Essay
Form:
As I
have completed research I have seen how certain music magazines have portrayed
their genres clearly from the theme colours to the artists featuring in the
magazine. The magazine that stood out for me, that I wanted to be similar to
was ‘vibe’ magazine as its genre Hip Hop/R&B is very alike to the genre my
magazine is. My target audience is very diverse as R&B is a very popular,
well known genre; however if you had to stereotype an R&B fan they would be
someone who likes to go to concerts and out to a bar/club do socialise. Like
the fans the artists in R&B are also people who like to go out and stay
with the fashion, so I portrayed my artist to be a typical R&B musician,
this will then make it clear what genre the magazine is by the audience simply
viewing the front cover.
Bradley
Moore was my model; he is an attractive young man who is also broad shouldered
and confidant. He is wearing fashionable clothes that the stereotypical R&B
singer would wear, this will attract the audience as the target audience are
also very fashion orientated. I believed that this would entice the viewer, as
Bradley would attract the males due to the fashionable clothes, however he will
attract the females as he is a young, confidant young man. The article I wrote
on Brad was about how he came back from a fatal incident, I thought that this
article suited the genre of my magazine as it was a typical story that a Hip
Hop/R&B artists generally have as they always go through breakdowns then
come back after a year or so. As vibe magazine usually has a very simple but
effective front cover I thought I would try to re-enact this by having Brad
stand there confidently looking deep into the camera lens with his body at an
angle. I also wanted him to keep a straight face as he comes across as a strong
individual in the article, whilst I was doing my image research of other
R&B artists I realized that they were all looking into the camera without a
‘cheesy’ grin on their face, however with a more solid/emotionless face.
After I
got how I wanted Bradley’s body posture to be I focused on what he was wearing;
I wanted him to be in clothes that the target audience also like and clothes
that make him look a little bit ‘cocky’ whilst being a little bit flashy. This
is why I wanted Brad to wear just a plain white T-shirt, however with a big,
original scarf, he is also wearing a hat that the 'typical' R&B singer
would wear. For Bradley to look like the flashy person I wanted him to convey I
made him wear a chunky watch with a Crystal bracelet on.
After my
model was portrayed the way I wanted him to be I focused on other features in
the magazine such as the way my article is written, the colour theme and fonts.
Firstly the way I had written my article, there is a mixture of the types of
writing I have used in the magazine, in the article about Bradley I made it
more laid back and ‘easy’ to read, as I wanted the readers to have a relaxing
article that is easy and not heavy going; I have written it in this type of way
as I have read vibe articles and they are also very easy reading magazines. I
believe this also links well with the genre of the magazine, as R&B is a
very chilled and relaxing type of music it connects well with the way the
article is written. For instance the article does not contain any overly complicated
words which doesn't cause the audience to focus with a great amount of
attention.
The main
house colours of my magazine are also important to how the genre (R&B) has
been portrayed. I chose purple and white as the main colours not only because
they complement each other very well, however I believe purple has a very
strong link with R&B music as it is a strong, vibrant colour. I also wanted
to have a unique magazine that will appeal to the audience purely because it is
original and something different, purple did not come up once whilst I was
researching so I thought that would add to the originality of Slick.
Finally the font I chose to write Bradley’s quote
in also gives the ‘street’ vibe that it is hand written and Bradley himself
wrote it. I have seen vibe do something similar to this and I thought I would
put my own twist on it by highlighting the letters ‘B’ purple. These types of
fonts are always seen in R&B magazines, which inspired me to do the same
type of design, this again makes it clear to the reader what genre the magazine
is.
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