Research into magazine genres

When I was deciding on what music genre i was going to pursue for my music magazine. I did a lot of research on what magazines I would be interested in, and the conventions I would need to follow too make my magazine successful. One of the Magazine genres i look at in my research was Hip-Hop magazines.

An example of a hip-hop magazine is RWD. Rewind magazine is a British based music magazine which features news, interviews and charts on genres across the board. For instance: hip hop; RnB; UK garage; Drum and bass and US house.

In this cover of Rewind magazine Tinie Tempah is the featured model. It is a mid close up shot with a simple design theme. The designs feature is a simple white and blue theme which makes the cover very effective in my opinion. It has many conventions that an urban magazine tends too include. For instance the House style is simple consisting of basic colours; white and blue. Also there is an effective masthead of RWD magazine. Also is very little text as the image is very effective.

For my research I also looked into genres such as dance and rave styles. One magazine I found was Mixmag magazine. Mixmag is a British music magazine which features predominately dance music and club music. It is the worlds biggest selling dance magazine with a huge audience of readers.

On this front cover of Mixmag, the DJ Kissy Sell Out graces the cover. He is posing in a way which shows the magazine in a fun, and interesting light. The cover features a mid long shot size where the model is jumping in the air, this shows the wacky attitude that the picture is aiming for. The Cover also features a bold colour scheme, with a lot of bright colours and an electric style backdrop. Although I think this cover works in attracting the audience’s eye, I believe it is too packed as a magazine and the colours too bright to one another.

Whilst researching magazine genres, I also looked into indie genres of magazines. One of the magazines I looked at was NME. NME stands for New Musical Express; it is a British magazine which mainly focuses on the Indie music scene. Its audience is more of a genre based than age range, writing for fans of the indie genre.

This image is taken from an NME cover, featuring M.I.A. The cover is a Medium Close up of the artist. The model is showing an edgy pose which is a recurring theme. The house style is also simple and effective, which makes the bold image stand out. The backdrop of a simple tinted colour is also a convention of a indie magazine. I personally think that this cover works and is effective as an indie magazine should be.

There are also many conventions I found out that you need to include in an indie magazine. As i was researching this topic, i found an image which clearly points out a number of them.