Genre Layout Conventions For Music Magazines

GENRE LAYOUT CONVENTIONS FOR A HIP-HOP/RAP MUSIC

MAGAZINE

By Tahmid Ahmed

Front coverThe colour used on the front cover of a magazine depends on what the magazines is about, so the genre of the magazine as well as the target audience for who the magazine is aimed at. So for example the colours used in a magazine which is aimed at men would be stereotypically masculine colours, so colours which you would associate with people of the male gender are colours like blue, green, black, red and more. Stereotypically feminine colours are colours you would associate with people of the female gender, so pink, yellow, purple, light orange and more. For example the magazine ‘XXL’ is a magazine aimed at anyone, mainly people of the male gender who are interested in music and are over the ages of about sixteen years old. The colours used are mainly red and black because the colours have a special meaning and things are associated with colours. The connotations of the colour red is danger, strength, power, blood and war. The colour black has the connotations of death and power and it denotes strength and authority. So black and red are used in hi-hop/rap magazines to show power and strength of the central image. Also the fact that the artists on the front cover are serious matches with the colours used.

Every single magazine has a masthead and it’s always located on the top of it. The reason why the masthead is large and is at the top of the magazine is because when they are sold at shops, you may only see the masthead of the magazine due to the fact that the other magazines are in the way so the masthead must stand out in order to the grab attention of others. The masthead is either in front of the forehead of the central image or behind the central image because if the central image is in front of the masthead that could mean the brand has a well established identity so it’s recognisable by consumers even if you cant see the whole masthead like ‘Vibe’ for example. The design of the masthead doesn’t change as the consumer would get confused it if it did, this will also keep to the magazines DNA.

Puffs and cover lines will always be put in empty spaces or negative spaces. What this means is that they are put anywhere apart from the central images face. So you would put puff, cover lines and graphic features on the central images hair, clothes, neck and sometimes the body, but not face. The larger the puffs or cover lines the more you know it’s the main article or story in the magazine. Some magazines are laid out to be balanced, so if there was a large text on one side of the magazine it would be balanced out on the other side with a graphic feature etc. You wouldn’t fill one side with lots of text and leave the other side empty. The artists name on a hip-hop/rap magazine is larger than the puffs and cover lines. Puffs and cover lines has been specifically chosen to draw your attention to the magazine to make you want to purchase it.

Contents PageAll magazines have their own unique design and layout for the contents page. It’s a way of navigating through a magazine to look at key bits you want to read. The design and layout depends on the target audience so for example if a magazine was aimed at children then the contents page will need to be simple in its design so they will be able to understand it. Some content in a magazine may be featured, this lets the reader know what the main stories/articles are in the magazine. Featured content are normally accompanied by images and text size which is are larger than normal. For a hip-hop/rap magazine there is usually just one large image which takes up about a half to three quarters of the page and the text for the content in the magazine is the same size and the colours mainly used is black and white. Sometimes the colour red is used.

Some magazines choose to lay out the contents page simply and others chose to add lots of text and images. The size of the text and numbers as well as the amount of information varies depending on what type of magazine it is and who it is aimed at. For example a magazine aimed at children about the age of ten years old will have lots of graphic features and text because they have a short attention span so they will get bored easier than other people. Sometimes the numbers are bold and large and the text are small or vice versa. There will always be images on a contents page and without it the contents page would look plain and dull, the images could also link to the stories/articles in the magazine or it could just be a background image.

Having just text and numbers on the contents page would be boring and dull, you need to catch the reader attention so you would add images of artists/bands to make things more interesting and you would lay it out differently to what other magazines would. However you don’t want to make things too crazy or else the reader will find it confusing. The style of the contents page also depends on the front cover of the magazine because it has to look similar and follow the house style. The same type of colours, fonts and more must be used to keep to the magazines DNA just like the front cover. You can sometimes find a message from the editor on the contents page for a magazine congratulating you on your purchase of the magazine and some additional information about what's inside the magazine and more. However this sometimes gets put in the back of the magazine rather than the front. You can also sometimes find the date of issue of the magazine along with the address to the magazines webpage.

Double Page SpreadDouble page spreads lets the reader know that it’s one of the main articles/stories in the magazine. You will always find a large image on a double page spread to catch the readers attention. Normally there is one large image and sometimes you will find one or two smaller images to accompany the larger image in a hip-hop/rap magazine. Usually the artist is on the double page spread of a music magazine and the title of the article links to something which has happened to the artist or a quote from what they have said about something. Double page spreads on music magazines usually talk about the artist/band, on hip-hop/rap magazines famous rappers are talked about as you can see on the images on the right. The double page spread article normally only features one artist on hip-hop/rap magazines and other music magazines.

Different magazines choose to lay things out differently to other magazines. For example the XXL double page spread, the second one from the top. They chooses to use the right side of the page for the image of the hip-hop/rap artist which is ‘The Game’. This dominates the right side of the page and makes it look more interesting and to separate the text to make you feel as if there is little to read so you don’t get bored. XXL have decided to separate the text into columns so it doesn’t feel tedious to read and the headline is large to stand out in order to grab the readers attention when flicking through the magazine. The text is also smaller for the article and quotes are added from what the hip-hop/rap artists have said in interviews about something or someone.

Some people like to read the first and last paragraph of an article so it’s important that they are the most interesting which will make you want to read the whole thing. The text takes up about a half to three quarters of a page so there isn’t too much to read to keep the reader interested. The writers add information about things you may not have heard about the artist yet in order to make you to purchase the magazine again, so the content must be new and fresh.

The layout is simple yet effective as you have a large image on the left or right hand side of the page which takes up most of the space, you also have an enormous heading which can take up to about a third of the page as well as text which is normally separated into columns in magazines.