1. For my Foundation Production, I have created a music magazine front
cover, contents page and double page spread using original images that I have took
myself. I have used conventions real music magazines and I have analysed other
music magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads using the key
concepts of LIIAR (Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience and Representation).

2. All three of my media products represent and follow the typical conventions of
Rap/Hip-hop/R"n"B magazines instead of inverting them. I chose to follow them in my
magazines as I believed that it was the most effective way to present and promote my
magazines. The genre of the music magazine is mainly Rap and Hip-hop. The audience
would easily be able to recognise my magazine as part of the rap/hip-hop genre
therefore will be able to familiarise themselves with it. I studied many other music
magazines, similar to what my own music magazine genre is, such as XXL, Vibe and The
Source.

3. In my Research into existing magazine layouts for my front cover, I came
across an edition of Vibe which I quite liked. I used this example from this
edition of vibe to give me the foundation of my ideas for the three pieces I
created.
This Edition with TI as the main artist,
follows many of the main conventions
of typical hip-hop, rap and R“n”B
magazines. Such has the main sell line
placed on the left hand side of the
page and having the main image fill
the whole page.

4. Within my media products I have
included all of the typical conventions
such as placing the important sell lines
to the left of the page as that was
where the audience’s eye would go
first on my front cover.
The same can be seen in this Edition of
Vibe magazine. The main sell lines are
kept, again, on the left. This signifies
the importance of the actual sell line.

5. On my double page spread, I have also
kept many of the common codes and
conventions you usually find within a
typical rap/hip-hop genre magazine
such as having a Pull Quote just under
the page heading or to actually have
to as the heading, to attract the
audience into reading the article, to
appeal to them by making it sound
more interesting.
As shown in this article of Vibe
magazine, the pull quote is also used as a
heading and placed in one of the first
places the audiences eye will go to. Its
also in a larger font size to stand out from
the rest of the article.

6. Other conventions which I used include Mise-en-scene. It was essential that I used effective
mise-en-scene to portray the genre of the magazine, allowing the target audience to be drawn
to the magazine.
As with all magazines on sale in the media today, its important to make sure that every
edition of the magazine follows and keeps the brand identity of the whole magazine its self. In
my front Cover, Contents page and Double page spread, I have made a brand identity and kept
it going through all three of my media products through means of the colour scheme and
layout design.
Through each of these pieces, I have kept the background colour the same, the colour scheme
in the fonts and layout of the page numbers

7. The magazine I styled my magazine around was Vibe magazine,
when looking at this magazine I researched the publisher. The
publishing house of Vibe is Inter media. They also own many other
media companies such as Access Network, Uptown Media group and
BlackBook Media. After purchasing Vibe magazine in 2009, they
have successfully ran it from then on. Based on this I believe that my
magazine would benefit most if it was distributed by Intermedia as
well.
Since the publishing houses distribute their magazine through
retailers to actually sell the magazine I also choose which retailer I
believed would be a good choice for my magazine, this is also where
Vibe is sold, WHSmith is recognised as the main magazine
distributor. Furthermore, my I think that my audience would be
attracted to my magazine through it being sold at WHSmith as those
in my target audience bracket who do not want to subscribe online
to the magazine can head over to their closest magazine retailer
which would most probably be WHSmith.

8. I believe that my music magazine, •Gender: Male
“MixTape”, which portrays the •Age: 16 – 26
market of the rap and hip-hop •Nationality: British and/or American
genre, would be successfully aimed •Ethnicity: I believe that my magazine would appeal to
at the audience of 16 – 26 year olds. all people from different backgrounds, a mixture of
I feel that my target audience black, white and Asian readers. There are a few ways in
breaks the classic stereotype of 16 – which I have tried to appeal to all Ethnicities, by having
24 years which associates them different artists from different backgrounds feature
with drugs, violence, crime and within my magazine, such as Chris Brown and Jay Sean,
swearing. As not all teenagers and both of their songs are in the same genre however they
young adults are like that, I believe are from different backgrounds.
that my magazine helps to aspire •Interests: The general interest of my target audience
young artists or anyone with in that will be that they will have a thirst for the hip-hop and
age bracket to follow their dreams rap genre, and this magazine should fulfil that need
as they can read other young artist’s greatly and further widen their knowledge of the genre
stories like “ J-Soundz”. and the industry.

9. My target audience, of the 16 – 26 age group, are usually the people who
like to spend their money on items like music magazines. To find out
more about the potential readers of my magazine I created a
questionnaire to help me produce my magazine and fill it with content to
attract them. The questionnaire were all answered my a male audience,
from school pupils as well as some music magazine customers, this was
which gender I was aiming at. Knowing that 16 – 26 year olds are more
interested in mainstream music and the popular music genre that my
magazine represents than any other age group shows that this was the
most fitting audience.

10. I believe that I have attracted
my target audience through
the use of sell lines such as “
We got gifts, Page (25)” . The
fact that the items are
available to the reader for free
will entice them more into
buying it as we like to receive
free stuff. Also as this
magazine is published monthly
as opposed to weekly or bi
weekly means that if they do
not buy the magazine they “
free gifts” may not be
available to them until the
next month or even 3 months
away.

12. Throughout the process of making my music magazine I have learnt many new skills which will
help me on later in life. As I am not the best at using various photography editing software and
technology, doing this task has helped me expand my knowledge and get a general grasp on
how to use new programs, edit and enhance images and successfully produce, in my opinion a
good hip-hop magazine which would appeal to the 16 – 26 age group.
•Programs – Whilst making my music magazine, I has to use
different programs to develop and enhance my images and final
products. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop Cs6 and Light-
Room Cs4 helped me make my magazine as professional as
possible.
•Adobe Photoshop Cs6 helped me enhance, alter and remove
the backgrounds in my images to make them look as eye –
catching as I could.
•Adobe Lightroom helped me enhance certain qualities of my
images to make them standout more by adding effects and
brightening areas where needed this also helped me to do the
same with me text .

13. •IT skills: By doing this task I was able to
build on my IT skills and use different
websites such as “blogger” and
“slidershare”. Firstly using a blog was
new for me as I never really got into it •Uploading + Downloading – As I never had
before so it was a good experience a blog before, uploading things on to
learning about this and has expanded blogger and Slideshare was completely new
my knowledge. Blogger allowed me to to me, I even had to ask one of my friends
make posts and create pages expressing to help me with this but after that I was
my work in new forms of media such as read to go on my own. I also learnt how to
uploading videos from YouTube and embed different presentations on to
using moviemaker to also create videos blogger.
and presentations by using slideshare,
could embed PowerPoint presentations
like this one to my blog.

14. Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that
this experience was a work in process from
which I have learnt many new skills and
developed my understanding and my current
knowledge about the production of music
magazines and the depth of research behind
it all.
Taken on board the feedback I got after making
my school magazine front cover and contents
page, and through giving out questionnaires for
my research into my music magazines,
I believe that I have progressed
along the way in the completion of
my finished media product. Now I
have a stronger knowledge and
understanding on programs like
Photoshop Cs6 and lightroom, also
Blogging and how to edit posts
upload and covert files.

15. Overall I feel that I have greatly developed my
knowledge in these particular areas.
•A developed understanding on how to use Adobe
Photoshop.
•Expanding my knowledge on other adobe products
such as lightroom
•Learnt how to use a blog- Create and updating
posts.
•Learnt how to fully use slideshare.
•Learnt the importance of continuous saving to
prevent my work being deleted