Hip Hop Music Magazine - Evaluation

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

Creating my hip hop media products was a huge challenge, using the forms and conventions of real media products came easy to me for looking at my examples I had a great idea on what I wanted my front, contents and double spread pages would look like, especially when it came to choosing what combinations of colours I was going to use for the covers. Also the media products from my products I gained knowledge on how the magazine should be laid out and what type of text should be used which was; bold, powerful and an increase on font size when it came to headers and certain sub headings.

Developing my media product was challenging for I began experimenting with how I should make my media products look and what pictures of my own photography would go well in the magazine, as shown below in my blog there’s a number of different photos; most of the pictures shown were used however certain photos didn’t stand out as much as others, which is why I selected each photo carefully. The layout of my magazine was definitely something I had to build up on, developing towards it gradually however successfully as shown from my front cover, contents page and double page spread.  The colour was also an issue at first however the more I experimented the happier I became when it came to selecting the group of colours which would match perfectly together for as you can see from the front cover the photo of myself in the Feltics top is clearly red, so it was important that I made sure red was the primary colour that stood out the most from the rest which is what I believe I achieved.

I believe my media products do challenge real media products because it looks very convincing of being an official magazine, because of how features of the magazine have been organised and laid out. I’ve gained comments from my other peers and they believe if this were a real magazine they would purchase it because it stands out so much because of the colours and the pictures that have been selected including the layout.  Compared to most of the hip hop magazines I have seen apart from my research I think my magazine is up to standards of those magazines such as: XXL, the source and several other official magazines. 

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

Particular social groups are represented in my magazine as people looking to make something of themselves and as you can see from the names and the pictures it looks more of like a teenage hip hop music magazine but with all the same aims as other real media products such as XXL and KING; to be of interest to the public and target audience who like reading these type of magazines and what is to be shown within the magazine by looking at the contents page.  As you can see by looking at the front cover and contents page the ethnic group shown within the magazine are black males with a different fashion sense and aims involving hip hop music. However the social groups all aim for one thing, which is to be the best and to make something of themselves which includes music along with becoming famous and wealthy, also from looking at this magazine, it can be seen as a mainstream magazine which the artists are looking to reach, for this magazine doesn’t just range nationally but it aimed worldwide around the world especially in America.

What kind of Media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Media Institutions with a financial plan that doesn’t really go all out with the prices of advertising and producing several copies of my genre of magazines are likely to distribute my media product; the reason for this is because the fact that my magazine is a hip hop magazine and there are several other similar magazines out in the market with a similar genre means competition is high and the fact that popular hip hop magazines such as: XXL, the Source, and Scratch are currently at the top currently , it’d definitely be difficult for my magazine to reach that standard, although the front covers and contents page etc are very eye catching it’s likely that my magazine could reach the top quiet easily as long as production  of the magazine is monthly and each magazine cover becomes a lot more intriguing then the last. However currently there are many other magazines in the same position similar to my own struggling to reach the top along side the popular magazines which have to keep their reputation up by releasing better magazines every month. Although my magazine is something different to teenagers are seen at the front of my magazine it could be a new type of hip hop magazine for I haven’t seen any official magazines in the market with teenagers displayed making big impacts with music.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would definitely be young male teenagers and females who still attend school and have an interest for music and talent from their own age range for it could inspire them to become involved and be featured in the magazine by making the same affect that artist on the magazine have. I’ve created a double page spread which is an interview with me (P4TRICK) on what’s to be expected from my career, how things are going and what’s to look out for. Which is something the teenage audience without a doubt will look forward to because if they want to make something of themselves with hip hop music then reading on an interview will help them on how to get started and lead them the right way. Another (secondary) target audience of my magazine could possibly be older males and females of working class with some engagement with the music industry also because it’s possible they’d want to know how the next generation of artists are coming along and what type of songs they’ve been releasing and it’s likely hip hop artist could sign young teenagers depending on how good they are, an example of artists that started of from younger years would be Lil Bow Wow and Chris Brown who made a career from music by creating songs from when they were young. 

How did you attract your Target audience?

I attracted my target audience by making sure my front cover stood out the most from everything else, especially the image itself, which is in high definition quality, I had to make sure in the photo the person was looking at the reader so they’d be drawn in by it and the whole design overall and by the colours for as you already know red is a very powerful colour, the main reason why I chose red was because the picture mid shot image of the person in the middle was wearing red made the entire magazine look swaggered out (colour co-ordinated) which is the term used by young teenagers now  and is another reason why young teenagers are my target audience. The punch lines in my front cover, such as the sub headings; an example of this “DEE Feels Reborn” which is a sub heading I was able to think of quiet easily and definitely make the target audience curious on what kind of impact DEE will have due to him returning.  Shown on the front cover you can see that a free young money calendar lies within the magazine for the reader which is something that will come in handy for the audience, another technique I used but to attract the male audience is the “Nicki Minaj Photo shoot – Teaser Pics”. The design overall I believe is very eye catching and without a doubt people would set their eyes on it and are likely to observe the front cover to observe it and to look at the contents page to see what else is in store within the magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this Product?

Well from the software I have used which are Photoshop and Indesign, I felt a lot more comfortable creating the media products on Photoshop because it really does make a difference and there a number of different features you can do on Photoshop CS3 that you can’t perform on Indesign which was disappointing. However my skills have definitely developed from using the software and by using a small bit of Indesign I have learnt how to construct a magazine better and to make a simple design turn out to better then a completely edited design.  Both software’s are just as good as each other but I’m a lot more familiar with Photoshop and the fact that of the features that you’re able to complete on it that Indesign doesn’t have. Also from my research I have learnt how to make my media product look more like a hip hop music magazine by looking at the different text, how images are positioned and how layouts for the magazines are constructed together and the typical language used in a hip hop magazine to attract the audience.

Looking back at my Preliminary Task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From my preliminary task I believe I have improved a lot more and have learnt a huge amount about the codes and conventions that need to be used within a magazine to make it stand out just as much or maybe even more as real media products. As shown below you I have my Kelsey park sports college information & technology magazines. I can clearly see the improvement from these to my music magazines, for I now know  how to choose the colours more wisely and make certain images stand out and using the right camera angles such as mid shots and close ups, also text used and sub headings are important and this is also something that I have progressed on.  From looking at my school magazines it looks like the front cover is like a contents page but now looking at my music magazine front cover it looks a lot like a real media magazine cover: with sub headings, a title that stands out and a simple design with not to many effects but has the same impact as many other music magazines. 

 

 

Comparing the contents pages you can see the school contents page was plain and didn’t really have much going on but when comparing it with my hip hop contents page I have so much going on and without a doubt has the contents look especially when comparing it with my examples you can see that it belongs, the layouts are completely diverse from each other because in the school contents page all you have is the plain white text, the image of the student working on the computers a gradient black and blue background and the header, and sub heading at the top which pretty much shows not much was done to it, however  compared to my music magazine contents page a lot more has been done and I’ve been able to develop it so much more then the preliminary task which I’m pleased with, as you can see; you have a new style layout which I was able to learn from my research and use it within my own school contents page along with my front cover and images that I took in Trocadero that look high quality and didn’t need any cropping for the pictures themselves already displayed everything I needed.   

For my Hip hop music magazine front cover the header stands out so much more then the Kelsey Park front cover header due to the fact that it’s double the size of it and is boldly red. Along with a colour palette that really brings out the picture and the text. The images are a lot more different as shown the music magazine has high quality like pictures however in the school magazine I’ve edited the picture increasing the contrast in them and giving them a blue highlight which I hoped went well with the magazine which I believe it did however I think I could’ve taken much better pictures which would’ve looked a lot better with the magazine itself. On the other hand comparing the two front covers you can see the areas where I have improved and how I’ve been able to apply the codes and conventions of other real media magazines into my own which really helped me.

The double page spread for my music magazine was a new approach, and consisted of an interview where a student with a questionnaire had to ask me a number of questions on the career of being a rap artists and how I grew into becoming one of the top hip hop artist from a teen age. The colours used look dissimilar from the rest of my music magazine because I wanted it to look unique and become the main event which the target audience would look forward to inside my music magazine. However it does go well with my music magazine and is something that I was new to since it was the first time creating a double page spread from scratch but of course I had to do some research on how to make it look: where the main image has to be placed, where quotes were to be positioned and what type of questions and answers that needed to be displayed in the double page spread.