My music magazine uses the same forms of conventions within real media products in many different ways due to the fact that it allows me to be inspired by existing magazines already out their which cover the same genre of music. In contrast to that by using similar conventions of real media products it allows conventions such as the masthead, images, cover lines and house style of my magazine to be easily noticeable. This is key because it allows my target audience to immediately know what genre of music my magazine focuses on just by looking at the cover.

 

To develop upon the house style of my magazine you need to look at the conventions involved that give it that hip hop house style. Essentially this is composed of a similar structure and layout that is kept throughout my front cover, contents page and double page spread. In terms of using conventions of real hip hop magazines I have given my magazine a clean and organised layout throughout which has been done by using grid lines and columns to make sure that everything composed on each page is evenly placed together. By doing this it has allowed my magazine to really have the conventions of real hip hop magazines, giving it a realistic and aesthetically pleasing look for my audience.

Furthermore the use of a consistent colour scheme in each issue of a hip hop magazine is a convention in which I used to help navigate the audience. This is because by using vibrant and bright colours specifically for the most important features it allows them to stick amongst all of the others. Therefore allowing them to be noticed first, this is a tactic that is used in all existing hip hop magazines on the market as it allows them to easily present their most important features.

 

In reference to my front cover I made sure that the convention were followed when it came to the choice of masthead. In order for this convention to be suitable for my magazine it had to somehow be relatable towards the hip hop genre of music. That being a masthead which the audience can easily notice a relevant link to the hip hop genre of music. So do make sure that I did this I went with the name ‘MIX’ due to the fact that it links with ways in which hip hop artists songs are remixes sampled from existing tracks. Also because the word mix is a short and catchy. Conventionally my masthead suits the genre of music in which it represents, therefore my magazines masthead uses the conventions of real hip hop magazines.

 

Following this the main image upon my magazine front cover uses the conventions of existing hip hop magazines due to the fact that it follows the typical conventions of how the main featured artist is pictured upon the front cover. This is demonstrated by the use of a straight angled medium shot used for the picture of my artist. In addition to this the clothes in which my artist is wearing matches the typical style of dress in which all other hip hop artists are seen wearing in the real hip hop magazines.

Another way in which I have used existing conventions of magazines is by structuring my contents page as a three column lay out. By laying out my magazine in this style it allows all of my content to be easily read as it follows a similar style to existing hip hop magazines out there. Furthermore my contents page also uses existing conventions of other magazines as keywords and titles are highlighted to allow for the reader to be easily navigated around my contents page.

 

Moving onto my double page spread, the specific conventions I have used include those that would be seen on any real hip hop magazine. For example across my double page spreads include drop caps, pull quotes and columns of writing that emulate a relevant and relatable conversation between my artist and the interviewer. Furthermore a similar house style that especially matches the front cover is demonstrated by the use of the same colour scheme and fonts. Something else that you would see upon a real hip hop magazines double page spread.