Front Cover Layout

Here is my final layout for the cover of my magazine.

I chose this over the others because it is simlple, yet effective.

Preparation

I am nearly ready to take my pictures for my final piece. To do this I asked one classmate to be in the picture with me, and another to take the picture. They are the same people as before, so my main picture will not be too different from my last draft.

The props I need are two hats and I have arranged for them to be brought in by Friday. (The day me photos are being taken.)

For now I am making hand drawn and computer drafts of my front cover and contents page, which is a double page spread.

Kerrang Contents Page (Analysis)

This is the contents page of an article of Kerrang!.
Kerrang! Is of the Rock genre, it is noticeable that this magazine of a rock magazine because of the pictures used to illustrate it.



This magazine is aimed at a teenage to young adult population, and it is clear because it uses explicit words such as F**k. The lyrics used/ screamed are also explicit, so it is not appropriate for the younger generation.

The colours used for the text are highly contrasted so the writing stands out, The yellow writing has a black background, and the black writing has a yellow background. This is effective because it catches the eyes of the reader.

Dark and bold colours are symbolic/Iconographic of the rock genre and in all of the pictures darkness is used to emphasise the genre.

Q Magazine Contents Page (Analysis)

This is a contents page of Q magazine. It follows the usual conventions of contents pages, Which are:
Heading - There is a clear heading which states that it is the contents page.
Sub - Headings - Feature, Every Month and Review, all these are written in Block capitals.
Pictures - There are two pictures located on this page, they will be related to articles within the magazine.
Date Of Issue - In the top right of the contents page it states October 2008.
Page Numbers - Though it is not clearly visible, the bottom left corner has a number written to indicate to the reader what page they are on.

All the Headings and Sub - Headings on this page are done in the same style used by Q Magazine across the front cover.

Contents Page (Analysis)

From all the music magazines that i have looked at, i have noticed that the very first page is an advert to promote items related to music, such as car stereos, iPods, MP3 player etc. Or nothing to with music whatsoever ,such as, perfumes and alcoholic beverages.

The next page in is usually a double page contents. It involves the use of lots of pictures as well as detail on the articles that are contained within it.

Many magazine's contents pages run onto a third page because almost all music magazine have over 150 pages, a few of which are used to advertise.

Contrast (The Real Hip - Hop)

Here is an article of Vibe Magazine, in this article the main focus is on the rapper, T.I.
In comparison to the last magazine i evaluated, T.I is dressed much more sophisticated, with a suit, but still has a "gangster look with the black tie and a top hat. The glasses make the rapper look intelligent.

The background in this picture is white, in comparison to the Hip - Hop Connections magazine article from earlier, and makes T.I seem "clean" from all trouble, as if he was never living a rappers life.

One of the sub - headings on this cover states " Mavado, Gangster For Life" Though the front of this magazine looks "clean" there are still sections of the 'Gangster' genre within the magazine.

This is the real Hip - Hop.

Textual Analysis

This is another article of Hip - Hop Connection magazine and the highlight of the week is the artist , Snoop Dogg and the record label, Deathrow Records.

The masthead is the same as the article i analysed earlier, and a bit of it is behind Snoop Dogg's head, it shows that the magazine is well known and would still be recognised with a few of the letters missing.

The image is shown in "The Godfather" style, mainly because in the Hip - Hop industry Snoop Dogg is known as "The Doggfather" so this style of image is complimented with the name.

The writing under the Sub - Heading states " DEATH ROW: THE STORY OF THE WORLDS MOST FEARED LABEL" It straight up shows the power and dominance of this label through the colour scheme, mainly black and red to indicate danger.

The fact that the three rappers shown above, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur are/were the most dominant rappers in the world gives them so much power within the industry, and it would be expected of them that they live a "Ghetto Life", when infact they live in LA homes. It shows that the Hip - Hop genre would not be followed if the artists did not portray the lifestyle, so in this picture Snoop Dogg is wearing a very big Baseball jacket, and Tupac is holding a ciggarette.

There are many negative stereotypes based on the Hip -Hop genre and instead of confronting them these artists, as well as others, have gone alongside these stereotypes and made big fame and money off them.