Research and Planning- Analyse 2 music magazine covers Part 2

Hip Hop magazine
Here is the second Rap magazine I am going to be analysing and this is also one of the very popular rap magazines out there today. 


The main character shown on the front cover is the world-wide famous rapstar Jay-Z and he is huge in the music industry and has paired up creating songs with world renown artists such as: Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West. 

The genre of this magazine is clear that it is a rap magazine because the Masthead shows 'Hip-Hop' in large bold writing and Jay-Z is shown wearing chains and a ring, which associate with the steretype of all rappers wearing lots of bling.

The audience the magazine is aimed at is normally stereotyped for instance: skin colour, age, gender and class. Skin colour is the point that this is aimed at the African American community because generally lots of African American people listen to Rap and the higher majority of rappers are Black, the age it is aimed at would be younger ages mainly 15-30 because rap influences younger generations nowadays. Also in terms of gender, Rap is more popular within the Male community (this is possibly because of all the profanity towards women shown in the lyrics used by most/ if not all popular rappers) and also class is another stereotype of audience because Rap is mostly listened to by Middle class/ Lower class people because it is accepted by them but rarely do you see any upper class individual listening to Rap.

Also the image used in the main image is a eye level shot, this is used to grab the readers attention and his eyes tell a story of how he does what he wants and isn't scared of anyone or anything because he is one of the most famous rappers in the world.

Research and Planning- Analyse 2 music magazine covers Part 1

XXL magazine
Here is the first Rap magazine I am going to be analysing and is one of the most well known Rap music magazines in the industry.

The main characters of the magazine cover shown are 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) and Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way) and these are two very well known rappers that are not only huge in the rap industry but also in the music industry altogether and having them on the cover will attract many Rap fans into buying the magazine.

The genre of this magazine is clearly Rap because 50 Cent is dressed like a 'thug' and stereotypically Soulja Boy wears his pants low with lots of gold jewellery (bling) these general stereotypes about Rap are what segregates it from other music genres.

In the images they are represented in some ways as gang members/ thugs because 50 cent is covering his face up in a way that suggests he is a thug. However Soulja Boy is the common 'gangster' type, with a body full of tattoo's, low hanging jeans, lots of gold bling on show and a shaved hair style.

The audience the magazine is aimed at is normally stereotyped for instance: skin colour, age, gender and class. Skin colour is the point that this is aimed at the African American community because generally lots of African American people listen to Rap and the higher majority of rappers are Black, the age it is aimed at would be younger ages mainly 15-30 because rap influences younger generations nowadays. Also in terms of gender, Rap is more popular within the Male community (this is possibly because of all the profanity towards women shown in the lyrics used by most/ if not all popular rappers) and also class is another stereotype of audience because Rap is mostly listened to by Middle class/ Lower class people because it is accepted by them but rarely do you see any upper class individual listening to Rap.

Also in terms of the image, the shot type used on the magazine cover is a medium long shot, the shot type used really influences the 'thug' look that is a common look in the Rap industry and emphasises how powerful 50 Cent and Soulja Boy are because of the gold, expensive jewellery on show, the tattoo's and big muscles (50 Cent) and the scary way they stare into the camera. Also the background is white to clearly show Soulja Boy's tattoo's and so Fifty's thug look is visible to the viewer.

In terms of text used, in the logo it really emphasises the name of the magazine using in some ways a pun because the magazine is named 'XXL' and the text shown is extra large and stands out because it is in a large red box that clearly stands out on the front cover. Also at the side of the rappers are large cover lines saying '50 Cent and Soulja Boy' in clear, large, bold text and this emphasises the power and popularity of both rappers because it is the largest piece of text on the front cover and would appeal to most rap genre fans because of the prestigious rappers shown on the front cover. However there are also a small section of cover lines in the top right corner that shows feauturing famous rappers that are included in the magazine but the size of the text shows how the pair in the image on the front cover are much more popular and a higher influence on the 'Rap game' than those less famous rappers shown in small in the corner.

Research and planning- Media shots

Here are 12 media shots we looked at in depth that are common in the media today:

Research and Planning- Magazine cover and contents page evaluation

This magazine cover and contents page is a lot better than the first I created, this is because I added lots more features to the magazine which have improved the way the magazine now looks. For instance I have added: an improved barcode, longer more detailed cover lines, a new and more related picture to the magazine cover, a picture on the contents page, the clarendon logo and improved the text colours to suit the magazine.

Magazine cover evaluation
In my opinion the magazine cover is a nice detailed piece of work. It has interesting cover lines to draw in the target audience, the cover line text and masthead fonts stand out clearly and boldly for the reader to see and the layout of the cover looks professional to me. I think what could be improved is the picture, it is too far out and you can't really see the student up close and also the space underneath the picture could do with cover lines or text so it doesn't look so empty. However in contrast to my last magazine cover it has improved massively, unlike the old design, this design has smaller more suitable text and a much better layout in comparison, but also the text in the last magazine cover was too large and didn't fit with the background colour.

Contents page evaluation
In my opinion the contents page is the best of the two. The picture fits perfectly around the text and is suitable for the contents page. And the colours match the Clarendon logo which makes the content page that much better. The cover lines are also very long and detailed and give the reader a clear insight on what they want and where to find it which is always helpful for a magazine. In contrast to the old contents page, it has improved greatly. I feel this is because I have taken more time on the contents page this time and researched college magazines to get a much better idea on how it should look. I think that the implementing of the picture makes the contents page look a lot better and more professional, also it looks a lot more presentable as the colours have been coded and changed in relation to the Clarendon logo whereas on the old contents page it was dull and boring and only the same font.

Research and Planning- Improved Magazine Cover, Includes Contents Page

This is the improved magazine cover and contents page I have created, it is much better than the previous contents page and magazine cover.

Research and Planning- Magazine cover interview

This is my interview for my magazine cover, and was given good feedback on how I am going to improve the magazine cover.

Research and Planning- Magazine Masthead Fonts

 These are my fonts I created to match each magazine genre. I created them on cooltext.com

PopWorld

 I created a pop related theme for this magazine, by using the text 'groovy' fon, it fit well with the pop genre because it's bright and vibrant and It would appeal to both sexes and especially a teenage audience.

 Death metal
I picked a gothic/horror type of font for this genre of music, which is composed of dark colours and red which link closely with gothic colours. I picked this font because it stood out from the rest because it was very creepy and appropriate for this type of magazine.

Popcorn
In this font I wanted to create a film style font to blend in with the magazine to do this I picked the 'heroic bold cartoon' font because I felt it would help the audience to understand the genre of the magazine.