Conventions of Hip Hop

The conventions and techniques that we would see in a hip hop magazine cover is that there would a hip hop artist or character used in the centre of the page to emphasize that the magazine follows a hip hop genre. 

Small elements on the magazine cover, such as the barcode, text and in some cases montage of images are situated around the central image. This connotes that the main image is representing the magazine itself, for example:

The “Vibe” magazine presents “Eminem” in a superior manner, from being in a central position of the hip hop magazine shows a direct approach towards the audience.

This is enhanced from the conventional serious facial expression, “Eminem” shows. In further detail from “Eminem’s” piercing eyes, this constructs a visual involvement between the hip hop magazine and the audience, as a result of human eye contact. 

Similarly the denotation of this “Vibe” hip hop magazine shows the cross worn by “Eminem”, which creates a sense of religion purpose and reflects his personality. Hip hop is a genre consisting of many artists who are from the Christian faith; hence the item of the cross can be symbolized as a piece of jewelry as well as communicating with religious audiences. Thus balancing the youth hip hop culture with a more experienced and mature appeal.

The other major conventional aspects are the colours used in the hip hop magazine cover. The majority of people are attracted to hip hop magazines mostly by a direct visual route. This being the common colour of a hip hop magazine, such as red, black and white. These are bold colours connote a masculine attitude towards the audience. However on the other hand these colours do complement each other as you can see from the “Vibe” hip hop magazine. Specifically the mast head uses a mixture of red and black tones in relations a white background which makes it look effective and intimidating to an extent.

Main conventions:

·         Image

·         Mast head

·         Institutional logo

·         Website

·         Barcode

·         Selling line

·         Colours

After carrying out various researches on the real product analysis, I have been able to understand the different types of conventions and techniques that have been used. In my research I have come across different genres such as “hip hop” and “rock”. In my research I came across many different typefaces that looked attractive and intriguing, and there were a couple that did appeal to me and helped me to make a choice on the type of typeface is was going to add in my main project.

When assessing different types of Hip Hop magazines I have come to an understanding that there are many common conventions such as:

There is usually one character used in the image who is a well known artist, and the background is not crowded making the character used the main subject. The camera angle that is used most commonly on the character in the image is a close up shot to show the emotions on the face of the character used or a mid shot which shows the body language, the facial expressions.

The colours used in the magazine are also well worked as the different colours contrast well, for example in some magazines that I have come across have black backgrounds with white writing, this creates great contraction and makes the page look eye catching and attractive.

In some magazine covers parts of the Masthead can be covered by the image that is used. This shows that it is conventional of a Hip Hop magazine.  The other common convention that I have come across is that the Masthead is mostly written in bold and clear writing.

The cover lines are usually placed in the left hand side of the magazine cover, as this is because it is the first place where we look. In my research I have come across other common conventions such as the cover line being used on both the left hand and the right hand side.

In the contents pages that I have analyzed I have come to an understanding that they follow the conventions of having a main image with text written around the character used.

The contents page is not to plain and not to overcrowded it is natural, which balances the contents page out.

In my research of the double page spread I have witnessed many common conventions and techniques such as the title on the page going across both sides of the page.

There is always an image used in a double page spread which is shown in a fairly large size, this allows the double page spread to look more attractive and not have too much writing or fill in the plain spots.

Based on the common conventions and techniques I will be using these for when I create a Hip Hop magazine. For the main cover I will be using an powerful and effective image, with bold cover lines. The Masthead of my magazine cover will also be in clear bold written and one or two letters will be overwritten by the image I use in order to make my magazine look more attractive.

 

For my contents page I will use an image that would be suitable for my Hip Hop magazine and write the key feature of the magazine such as who the magazine would include, the interviews, and what pages to go on in order for full stories. 

For my double page spread I will be using more images in order to balance it out with the text I will be adding. The other aspects that I will be including in my double page spread is writing a title that would go along the double page spread, avoiding to put any texture or image in the spine, as I would not want to lose text or image to the spine of the double page spread.