AS FOUNDATION PORTFOLIOMagazines Research

GENRE The genre I have chosen to base my magazine on is Hip-

Hop. The reason why I chose this genre from all the rest is because I’m interested in music and love this type of music. This gives me more knowledge about the genre of this magazine.

The other reason why I have chosen to base my magazine on this genre is because Hip-Hop is one of the popular genres of music which makes it easier to research, having loads of information and being around for long.

Hip Hop magazines

VIBEXXL

THE SOURCE

VIBE Quincy Jones launched Vibe in 1993.

The publication features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers.

The magazine bases it’s success on a boarder range of interests than it’s closest competitors , “The Source” and “XXL”.

Target audience

The magazine's target audience is base on young, urban followers of hip-hop culture and not only those inspired by the dress sense.

Hip-hop has been around for a long amount of period so inspires few of the old generation.

This music genre is also targeted for adults up to probably 30 years if they still are involve on this type of hip-hop culture.

THE SOURCE It’s a monthly magazine

Covers not only hip-hop music but politics and culture.

It was founded as a newsletter in 1988

The source magazine is world’ second longest running rap magazine

Target audience

The magazine tends to base it’s target audience on urban followers

It also bases it’s target audience on adults of 44 years of age because the magazine covers politics and culture as well as music

The younger generations are the ones that are more influence on the genre and have being for a long amount of period.

THE XXL XXL was founded in 1997 and is also a well

known Hip Hop magazine

It was founded by Jules Winnfield

The magazine is known for its different rating system on albums going from ‘S’ (poor) to ‘XXL’ (classic)

Target audience

Since the magazine hasn’t been active for so long, the younger generation are not that much aware of the magazine.

XXL has similar target audience as THE SOURCE, making hip-hop/rap fans it’s target audience

VIBEFRONT

COVERBoth magazines, either with a male or female on it’s cover, it has a bright background making the magazines model and the cover lines stand out .

On the left magazine you can see that since it’s a male on the cover it seems to show more dark colours ( red, black, grey) making them look much important than females. Where as on the right magazine, you can see that bright, warm colours ( peach, baby blue, white) are used making females look vulnerable and innocent and less important than men.

The male rapper on this magazine is shown in front of the masthead which makes him more seen more important than the magazine and nearly all of the images are mid-shots/mid close up’s, making the rapper occupied most of the magazine leaving the cover lines going round the rapper. The way Eminem is posing, looking straight at audience makes him look tougher, specially as he shows his tattoos.

On this Front Cover Janet Jackson is shown as a sex candy, of the way she is presented on the cover and looking towards the reader as the cover lines says “Janet Jackson like to watch” holding a camera as if she is taking a photo of the reader.

This magazine uses short cover lines to catch the readers attention , with only artist names and basic outline of what there is inside “Rihanna: Exposed”

CONTENTS COVER

VIBE

A dark background is used for the contents page, making the rest of the page stand out as cover lines and ‘Contents’ title are in white.No images are used to show each feature on the magazine.

Rapper PILES is shown in a mid close up covering half the page wearing loads of jewellery “BLING” and gold teeth. This makes him look more aggressive, specially when he is looking at the camera, straight at the audience.

By using dark colours, short details with a mid close up of a rapper matches with the theme of the magazine ‘HIP HOP’ or ‘R&B’ rappers or singers as it shows the dark side of the magazine and the rappers itself and the music they make, are kind off aggressive and the type of audience that would read this type of magazine.

There is loads of features shown about guns, murder, death which you can easily tell that this magazine in a sense has a dark side of violence that will be targeted to young teen males, where as it also talks about fashion which targets teen females as they would love getting tips from celebrities to impress the males, so this magazine also shows fashion and things females would be interested in.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

VIBE

There is only one picture used on this double page , as this image says more than one thing to the audience. It shows the poverty, the way males are the ones that are in charge. This image has loads of dark colours showing the danger and how life is living in the “slum”

The use of ‘slang’ is used a lot on this magazine, “GONNA”, “WANNA”, “GOIN’ UP” This reflects with the theme of the magazine: rappers, violence, money, jewellery “BLING ” and the genre of the music

In this page you can see that publisher focus more on the text than the image as loads of text is shown in this page with only one image covering a third of both pages (double page)

Each headline is in bold to show the reader when there is a change of story or to automatically attract the reader to that particular story.

As you can see this double page is a continue from the previous double page

The use of a large amount of dense text is quite unusual in most music magazines but this magazine tell the reader the rapper’s or singer’s life and what they planning to do

XXLFRONT PAGE

CAM’RON and THE GAME are shown in a mid-shot/mid close up, occupying the front cover, making the cover lines flow around him.

As you can see, both CAM’RON and THE GAME are in front of the masthead, making them more important than the magazine itself , also the way the reader will always know what magazine it is without having to read the masthead as it’s a well known magazine

This magazine has short cover lines, only giving specific detail to the reader, attracting the attention with catching phrases that will make them want to read the magazine.

The magazine on the right, the rapper (THE GAME) is looking aggressively towards the reader with his fists close to his chin making the reader feel as if he is in control and a mean guy, also making him look tougher and in sort of a gang culture. Where as, the magazine on the left, CAM’RON doesn’t seem aggressive but welcoming towards the reader. This shows that is not all about violence but about success coming from a rapper or singer that was bought up in poverty.

As you can see, in this second magazine XXL, the use of (red, white and black) on the magazine’s front page represents the genre of the magazine, which is Hip hop/R&B that uses loads of slang/bad language and sense of clothes and priority of money and luxury as jewellery.

XXLCONTENTS PAGE

on this magazine, the contents page uses a plain background and just adding pictures a brief insight of what the magazine has to offer.

The publisher puts the top rappers of the week or month or the ones that have exclusive stories on the contents page that would make the reader want to know about them in more detail.

The publisher uses the same theme ( red, black and white) through out the magazine so it wouldn’t confuse the reader with different colours and to keep representing the genre of the magazine (Hip Hop)

On the bottom, the publisher has added a brief information of the latest news or gossip.

XXLDOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

These are three continues double pages of rapper 50 CENT. The publisher seems to have focus more on the text than the images as you can see the large amount of dense text used with only one image on used each double page which is quite unusual.

The publisher has used close up, mid close up, and mid shot to show 50 Cent in different views depending what the text says about him.

Dark colours such as black and white is used through out the magazine including the double page, making 50 CENT ‘s story seem sad.

THE SOURCEFRONT

PAGE

Dark colours are also used on this magazine to represent the genre of this magazine as well as the rappers as aggressive, in control.

The colour is not just black, grey, white and red but tend to change the red for different colours depending on the topic of the magazine.

The magazine seems to use the same camera shots as ‘The Source’ and ‘Vibe’ to represent the genre of the magazine

THE SOURCECONTENTS

PAGEThe contents page has a simple layout, white background, contents and one artist- Lil Wayne so readers won’t find it confusing to look for the page.

The colour scheme of the magazine, white, black, grey and red follow throughout the magazine. This keeps the genre of the magazine showing every time, also not to confuse the readers with different colours.

The contents seems to flow Lil Wayne , making him look 3D, which shows the importance of his image.

THE SOURCEDOUBLE PAGE

SPREAD

All the hip-hop magazines seem to have one image of an artist with a whole page of text.

This shows that a hip hop/rap fan will take it’s time to read and find out the latest news on rappers life.

Still using the colour scheme of the magazine to carry on representing the genre.