By Jake Thorne

Media Coursework Evaluation

At the start of this project I had little idea of how to use the Apple Mac, Photoshop software, or of magazine conventions. It has been a steep-learning curve to equip myself with the tools carry out this task. To start my Music magazine product, I first did some research and planning.

I began by researching two music magazines, I chose issue 120 of Big Cheese with HIM on the cover page (image on the right). This cover employs many of the conventions for a music magazine: It has a bold eye catching anchor title that draws the reader in; the title Big Cheese portrays the view that it is a big time magazine, but it is also a funky, different name that has been chosen appeal to the magazine’s target audience (14-25 year olds); The use of different fonts and bold colours adds this impression; The band HIM are a well known, popular band among younger people, so the image emphasises the brand; The way the main picture for the feature article is positioned – slightly overlapping the title – adds weight to the image, the reader is being symbolically told that this is going to be a big important article about this big band, which links in with the title BIG Cheese; By having a big picture, you may not need such a clear title - this is a popular magazine and the target audience will read the anchor title whether they can actually see the title or not.

Planning

My media product aims to follow the conventions of hip-hop and music magazines and develops them by using a dark black background, with three contrasting font colours (red, yellow & white) that stand out on this background to grab the target audiences attention. Like Big Cheese, I use a large main image of a model posing as a rapper. After looking at other magazines such XXL and Vibe I saw this their main images frequently has the model is posing in a conventional gangsta/rapper pose – leaning up against a wall with one leg bent wearing a baseball cap and making a gang sign. To develop this further I thought I would have my model making a gang sign that read ‘BLOOD’ indicating he is a member of the Blood ‘gang’. The idea is to back up the image with a symbol which the target audience will read and be attracted by.

Forms & Conventions

As can be seen right in these copies of XXL the Rappers are wearing chains, jewellery, baggy jeans, baseball caps etc. When taking the photos for the main image of my music I wanted my main image to look like a conventional hip-hop music magazine. So the model on my front of my music magazine, posing as a rap artist is wearing props to make him look like a proper rap star. The props he is wearing include: Baseball caps, chains, rings, white vest, baggy jeans. These props are heavily associated with the hip-hop genre and most artist wear these items and rap about them. This creates more symbolism in the image that helps to tell the reader what they can expect to find inside the magazine cover.

Props

The mast head I have chosen for my rap magazine is powerful, bold, it contrasts with the background I have chosen and to other rap magazines – a magazine needs to follow conventions, but at the same time set itself apart. The font is Stencil STD - a big, bold font that stands out, which I make chose even more bold and eye with use of red colour, so it really stands out from the background, anchoring the readers attention. Because this font is in bold capitals, it connotes strength and power, two conventions of the rap music genre. It also makes my typography appropriate for a magazine following the hip-hop genre.

Masthead

In most hip-hop magazines it is conventional to use three main colours. The colours used are usually dark, heavy masculine colours, that connote power and strength. This is a reflection of the male dominance of the hip-hop genre, and the use of this symbolism by both artists and magazines. I have followed this convention and to use two colours (red and yellow) and the tones (white & black). I have black as my back ground and the other colours look good on top of the black. As they are lighter, it makes the text easier to read. The idea behind this colour scheme is that young men will readily associate with it’s masculine feel.

Colours

Puffs are conventionally used most magazines. They are commonly used to make the hip-hop magazine seem better than and stand out from its competition. In one issue of October 2007 VIBE, a puff on the front cover says ‘MEGA MUSIC Issue!’ This adds to the brand identity and because of increased competition in this industry has become a conventional aspect of the hip-hop magazine genre. For my magazine I sued puffs and teasers like: ‘HIP-HOP CHARTS RE-VAMPED!’ and ‘WIN TICKETS TO ICE CUBE LIVE!’ As fans of rap music will know normal charts have barely any hip-hop in them: re-vamping the charts and making a new hip-hop chart will appeal to hip-hop/rap fans and it sends out the message of exclusivity, of belonging to a special club or gang; Ice Cube is one of the biggest raps stars and seeing him will appeal to most rap fans. The message is buy this magazine and get a chance to win tickets to Ice Cube. So puffs are use to attract my target audience and please them.

Puffs

Floating quotes are not normally a convention of hip-hop magazines, but when I thought up a motto for my magazine (real hip-hop is real estate) I thought that this would make a very good floating quote. It is intended to would make my artist seem confident and strong, both stereotypes of rap & hip-hop. My artist is already in a confident pose, looking strong, and the floating quote so to justify this pose. To enforce the sense of dominance and power further, I chose to have this floating quote in red which conveys, power, anger and supremacy, while still matching with the front covers colour scheme. I also placed a floating quote on my double page spread (‘I will never be bought out!’), this is a convention of hip-hop magazines so here I am keeping to the convention of the genre.

Floating Quote

After much discussion with my focus group, the price that most were happy to pay was £3. So when adding the finishing touches to my front cover, I took a picture of a barcode, edited out the background and added that to my front cover with a small text box containing price information. Conventionally all magazines must have a barcode, & price so I had to include these, and again it is a common convention that these are found in the bottom right hand corner and this is where they can be found on my magazine. Another convention that is included in all magazines, not just hip-hop ones is an issue number and date, so I added these, on the right hand side beneath the title logo, which again is where they are normally found on magazines.

Price & barcode

With the contents page I kept it within the same colour scheme as the front cover (black background) but I also added a gradient colour of dark red as this connotes power again. On one side of my contents page are the page numbers and the related articles that can be found on these pages, and on the other side are some puffs and cover line. This is not a convention, but it used keep the readers interest throughout the magazine. There is also wrote an editors note which is a convention in all magazines.

Contents page

Development My music magazine has developed from my prelim task in a

number of different ways. The main way is that there is a better, bold main image in the background corresponds more with the genre of the magazine as the image is that of a model in a ‘gangsta’ pose which relates to the gangsta rap genre of the magazine, whereas although my prelim task has an eye catching image of the model in a striking ‘Usain Bolt’ pose it does not really correspond to the main story of the basketball academy, so in term of the main image my music magazines works better with the genre of the magazine than my prelim task. Both of my magazines contain bold, anchoring titles that stand out and catch the readers eye. When I was making the final changes to my prelim magazine I chose the font stencil STD, which I thought worked really well as it was nice and bold, so when it came round to choosing a main font for my music magazine, and after consulting my focus group and classmates and going through many different fonts, I decided that Stencil and Stencil STD were the best font to use for the front cover.

InstitutionsMy product would be distributed by the

company Bauer Media Group as the currently publish Kerrang, and this is a highly successful music magazine, but they do not publish and big rap music magazines so my product represent a gap in the market for this media group so they could make a large profit by filling this gap with my product, which as the other main rap music magazines are US based, my product could sell very well in Europe as Bauer are a German based company.

Feature spread My feature spread was an interview with a music

artist/rapper in which I split it up into two sections, one section on the first page was the interviewer asking the rapper some question and the consequent answer from the rapper, split up into two columns, which challenges the convention of having three columns, but having two columns made the article a lot clearer to read and looks a lot better than having three columns as it is not all cramped together. The second page I chose 5 rap songs of all time for the artist and why he would think these are the best of the best, which is a convention I have noticed in other rap music magazines, when they interview rappers they often choose their top rap song of all time and why they think they are so good. Another convention I chose to follow was to keep the number of images to a minimum in my feature spread in fact I chose to have only two main ones, that I placed behind the text, I have seen this technique used in popular rap magazines like XXL and Rap Up.

Technology Over the course of this task I have learnt how to

use an Apple Mac fairly efficiently but more importantly I have learnt the basic with Photoshop, as when I first started the course I had no idea how to use Photoshop and this was the reason for my poor first drafts, but after a lot of practice and help from classmates and my family, I have learnt how to contrast and edit an image in Photoshop. The other main technology I have used is Microsoft PowerPoint which I have been using since I was 12 so I am very competent at using this program and was very familiar and comfortable when creating my slideshows.

Focus group My final product was influenced by my focus group in a lot

of different ways as my first draft when I showed them the initial reaction was awful, they said that the purple colour had to go as on a front cover of a rap music magazine I look a bit out of place as they said the purple was too feminine and that maybe black would look better, they also said that I should change the font I was using (handwriting Dakota) to something more bold and conveying of strength and power. After gathering these opinions I went away and changed the background colour to pure black with Stencil STD as my title and puff font, and showed my focus group. The immediate reaction was really good as they said that the font conveyed strength and power (a very important convention in the rap music industry) and that the black looked a lot more professional, and it all looked like a proper rap magazine.

Target audience The target audience for my music magazine

would be young male aged 16-30 as this is the age range that are most likely to listen to rap music, and because rap music is a such a different genre to other music genres, it would be important to target the audience as outside of rap music most people dislike rap.

To conclude I think there has vast improvement in my work since I started this task and am I fairly happy with my final piece. I had a few problems at first with learning how to use Photoshop and the Apple software and was slow understand the conventions of magazine publishing. I think I could improve this further and a greater understanding of semiotics would improve my ability to deconstruct a magazine. If I were to do this task again, I would ask my teachers more questions and get clarified what was required of me sooner, as I sought help a bit late with this task.

Conclusion