Evaluation 2How does your product represent

particular social groups.

The Hip Hop/RnB genre attracts mainly a younger generation audience. The social groups that would stereotypically be associated with this genre of magazine would be the social group know as ‘chavs’, or the black ethnicity on average. Although these to groups may be the main ones attracted to the magazine, Base Chase magazine could appeal to any young male within the british, or any other society where the genre is popular. It is the well known artists that the magazine features that attracts this audience. The image of GRAM represents the UK Hip Hop and RnB culture in the way of what the artist is wearing. The quilted coats have become quite popular in the last 2 years or so and many UK artists have been wearing them. It is the appropriate look to leave the buttons undone. However the hat he is wearing truly defines the hip-hop “look”. I could have used a different model to begin with, however I swapped to Charlie as he is someone who captures the culture of the genre and represents the fanatics well.

FRONT COVER

I think the images on this contents page represent the hip hop culture and its followers

just as well as the image on the magazine cover. I think adjusting the colours of the

images portrays the grime and authentic look and reflects upon the attached social groups. The majority of Hip Hop & RnB artists today are black males and many people aspire to follow the look they give. I think by adding

effects and adjusting the colour in the image helps the artist be more acceptable, so the

social groups would also aspire to be like this artist. I think the artist featured, DJ Lou, looks associated to his genre more so in this image in the way the hat is worn and with the look he shows and also his poses take from other

artists have recently used. I think this reflects the style of the culture. Many teenagers today follow the same trend with big coats and hats. I feel this page in particular looks a little more messy (in a good way). This is a good thing on

the business side of the magazine, for one it extends the audiences, but more importantly

it gives the magazine a better reputation as more stylish people are attracted to it.

CONTENTS PAGE

I think my spread reflects the Hip Hip/RnB culture more so than my contents page. The sideways and poses used make it look professional and shows the true sense of underground authenticity within the product. The three images come across to be a lot more professional in the way it has been edited to look out of the ordinary and gloomy. The artists clothes represent the corresponding social groups to the genre. In the third image I think it looks more professional and will attract attention where the reflecting light is shown to be exacerbated and this also gives an aesthetically pleasing effect as the light reverberates off the left side of DJ Lou’s face. The reason for including the lines on each page was to fill

the columns and pages and make the pages look filled. However the way the pages have been edited connotes the sense of seriousness, using a newspaper type layout. The social groups and followers of the genre try to reveal themselves as serious and authentic and the magazine kind of does it for them. Meaning to say if you read this magazine, you will belong in your desired social group as it represents what the reader is looking for. Also its noticed that I have represented the genre as “off the streets”, however the bling and wealth associated with hip-hop is noticed through the gold shown in my house theme.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

AND MORE:As it is noticed, I have not included any women in my magazine. This connotes that hip-hop is a very male based music genre, as most hip- hop artists these days are more likely to mention women in their music. It’s been noted as being quite discriminative in some cases, however I feel that I am following a convention as there are not many popular hip-hop artists that are women. However I will also include that the lack of women in my product also promotes a positive representation of men, through the accomplishments shown throughout my article. Finally, I don’t intend to say that women are not musically talented, just not within this type of genre. It is traditional that there are no women featured within the magazine as artists, however in some cases, some magazines may include revealing images of women within their magazines. However this would be inappropriate to place within my own product.

In my representation of age throughout my product, I attempted to keep a positive effect thus presenting to young people the will to succeed not only on the streets but within school (etc.). This is connoted through the young artists who are driven to succeed, the lined paper shown in the background of my contents page, and a significant amount of text within my double page spread.This could also be considered my unique selling point (USP) as not many hip-hop magazines share this same feature. As it is challenges current stereotypes of hip-hop being violent, gang related and associated with 'drop-outs'. I also feel as though I give a good representation that white men are now being involved within the genre and will soon become a serious and large percentage of the music released in coming years.