[Music Magazine] Letter Of Intent (Front Page)

Ayotunde Adetoye – Statement of Intent – YKO5

I had three possible names for my music magazine. These included:
• ILL (ILIVELIFE)
• TURN
• HHW (HIP HOP WORLD)
Out of the three names I have chosen ‘ILL’. The reason for this is that I feel it is the most creative of choices. It isn’t too forward/blunt and is abbreviated into a slang term usually associated with hip hop which shows the relationship between the title and then genre.
My music magazine will be about all the happenings in the hip-hop world today (although all stories will be artificial, artists names will be used). It will cover interviews, exclusives and give consumers the chance to win competitions such as winning a free music video.
I plan for the majority of the magazine to hold the colour scheme of red and white. However, the front page background of my magazine will be dark due to the ‘dark/gangster’ feel that is usually associated with the hip hop genre. The positioning of the masthead will be at the top of the magazine, underneath the strapline and it will take up the whole width of that section. I plan to use the font “Impact” with the ‘I’ in ‘ILiveLife’ to be a lower case ‘I’ and to be white, while the ‘Live Life’ will be in red with a fairly thin white stroke around it. The ‘ILL’ logo will then slightly cover the ‘I’ and the strapline will be above. This can be seen in the image below.

I have planned for the main image of my magazine to be an image of a male aged between 15 & 20 holding/using/being close to any type of musical equipment such as a microphone or headphones etc. and dressed in urban clothing. This is to make it clear that the magazine is music related, so it should catch the eyes of the audience.
Considering the image will be using many conventions of Hip-hop, I believe my target audience will find the image appealing. It clearly shows the music related equipment so the audience can immediately tell the main genre of the magazine which is music. The sub-genre is then clear due to the urban clothing and dark style of the magazine, which will draw the audience in.
I may include another image of a person showing the conventions of the hip-hop genre to make it clear and emphasise it. However this isn’t confirmed.
The target audience of my music magazine are hip hop fans and producers interested in modern day hip hop music, meaning majority of the consumers will be teenagers and young adults. It also broadens out to young music makers that want the chance to display their music. I know that this is my target audience as after my research I realised that it is majorly young people interested in modern day hip hop music. The ages would range from 13 - 19. When researching about my target audience i realised that people from this age and society use certain terms of slang which should be implemented into the language used in the magazine as a way to attract more customers; such as 'Ill' and 'Sick' instead of 'Good'.

The front cover will use no more than two fonts as to not make the magazine look too over-the-top. Using only two fonts will make the magazine a lot neater and more organised. It will range between the colours black, red and white and the audience should find them appealing as they are easy on the eyes and are dark colours.
My chosen fonts will depict the genre of the music magazine as the font I am using is bold and sans-serif which is also what the majority of hip-hop music magazines use. I found this out after my research.

[Music Magazine] Video examples

These are examples of music videos to show the representations created when hip-hop music videos are made. These videos will help me identify the usual representations and expected features of hip-hop related media.

In this video 'Nasty girl' by Notorious B.I.G and various artists, notice the use of mainly dark colours from the performing artists. The females are wearing fairly revealing clothes to bring out the 'sexy' factor normally associated with hip-hop. There's an atmosphere of wealth due to all the jewellery, expensive drinks and expensive clothes. There are many more females than males to show the boasty, glamarous lifestyle the music artists are living. They're dressed in either urban clothing such as hoodies, t-shirts with extravagant logos, jewellery, designer jeans and shoes; Or they are dressed in expensive formal wear, such as silk shirts and suits. The characters are making braggadocious or aggressive hand signs towards the camera while and while they are not rapping/singing which also brings out the 'gangster' feel to the hip-hop genre.

This video is quite different compared to the first video, however there are many similarities. The artist drake is dressed in all black nike clothes in the majority of the scene, as a way to show the expected 'gangster' feel to Hip-Hop and as a way to advertise the clothing-based company 'Nike'. He is surrounded by a large group of dark skinned males also wearing all black, who stand completely still while drake is rapping around them. They create an intimidating feel to the video, yet the fans are intertained by drake. Though there are no females in this video, there are signs of wealth with expensive clothing and jewellery. The scenes where Drake is on the American football field with his name in lights in the background also shows wealth as it would've been expensive to rent the field and use the screens and customize them. These scenes of Drake sitting at the table with his friends also show wealth with the expensive cashmere clothing and expensive bottles of wine and champagne at the table. It is clear that wealth and gangsters are representations of the Hip-Hop genre. 

[Music Magazine] In-depth research and analysis

This is a slideshow showing the reasearch i conducted of all the conventions that make up a hip-hop music magazine caleld 'Scratch'.

In depth hip-hop_music_magazine_research[1]

View more presentations from lilflickmania

[Music Magazine] General Research 2

The second magazine i researched was  a hip hop magazine called 'The Source'. Below are the images i created of my research.

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[Music Magazine] General Research 1

First magazine i researched was a 'pop/club' magazine. I annotated it to compare it to the features of other magazines.

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New Assignment

From this point on all posts i put up will relate to my new assignment which is creating a music magazine! The genre i have chosen is UK underground/Hip-Hop.

Front Cover Research 1

Contents Page Research 1

In my next posts i will be updating my front cover research and also updating the contents page research.

Student Magazine Research 1 (Front Cover)

Elements of a student magazine (Front Cover)

After short research of a student magazine front cover, i've realised that the front page needs to be attention grabbing to reach out to the target audience and convince them to buy your magazine. Key elements in doing this include:

• The masthead
• Selling line
• Dateline
• Main image
• Main cover line
• Cover lines
• Bar Code

In my next blog post i will be showing further research of my student magazine front cover, and discussing why such elements make such an impact.

Starting my student mag!

Couple weeks ago i was given my first assignment for media studies, this being to make a student magazine. I started with my research which i'll post on here in a couple hours