Music magazine evaluation 1 3

Music Magazine Evaluation Zeeshan Mehmood

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Masthead - in bright blue font

Main image of a rapper on both magazines

Main cover line anchoring the main image.

blue, black and purple font and colour scheme – creating a house style

Barcode, price, issue number

Banner summarising what's inside, follows house style colours

Similarities and Differences - Front Cover

Both front covers have similarities and differences, both covers have a bright blue masthead at the top of the page, this introduces the house style colours for the magazines and the colour is repeated throughout the page. Both covers have a male rapper as the main image, to demonstrate the hip hop genre of the magazine. Both covers also have the main headline anchoring the main image, this keeps the cover organised and clear to read and understand.

Some differences of the covers are that the VIBE cover has a close up image of a male rapper where as my cover has a mcu shot of my rapper. My front cover has two colours as the background which are black and white which are very masculine colours, I did this because I did not want to use a “normal” background for my magazine which is why I chose 2 different colours so that it looks different to other magazines at a shelf in a shop. Whereas VIBE have used a plain grey background. The VIBE cover uses purple, black and blue font as their main cover line because they have a black background where as I couldn’t use white font because my background was white too, so it wouldn’t of stood out or looked eye catching. My cover has a banner at the bottom of the page where as the VIBE has it at the top of their front cover., it doesn’t have a flash or a banner. I used a banner to just summarise what is inside the magazine. I also noticed that on this magazine VIBE have not got a barcode on the front cover which is unusual, however they might have it on the back or somewhere inside the magazine.

small images on the page. Links to information on contents page. Pictures also have page numbers on them.

Page numbers in a different font colour from the rest to make them stand out

House style colours repeated- black and white background


Page is split in half, text on the right going down in page number order and pictures linking to the information of pages.

Similarities and Differences - Contents

Both contents have page numbers next to each page summary so that it is clear for the reader to see what is on each page. Another similarity is that beside each picture there is a number of which article links to the image so my audience can guide themselves easy through my magzine which makes my magazine look readable and reliable.

Both contents page’s have different layouts as you can see my magazine has 3 images on the left and the contents on the right. Whereas the hip hop weekly magazine has only 2 images and one is placed at the bottom and one at the top. Also the hip hop weekly magazine has sections such as entertainment, style etc... Because there magazine is a worldwide magazine whereas Yolo magzine is a new and not established magazine. Some other differences of the contents pages are that my colour scheme is more eye catching and is the same as my front cover which is professional, where as the other contents page keeps the colours to a minimal (white background)


Grab quote – quotes in better copy to draw attention to important quotes

Main Image on the left hand side of the page.

Question and answer format

Columns

Main image reflecting what the article is about – the article is about Dizzies troubled past

Images of smashed bottles to blend into the graffiti background.

Main image is related to the article – both articles are interviews/information about the person in the image.

Red jacket on both musicians

Similarities and Differences – Double Page Spread

Both double page spread have a similar layout, they both have a main image of a male rap artist, this is who the article is mainly about. They both have this image filling the whole left half of the page, and then the writing on the right side in columns. Both have pictures on the bottom right of the double page spread. Also both double page spread have the logo of the magazine on the top right hand side of the double page spread so readers get familiar with the company logo. Another similarity is that both double page spread have used drop caps at the start of the articles which make the magazine as a whole look professional.

Some differences in the double page spreads, the dizzee rascal article contains a title for the article whereas mine does not which makes my magzine look unprofessional and not reliable to my audience. Also in the dizzee rascal article there are more pictures of other objects such as stereo’s and glass bottle which relate to dizzee rascals lifestyle which gives the audience more of an understanding of the rapper dizzee rascal.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When doing my magazine I was aiming to target it at young people from the age 16-19 who are interested in hip hop music. I think by sticking to the stereotype of hip hop, my magazine would appeal to the audience I was aiming for which was young males. I concentrated my magazine on males purely because I think that from my research males are the larger target audience for this type of magazine. I think my magazine portrays young people as people who listen to this kind of music and like things like bright colours, concerts and like socialising by going clubbing etc. I think this is a fair portrayal as it is only viewed as a negative to some other social groups. For example elderly people would be an example of people who have this opinion of young people.

Hip-hop artists are stereotyped and associated with wearing hats or hoodies over their heads and quite serious looking, they have confidence and attitude. My photos can represent a social group as they represent the R&B/hip-hop culture, they are wearing the latest trends in fashion, they have their own unique styles and there’s a variation of ethnicity. I have made the people in my images dress the way they have because I found that it gave them their own identities and styles. I chose these photos because they had similarities to professional images. I challenged the stereotype of having people in hoodies as afro Caribbean by using a Asian British person in my photo. However I still used pictures of black male artist throughout my contents page.

These are the pictures I used in my media magazine and as you can see they are a stereotypical view of the hip hop world because I used black male artists who are seen to be the people who listen to it more. Also they generated this kind of music in New York in the 1970’s. However I chose to add an Asian artist too as many Asians are now listening to hip hop music and even making there own as I have seen on YouTube.

The clothes used within the hip hop culture are usually hoodies, snapback hats and bright clothing. As you can see I told the people in my magazine to wear these clothes so they represent hip hop in my magazine.

On my front cover, I wanted to represent a young Asian male rapper who I knew would appeal to the target audience of young males aged 16-19 years old I was aiming for. He is wearing a snapback hat, red hoodie and is also wearing a gold watch which many other hip hop artists wear too. The model in the photo looks as though he has had a rough childhood and is now a successful artist as you can tell by the rich style of clothes he has on e.g. gold watch. I wanted my rapper to influence other upcoming artists which is why he looks like this. He looks very proud of his work and looks as if he has an ego which links in with the content of the article, it also reinforces that hip hop is a young and successful genre. The bright colours I used also reinforces the young target audience and theme of my magazine, it draws people in and would make them want to buy and read the rest of the magazine.


On my contents page I used 3 images, one of a Asian male who is dressed in stereotypical hip hop clothes. I used this image to show that hip hop genre doesn’t just include black males, it also can be targeted at an Asian audience. However I did still use 2 other black males on my contents page as hip hop was generated from a black background. This shows that for my magazine the social groups I was trying to represent working class people who have lived like some of these artists, by having a troubled childhood but hopefully they see how music can make them become successful. The models in these photos have a more serious, aggressive expression which was similar to the model on the front cover, this is because my magazine is not full of happiness and smiles, it is a more serious magazine which explains the artists life story so the audience can obtain a greater understanding of the artists. The models are wearing stereotypical hip hop clothing such as snapback hats, hoodies and some have piercings. This shows a contrast between young peoples attitudes and the aggressive expression which is reinforced by the connotations of red. I also used an image of some decks, to reinforce the music theme and edited the image to purple and green to fit in with the genre of the magazine. I wanted my contents page to represent young people which I think I achieved with the colours added on the image of the decks, and also the clothes the model is wearing in the other picture are widely recognised brands with young people. This means young people can relate to my magazine and are more likely to understand the content.


The artists I have used in the contents page are majority black artists, this is because from my research of hip hop music I found that the majority of the hip hop audience are black males, I wanted to appeal to the audience that would buy my magazine, if I designed a magazine aimed at white males, it might not sell as well. However I did mention a white and Asian artists such as “Machine Gun Kelly”(MGK) and “Sparkaman”.I did this because I wanted to show that although the history of hip hop is mainly black people, there are increasing numbers of whites and Asian hip hop artists and I wanted that to be recognised within my magazine.

With the images I used, I did focus the images on a black male rappers. However I did use an Asian rapper on my front cover as I believe a lot of Asian people listen to hip hop and my research on YouTube as shown many Asian males rapping, I also focused my article on him too. Although in the contents I didn’t include an image of a white male to again represent the change in hip hop audience and show that although it is dominated by black males, they are not the only audience type.


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Music magazine evaluation 1 3