research

The genre of my magazine will be hip hop, which is mainly an americanly sold genre magazine because of its popularity compared ot anywhere else. And hip hop has many conventions in print, mainly the most obvious are black people, celebrities and probably rappers, not wearing bright clothes unless that is their usually style.

So, since i knew my genre i saw it only relevant that i should research hip hop magazines. So here are some of the examples of hip hop magazines i found,
- The Source
- Hip Hop
- XXL
- Vibe

These are some top hip hop magazines, which all have starred and interviewed top hip hop names, for example 50 cent, lil wayne, chris brown, eminem etc...


Now i need to review one or two of these magazines covers to see if that cover follows the conventions and works as a magazine cover.

To start i got a cover from, The Source..
As you can read on the front cover is Keyshia Cole who is a soul/R&B artist, and firstly you notice she is naked, not covering up much to covering enough to make it ok to be on the shelves. This will attract the male audience to buy the magazine as she is a very attractive person and this picture gives the idea there might be more inside the magazine.

Secondly, i noticed that her eyes aren't looking straight out at the reader, which conventionally the cover artist should be, so this cover is going against their conventions so making it different but obviously it has been done on purpose. And the fact she is looking away i think makes the reader look more at her whole image and then noticing she has nothing much on. So it diverts attention from her face down to her body, making the reader probably more enticed to buy it.

Although, them magazine does follow some conventions, firstly it is eye catching and appealing to the reader. The colours work together and the cover is glossy, which in modern times, most top magazines are known as 'glossies'.

Also the title is at the top of the page, and as a new'ish normality the artist on the cover is covering part of the title with the top of their head. This makes the reader, i think, have to look closer and twice at the title to know what it says, which by then they are hooked to reading what is inside the magazine.



Another good point about this cover i think is how the writing grabs your attention where needed, the number '51' drawThen, the text appeals to the reader, in the bottom right of the page it says "why you should stop hating on Cuba Gooding JR.", and the 'you' in this caption is very formal towards the reader and invite them in because this magazine now concerns them. So if the magazine is involving them they feel onvolved and as though this article is specially for and to them.s your attention straight to it, then you think some data has been qauntified and so you read what ext, whne you find out what has been rated, you want to see who it is, maybe to see if you know anyone, or if u agree etc.

Down the left side it lists some well known famous artists, '50 cent, nelly ...' and these names appeal to the reader, they make you think what could they be in the magazine for. And people aren't in magazines to just have a random chat, they either reveal secrets, or have an exclusive interview which only this magazine has the answers to their questions, or they want to promote something. As these are well known and popular artists then you will want to find out about them, everyone wants to know about their favourite artists.

And finally the colours work together, they aren't contrasting, they look good and maybe psychologically mean something.

On the other hand, there are obviously some mistakes or things certain people won't like about the cover which make it sell less to those it doesn't appeal too. But, the designers and managers of this magazine will have worked for quite a while to get this cover right for them and right so they direct it properly to their audience.

The Male artist

















I have searched and found these three hip hop magazine covers which i think will help me proove a point, so firslty i want to find the way a male artist is normally portrayed on a hip hop cover. So i notice from these three and more that thye are portrayed as rebelious thugs, modern day gangsters, with territory and gang signs, guns and crobars. So they appeal to the young male population more than any othe catergory of age and gender.

Young males see them as idols, they see how they are cool and rebelious, they use guns and don't smile or look sad. So just from these pictures readers are now wanting to find out about these artists lives, why they got into music, if thye get in trouble a lot, if they are in gangs etc, they want to know their attitudes so they can copy them and be just as cool as them.

So i think a convention of hip hop magazines is a male artist is usually portrayed as the rebelious thug, he doesn't obey the rules, they look angry or sincere and cool.

The Female Artist





I have now searched for female covers on some hip hop magazines, and they all strike a resemblance in the way women are portrayed. They all wear little clothing, showing their curves and they are all veyr good looking, slim, young girls.

They are all revelaing and posed in sexually implied positions to attract a male reader even more, with such 'raunchy' pictures on the cover the mind is bound to wonder what the inside might contain. On the first magazine it even reads 'ANGEL drops her top inside' telling the reader that if they buy that magazine they will see more revealing pictures which not mant people have seen, so they want to see them. Also because she is famous many males will be attracted to her and this will probably be as close as they can get to her.

Also the reader wants to know what this girl has to say, they always ask women the questions "what type do you go for etc" and males want to try and live up to these celebrities expectations, so the interviews on these women will make the reader want to buy the magazine even more now.

So overall, females are portrayed simply as whores who are good looking, young and slim, and they need to promote something and use their body to attract people in then tell them what they're offering.


Contents Pages

I started research into contents pages and found one for a hip hop magazine.
Here is a conents page i found which is from a hip hop magazine and i quite like this contents
page. MAinly because it doesn't have boxes of featuring articles or artists. Its like one big picture and the text is worked around the picture. I am going to copy this style and make my contents page have a picture of my featured artists and work my text around the pictures.