compared to smaller and larger formats. This contributes 62% votes to the result compared to 34% for smaller size and 18% to larger size magazines.  

 

Figure 13: Chart shows the preferred sizes for a music magazine

Most respondents prefer both perfect binding and stapler binding format compared to stitch binding. The result: Perfect binding 51%, Stapler Binding 49%, Stitch Binding 14%.

Figure 14: Chart shows preferred binding style for music magazines.

 b)   What is the most preferred cover mounts by music magazine readers?

For cover mounts, free posters got most votes with 72% vote, followed by music sampler 28%, Stickers 25%, Calendar 23% and Button Badge 11%.

Figure 15: Chart showing cover mounts preferred by the participants  

c)    What are the fanzine graphic styles that the respondents think the readers will like the most incorporated into music magazines?

The result for fanzine graphic preference seemed not too conclusive. This is because the researcher gave the choice to the survey participants to choose more than one answer for that question. To get a more conclusive result, the researcher contacted the focus group using e-mail to ask the same question once again. The participants were asked to choose only one fanzine graphic styles that they think music magazine readers would like the most. This time around, they were asked to choose only one answer, unlike the previous survey session. The result showed a more distinctive preference towards ‘Cut and Paste’ method for magazine design which is 43% compared to other styles that range from 5% to 19%.

Most respondents voted Cut and Paste layout as the style that music magazine readers will like the most with 43% vote. This is followed by Ransom Notes Look with 19%, Stencil Art 16%, Hand-lettering 11%, Silk-screen Look 8% and Typewriter lettering 5%.

 

Figure 16: Second round survey result showing tremendous result towards Cut and Paste layout 43%

The questionnaire feedbacks proved to the opinions by Mohd Rom Mohd Nor that fanzine graphics have the intimacy sense to music magazine readers is correct. It also complements the opinions of Mallory Gevaert that music magazines with fanzine graphics are eye-catching and music magazine designers should explore it.