Deciding my magazine title

As inspiration for the title, I had a brainstorming session. I listened to a lot of music to find relevant lyrics whilst reading old magazines, I have seven years worth of Q magazines along with many others, which has been a very valuable resource.

I made a powerpoint sequence to capture my ideas about magazine titles and i show a screenshot below.

How I decided my titles

I am trying to appeal to an audience of festival and concert attendees but alienate general music fans. I am trying to find something catchy and memorable that is to relate to, and easy enough to say that people will use its name when talking about it. NME has become accepted as the name of a quality music magazine and not many of its younger readers would know that it started life as ‘The New Musical Express’ in 1952, but this was cumbersome to use in conversation and become shortened to NME which is how it is now known.

I looked through many different music magazine names and realised that some have very little to do with the content and some are very specific, i.e. Q or Kerrang in contrast with Total Guitar or Classic Rock. I discovered that some magazine titles are just single words or letters, I therefore discovered that the more words in the title, the more specific the magazine is.

Single Name Syndrome

I have recently observed whilst researching that the current trend is for choosing a single, relevant name for various media.

Films: Inception, Paul, Burlesque

Television: Luther, Vexed, Skins, Mifits

Magazines: Hello, She, Esquire, Zoo

Company names: Seeboard, Orange, Aviva

Charities: SCOPE, Mencap, Oxfam.

This has made me think that it might be good to consider the possibility of a single word title for my magazine. While watching TV, I have discovered how much of a success ‘Dave’ has become as a TV channel name. This has been repeated in the advert on BBC One for a wildlife program where they showed a marmot repeatedly shouting “Alan” and “Steve”. The marmot has become a legend in his own right. At festivals and gigs, in the last year, it has been impossible to avoid hearing and joining in the shouting of these two names in crowds. I started thinking of single, simple names like Sid, Fred then realised that Mike had two different meanings, boys name and microphone – I think this one is very appealing because festival goers would understand the pun.

I have again used powerpoint to present my final ideas, putting my potential magazine title names in star boxes.

Decision proccess

These are the initial titles I came up with and the thought processes behind them. The next stage is to find get feedback from my consumer group (my peers who fit my intended audience profile). I have come to the decision that Earshot would not have enough relevance to the magazine content.

Gigs n’ Fields – along the lines of Guns n’ Roses, a band my intended audience would know. This has the suggestions of concert and festivals but doesn’t suggest general music interest so may be too specific. Also, Guns n’ Roses are an old band, this might put off people interested in more up-to-date more cutting music.

GigStar – Based on Napster, the name of a music download site. Making one word from two makes a catchy name for the reader to remember. I chose to use a capital ‘S’ in star to distinguish the two words but looks graphically very catchy. As my audience attend gigs frequently, they will be familiar with this title. The word star also has very positive connotations suggesting the magazine is top of its field, literally a star.

Real Fields – I was listening to songs, trying to find lyrics appropriate for a title, whilst listening to The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and heard the lyrics “Nothing is real…”, I twisted this to come with ‘Real Fields’ which I think would work well. The word ‘Fields’ not only suggests festival fields and camping but also different fields in the genre of music, ‘Real’ suggests that the magazine is genuine and gritty. The reference to the Beatles would possibly draw in older festival goers (hippies!)

Sounds Around – This is a very general title as it includes the word ‘Around’, it is also not specific to festivals and gigs but may attract more readers because it sounds more general. The simple technique of using two rhyming words is catchy but may appeal to a younger, less educated readership. This title would appeal to more of an NME/Hello readership, more of a gossip magazine with short articles and many pictures.

Sound Fields – combining the previous two titles, I came up with a title that would be perfect for a festivals and gigs magazine. It puts across the idea of music and outdoor festivals, pairs two words that would not usually go together creating a memorable title.

Festivals Sorted – As with ‘Strawberry Fields’, I found the inspiration for this title through lyrics. It draws on the lyrics of Pulp’s “Sorted for Es and Wizz”, people who know Pulp (a classic festival band) would recognise this source but the main connotation is that if you read this magazine, you will know all there is to know about festivals. It suggests that it will take away the planning as the festival is sorted out by the magazine. It is however, too narrow a title for the wider audience I intend to draw in. I have played about with variations on this title, including just calling it ‘sorted’ but this would be too wide for audience I intend to draw in.

Resonant – there is a radio station called ‘Resonance’ FM and I like the idea of a single word for my title, like Mojo has. I tried to think of something that was relevant to music and was an intriguing name and Resonant is a word frequently used in physics with reference to the production of sound. Its dictionary definition is “(of sound) echoing, resounding, continuing to sound”. Although I like this title, it might appeal to a nerdy audience who would think it was a science magazine! It is also too general.

Mike – for the reasons discussed in ‘Single Name Syndrome’, this is my personal favourite. It is also a pun as it has two meanings (the name Mike and slang for microphone), the use of short names is very modern and I think would appeal to the right audience.


I have decided to rule out the titles Resonant, Sounds Around and Gigs n’ Fields as I do not think they will be relevant enough to the content of the magazine.


I will be taking GigStar, Mike, Festivals Sorted, Sound Fields and Real Fields to further analysis.