Introduction and aims

Introduction and Aims

The genre I have chosen for my music magazine is Rap. The reason being its an interesting music genre due to the way its produced. The style of Rap appeals to people who understand the lyrics, so the market sector I am aiming to is 16 to 30 due to the beat, lyrics and bass appeals to this sector. The age group is quite narrow because Rap is often referred to black people and is related to thugs, but personally I think its wrong because due to the lyrics and the beat, rappers are referring to life in general, life on the street and many rap songs refer to social views and political views.  Meanwhile rap is often controversial because rappers have lyrics referring to gang violence and gang culture, personally I like the fact this is included because its showing views of many cultures and society.

Rap is mainly appealing to male audiences but in America especially there is a high percentage of female audiences. So as we are in the UK I hope my magazine will apply for male audiences. Rap is not mainstream in the UK, which doesn’t indicate that its not listened to Unlike R n B rap is not ordinary, but in America it’s referred as mainstream in some parts. My magazine will have an informal cover and theme because rap is linked to street culture as it was started in Afro-American regions so due to the link with street culture.

To get some ideas I have used some mind maps to get some initial ideas on paper. I decided that I was going to do a cross between Rap and hip hop, so I brainstormed four main aspects I was going to cover, firstly which artists/rappers I would concentrate on and get inspiration from. Secondly what colour scheme I can concentrate on, so I gathered some initial colours to use. Thirdly which images I can use preliminarily, consequently how I am going to get images and how to use them in my magazine. Finally what I could include on my front cover, how it’s going to be structured with cover lines etc.

 A thought on artists, is that I have been inspired by specific rappers, like Tupac Shakur and Rick Ross these two rappers specially, talk about life in the “ghetto” basically a part in the specially mainly in the slum area occupied by minority groups in there case groups occupied by Afro-American gangs and how gang warfare influences them, they also rap about life for the children and families.  Another point of interest for me was two main magazines, which have motivated me to do a magazine on this genre are XXL magazine and The Source magazine they both cover genres like rap and hip-hop.