Georgiana Angus

 THE FIFTY QUID BLOKE 

"This is the guy we've all seen in Borders or HMV on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book – fifty quid's worth," - David Hepworth

A retail term manufactured by David Hepworth to describe a specific brand of consumer who some would argue is the last legs of the music magazine industry. This man falls in the category of an ABC1 demographic aged around 35+ and is considered by some to be the only consumer of analogue music in this day an age.

As music consumption changes, and the ideas society had on what people think is the correct way to demonstrate a love for music alters. It's not entirely unexpected that the older generation would think that physical music is dying of.

However with the growing popularity of online streaming services such as Spotify and 8-tracks, the non conformist have turned back to a materialistic view on music. Vinyl and record sales have gone up over 240% in 2015 after years of it being a steady level. Who is buying these vinyls? Young people are. Young people are eating up vinyls like its 1969 and the music industry knows this. There has now been and onslaught of vinyls being released for modern bands and they are not holding back on the price. In addition new record players are being manufactured to cope with the popularity in analogue music. With all this materialism, is it such a big jump to assume that these young consumers will move onto music magazines next to show of their love of the music industry.

Honestly I think the fifty quid bloke is an idiom that does not hold relevance to the current revolution in music. Analogue music is making a comeback, and as an extension so will music magazines. I think it's a good time to be publishing a new magazine and it is even better to aim it at a young demographic instead of the safe ABC1 35+ man.