How does my music mag represent particular social groups

I have attempted to make my magazine represent a social group that I believe is not very common in the music magazine industry. This social group is that of teenagers living in the UK, focussing mainly on up and coming artists from the UK with particular reference to London and urban life. I have used many of the codes and conventions that you would find on a music magazine that focusses on American rap, yet made it more appealing to a UK audience. I have done this by explicitly adressing the audience, making many references to London, UK, and up and coming artists in the rap and urban music industry. I have put a teenage rapper on the front cover of my magazine in order to hopfully create appeal in other teenagers that aspire to become rappers and break into the scene, creating the idea of a 'UK dream'- the idea that anyone can make it in what they do (in this case rap/urban music) no matter what your background may be.

Although my target audience is mostly male teenagers, aspiring to/admiring artists in the urban industry, further appealed by the attraction to a young pretty girl, even though it is not the main focus. Although the young teenage girl in my front cover isn't the main focus of my front cover, it also puts forward the idea that female teenagers can aspire to become successful artists, further interested by the male rapper on the front cover. I have also put forward the producing side to urban music, displaying a picture of a producer, and an interview with the producer as my feature, appealing to young aspiring producers/beat makers.
I have challenged the conventional representation of rappers on my front cover by making him look down to earth, this is what I wanted to achieve in my front cover before I actually created the front cover on Photoshop (see: http://isaacwoodsasmusicmag.blogspot.com/2011/02/scan-in-draft-sketches-of-front-cover.html )  This attempt to make my rapper look down to earth is helped by the use of a plain background. Many rap magazines also use a low angle camera shot of their rapper in order to make him look powerful and above everyone. Where as my magazine challenges this, using a shot that creates an eye-line match with the audience, creating the idea that he is equal to the audience rather than above them. Nevertheless he still looks confident, like most rappers would do in a photoshoot, I asked him to squint his eyes slightly and stand with a good posture in order to create this effect. The positioning of his fingers connote the idea of peace, as well as challanging the typical 'gunfingers' symbol that many rappers use, creating a sense of irony. I have chosen to take the shot of my rapper from a the side, not only helping with sectioning out my front cover to give more space to work with writing etc. But also what could be interpreted as him not being a confrontational person, unlike how many rappers are connoted. I had chosen what my rapper would wear before this photoshoot, see; http://isaacwoodsasmusicmag.blogspot.com/2011/02/scan-in-draft-sketches-of-front-cover.html
The use of my rappers head covering the 'O' of loud is a technique I have seen in many well known rap magazines such as XXL and although it is risky doing this with a first issue of a magazine, I believe in order to come up against well known magazines, you have to show confidence otherwise nobody will trust that your magazine is just as good if not better.

Evaluation- Codes and conventions

I have used the magazine 'RESPECT' as a model for my magazine throughout this module. And I believe that many of the conventions of 'RESPECT' are seen in my magazine LOUD as well. The simple yet effective look makes for an appealing magazine that seems not to be to 'wordy'. This particular front cover for 'RESPECT' shows an artist smiling, creating the idea of a friendly artist, similar to mine.

Many of the music magazines on sale today, have an image of a person that would attract young people and admirers of that person to buy the magazine. Most music magazines do this through sex appeal, showing an attractive person of the opposite gender, like the one below to entice an audience of mostly teenagers, or, some music magazines have an image of the same gender  as there targeted audience for young teenagers to aspire to be. I have chosen to challenge the usual codes and conventions of a music magazine, through putting an artist as the main focus of my front cover that isn’t well known, he’s an up and coming artist, showing him to be breaking into the scene, hopefully enticing teenagers to buy my magazine as they want to be the first to recognise his talent and tell their friends about. I think that challenging this usual convention of a music magazine will also be helped by the artist being a young one, creating more of a relationship with the reader as they can relate to him, exemplified by the fact that he’s from London which is a clear theme in my magazine, rather than the usual theme of American rap. The theme of London is made clear by the constant reference to London, and images of London landscape on my conents page. I have an attractive girl in a smaller picture, and although it is not the main focus of the front cover, like it would be in most music magazines, it still makes way for a larger audience. The biggest challenge to the codes and conventions of usual music magazines that I have made is that my magazine displays no price. I had thought about displaying the price in the usual way, however, I thought that perhaps, if there was no price, sales may be increased as they would have to ask for the price via the shop scanning the barcode, making them less likely to say no when they are told the price. The magazine wouldn’t be very cheap, which can be off putting, I believe this could help to the magazine being just as enticing despite the price.

Although I have challenged many of the areas of music magazines especially of the rap genre, I still believe that my magazine would sell, as it is different from all the usual music magazines, yet is just as cool, if not, cooler.