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

real media products?

Masthead

The majority of my masthead was inspired by XXL due to the wob against a red background. I have this style being applied to various music magazines across a variety of music genres such as NME (alternative music genre). Most of the time, the mastheads with the same style text are initials. However, I have adapted the by combining the style with my own – using full words instead of initials. I personally believe that the combination is affective because the significant word ‘real’ stands out extremely well to catch viewers eyes. If I was to improve/ try a different combination such as using initials to address the magazine, it would probably fit in more.

Mise-en-scene From looking at the clothing items that artists wear in real rap/ hip hop magazines, they wear simple but stylish clothing to represent rap culture. Here is an example, Kendrick Lamar for the XXL magazine who wears a basic plain tee shirt which has made a result into the clothing item that the artist is wearing for my product. You may notice that the artist on the XXL magazine is wearing a cap and my artist isn’t, this is because I have noticed that not all rappers on the front cover of magazines are wearing some sort of hat. On the right hand side, the artist is not wearing a hat and represents rap/ hip hop culture. Following on to my contents page, it shows a clear presentation of what the artist is wearing from head to toe. He is wearing a t-shirt, straight fit jeans and huarache Nike trainers. Huarache style trainers are the latest fashion which are referred as ‘fresh kicks’. This simply compliments the rap and hip hop culture.

Background

In contrast to backgrounds in other music magazine genres other than rap, there seems to be a load going on. However, rap magazine front cover backgrounds are simple – basic coloured background often in either white, red or black. I have adapted this to my magazine to make it fit well with the genre

People Conventions of rap magazines helped justify the people that I would be using. Most frequently black males are used. You may have seen white males on rap magazine front covers but they have adapted well to the magazines because they are known for their occupation of being a rapper for example Eminem who has been a rapper for many years. He has been on many different rap magazines. Take a look at vibe magazine on the right. Viewers already know who Eminem is which compliments the genre well. I wanted to follow the typical characters used in rap magazines.

Written content

I had analysed the copy of XXL’s double page spreads. I identified a few inappropriate language in each spread which I thought would be great to suit the conventions of rap magazines.

Backgrounds are fairly plain