MAIN TASK: Detailed analysis of 3 or 4 magazines of my chosen genre...

I have decided I will be most successful in creating a magazine in a genre aimed towards my age group, such as a hip hop magazine or a dance rave magazine. I am considering revolving my magazine around hip hop or rap, because this is what the majority of teenagers are interested in and therefore I am surrounded by its culture and I would easilly find inspiration and ideas to include within my work.

Interestingly, it seems there is a gap in the market for the particular magazine I want to create, because although I decided I want to focus around hip hop music, I would like it to be aimed at a wider teenage audiece so It would have to have a more relaxed and mixed genre, maybe including dance music and chart music. I want my magazine to be accessible for a majority of teenagers with maybe a variety of musical interests.

Because my magazine is going to have a mixed genre, based upon a variety of popular music including hip hop and dance I have been slightly limited to magazines that already exist within this stlye.

Below are a few examples of hip hop and rap magazines that my peers might be interested in...

This successful hip hop magazine represents its confidence by covering its masthead slightly by the central model "Eminem".

This magazine does not use a mid close up model, instead it shows the waist upwards of the model, and he is staring at the reader in an intimidating manner. It gives the impression that he means what he says, he isnt scared of anyone and he wants to be taken seriously.

This connotes violence and aggression, maybe working as a warning to readers who might find the magazines contents offencive.

This magazine cover puts all of the focus on Eminem, even though alot of coverlines have been included, none of them cover Emniem, He is put in front of everything to connote confidence and importance.

The colour scheme of the magazine is very simplistic and appears serious, once again bringing all the attention to the main attaraction - Eminem.

The masthead is coloured with a gradient of black into red, once again connoting violence, as obviously red, is the colour of blood.

The next two magazines have mid close up models, unlike the one above focusing on Eminem. Once again the models appear to be violently staring at the audience in a confident and serious manner.

In "The Source" the masthead and various coverlines overlap "lil wayne" slightly, who is the mid close up model. This is interesting because it could give the impression that the magazine want to appear that they are more important than him, unlike the magazine showing Eminem.

This magazine cover is slightly more filled in, showing less empty space. for example, the coverlines which are alligned to the right of the page have very tight leading between the lines, whereas the leading between the coverlines on the "vibe" magazine above is very loose, revealing more empty space.

Interestingly this magazine cover has a similar colour scheme, with a mix of red, grey, black and white. This once again connotes seriousness and formality.

Although earlier I pointed out how "The Source" appears to rate themselves more important than "lil wayne" by covering him slightly with the magazine's masthead, this is somewhat contridicted because "lil wayne's" name is portrayed very largely at the bottom of the page, almost as big as the mashead itself.

This "vibe" magazine once again portays the main attraction ( 50 cent ) in a mid close up position, with a violent expression on his face.

I have realised that hip hop culture almost tries to appear deangerous, as all the magazines I have focused on, especially the one below "HIPHOP" portray various hip hop and rap musicians as dangerous and violent people.

In the magzine to the left, "50 cent" is covering the masthead, aswell as a couple of coverlines, cleverly he is also covered himself by some coverlines, giving a balance which doesnt make the magazine or the artist seem more important.

This magazine has a slightly different colour scheme, with only the smallest ammount of red being shown. The majority of this magazine is coloured with blue and black, but even this once again connotes violence and creates a negative atmosphere.

"HIPHOP" below is probably one of the most aggressive appearing magazines I have seen. Its main image is a group of hip hop musicians, staring violently at the audience, holding a variety of brutal weapons including a shotgun! In my opinion, this is completely unnessercery as it is unlikely any of the people on this magazine cover would actually use these weapons against another person. This brings me back to the point i made earlier where hip hop and rap musicans are portrayed as violent by the media.

This magazine cover has the same colour scheme as the first two magazines...

(Vibe with Eminem, and The source with lil wayne)

It contains alot of red and black, adding to the aggressive atmosphere the magazine cover is obviously trying to create.

If i was to create a magazine in the style of modern hip hop and rap, and i wanted to be accurately similar to real magazines of it's genre, I would have to portray my model or model's as violent or aggressive, which isn't what i'd prefer to do, because I plan for my magazine to be aimed at wider audience of teenagers with a mixture of musical interests rather than just hip hop or rap.