3. HOW DID YOU MEET/CHALLENGE THESE CONVENTIONS?
COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING
CONVENTIONS?(GENRE)
Due to my target audience being sophisticated and it being under the income bracket of B-C2 this
would mean that the way the artist is dressed has to be simple and not 'flashy'. The usual
convention used in rap magazines is jewellery which connotes the wealth that comes with being a
rapper. We know that jewellery is something that is overdone by people who were previously not
exposed to it and what Kulture strives to do is to make the readers identify with the content they
read in all our magazines and in this case the fashion needs to be as simple as possible but still
fashionable.The reason for challenging this convention is that I know that people are getting bored
of seeing the usual females, money and drugs in the rap genre and I want to use this change to
attract a larger audience. Instead I got the rapper to wear a shirt and a denim jacket and this was
a very simple approach to the closet compared to the normal rapper who portrays a wealthy guy.
The simplicity of the artists dress code connotes that he is quite a successful/rich individual due to
him being exposed to the jewels but choosing not abuse or even consume them at all sometimes.
4. CONVENTIONS (COSTUME) (GENRE)
• I can easily compare the model with the John Lennon look in the 70s seen below:
• Another reason why I would compare the two is because John Lennon changed
a lot of peoples lives through his music and used his music to open peoples eyes.
My artist is also a life changer and cares about the important things in life. Their
fashion senses are both very similar but influencial.
5. HOW DID YOU MEET/CHALLENGE THESE CONVENTIONS? COULD YOU
HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING CONVENTIONS? (MAGAZINES)
The logo or masthead is the most important element on the cover page of a
magazine.The logo should capture the publications character, attitude, it should fit
the intended readership, it should be versatile too, so that it can be used in other
occasions, like marketing materials.The font I decided to use was chosen due to the
influence that Japan has at the minute in media products as it represents 'cool'. The
Japanese style font allows my magazine to appeal to people of many cultures.
The use of a blending colour around the masthead brought personality into the
product and the link between the choice of colour, being purple which connotes
royalty and the target audience worked to give each and every one of our readers
personal identification as this is a sophisticated magazine which serves a
sophisticated audience.
6. HOW DID YOU MEET/CHALLENGE THESE CONVENTIONS?
COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING
CONVENTIONS? (MAGAZINES)
The selling line is basically a small slogan which compliments the magazines title, and
genre, and helps towards the selling of the magazine, and getting people interested. My
selling line( being "Going through this Safari called Rap") doesn’t just sell the product to
the audience but it also gives the audience intellectual pleasure because it shows that
there's a lot more to rap than what is usually shown and that Kulture will uncover all
these elements that the world don’t really know about the genre. I wanted to break the
egotistical stereotype in the rap genre and make the slogan give an informative
teaser. The reason why I believe this selling line worked well is because my audience
are at a high point of the audience hierarchy and they don’t need the normal selling
lines that strive to sell the magazine by convincing them about the quality of the
magazine, the audience that I have made this magazine for are sure on what they want
when they look at the quality, the costume worn by the artist, the potential content and
price tag.
7. HOW DID YOU MEET/CHALLENGE THESE CONVENTIONS?
COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING CONVENTIONS?
(MAGAZINES)
For all the photographs that I took for the magazine I either used medium close ups or
close ups and these connote that the articles are get close and personal with the artist
and suggest to the audience that they will really be able to get to know the artist. You
might disagree with the close ups and medium close ups being conventions but I
believe that these type of shots are becoming a norm in music magazines therefore
becoming a convention now as they in a way occur often.
The lighting for the front cover was high key and this was used to attract the audience in
the esteem column of the hierarchy of needs because their outlook on life is reflected in
the cover page because it is bright.The contents page and the double page spread are
quite dark pages and this is because they contain a lot of information and the
concentration here was meant to be gaged more on the text rather than the pictures.
9. HOW DID YOU MEET/CHALLENGE THESE CONVENTIONS?
COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING
CONVENTIONS? (CONVETIONS)
The choice of locations was both meeting and challenging the conventions of a rap magazine.
The pictures taken of the focal artist were taken in a studio which created a form of verisimilitude
as the artist might have been busy in the studio at the time of photoshoot and interview. This
setting is convention in rap magazines because magazines always get personal with the artist and
this would mean that they want to show where and how the rappers music is produced.
The picture of Mic Jones in the library was challenging conventions as you wouldn’t normally see
a rapper in such an environment and you wouldn’t expect to see one in a library but it makes
sense considering the target audience, with that said this appeals to the sophisticated target
audience as they would normally find themselves in such places such as the library due to their
sophisticated interests and the location has a connotation of the rapper being articulate, educated
and sophisticated due to him being an avid reader.
10. HOW DID YOU MEET/CHALLENGE THESE CONVENTIONS?
COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING CONVENTIONS?
(INSTITUTIONAL,GENRE)
Kulture is an independent magazine which means that it is a small company which
may only make one type of media and only produce or distribute rather than both.
Now this can link to the genre because rap has become more of an independent
genre, you hardly find rap groups these days covering magazines because it has
become a lot about being independent and rappers not wanting to be under record
labels, this is what rap represents.
For example this is a magazine cover of a rapper who is part
of a rap collective but this cover has been made about him alone.
11. DID YOU PURPOSEFULLY CHALLENGE ANY
CONVENTIONS? WHY ?
The main convention I followed through with throughout the magazine was the colour pink used
as the main colour in the magazine. I did this mainly because Kulture is a media product that
appeals to all different types of people within the B-C2 income bracket. In particular this colour
was used repeatedly to connote that rap is a genre for men and women. The use of pink will give
the female audience personal identity through a so-called 'feminine colour' and entertainment too.
However I do believe that I could've used a rapper of a different race in my magazine because it
would appeal to the audience due to it being a different thing to do in rap magazines and it would
also be a very modernised idea due to the change in racial differences and my audience would
appreciate this. The use of a black rapper might've turned some of the audience off not because of
racism but because in that area there's nothing that sets Kulture apart from other rap magazines as
race could be looked at as a convention these days but I have an unconventional audience which I
need to satisfy.
12. APPLICATION OF THEORETICAL RESEARCH
In my research I had pointed out that my magazine would use 2 theories and those are the Hall's
Reception theory and the Uses and Gratification theory.The audience will be active as they can
choose what they want to take from the products
Uses & Gratification: The article on Wacko entertained the readers because of the way it was put
together with the scenarios before the actual interview. Wacko Ambassador provided us with
information that the readers did not know about his past experiences. The news about Wacko's
brother and the fact that he chose to be rapper gave a number of my readers personal identity
because they might have been through the same problems as him. My audience must've
interacted on the exclusive information given by the artist during the interview and the tragic
information helped understand him as an artist. This exclusive information appeals to my audience
because they are sophisticated and will always want to hear about something that they are
interested in before anyone else.
13. APPLICATION OF THEORETICAL RESEARCH
"Women are not objects and rap is a genre for all genders"
Hall's Reception: Dominant - Most of my audience are middle class people and have undergone
enough education to agree with women empowerment which is the ideology that I am pushing
forward.
Negotiated – Some of the readers might say that rappers can be of both genders but the best ones are
male or even visa versa.
Oppositional – A minority of my readers will totally reject the ideology Kulture is pushing that rap is a
genre that females can participate in.
I believe that I made this ideology work in some ways and it didn’t in other ways. It worked because the
female in the magazine for once was not a model/vixen used to highlight the rapper but in my
magazine she was an independent rapper. An improvement could've been made with the fact that she
was an additional feature to the magazine, I could've rather made her the main act of my magazine to
totally portray the ideology above.
14. APPLICATION OF THEORETICAL RESEARCH
Stereotypes
• I challenged the stereotype that pink is a feminine colour
• I made an attempt at showing that not all rappers heavily wear jewellery and wear
baggy clothes, I possibly could have made the costumes even more extreme,
maybe the use of a slim fit suit
• I challenged the stereotype that all rappers are uneducated and the audience saw
that through the interview and the picture of Mic Jones in the library
16. COMPARISON OF SIMILAR PRODUCTION
SIMILARITIES:
• They both have high key lighting
• They both share a similar background(which is white) though Rolling Stones have
made their cover high in contrast compared to mine which attracts more attention on
their cover when the two are put next to each other
• The costumes used for the cover photo are the same as they're both wearing denim
jackets
• These two seem to have the same ideologies in terms of a simply dressed rapper with
no visible jewellery whatsoever
• The use of pink font is very similar for the names of the rappers on both magazines
17. COMPARISON WITH A SIMILAR PRODUCTION
DIFFERENCE
• While Rolling Stone is very minimalistic and is strongly focused on Kanye West, Kulture contains
a bunch of cover lines which give teasers of what other stories are in the issue
• They both share a similar background(which is white) though Rolling Stones have made their
cover high in contrast compared to mine which attracts more attention on their cover when the
two are put next to each other
• The photograph on the cover page is a good reflection of the article in the magazine, while
Rolling Stone has a very playful issue here and we see this through the sub-heading being "Does
he really like mustard?" And Kanye smiling in the picture, Kulture has a serious approach to this
issue as the article contains some serious content and the cover photo has him pulling an
emotionless face which connotes the seriousness of Wacko's story in this particular issue.
