Hip hop and indie magazine research

1. Market Research

2. Hip Hop magazines
Hip Hop
Magazines

3. Vibe
Main image overlaps the name of
the magazine showing the model is
more important than the magazine.
There are three main
colours used on every
magazine making the
magazine have the same
house style throughout
E.g. Black red white or
yellow black white.
Three main colours link
in to what the main
image is wearing
Anchors that point out
other stories readers
would want to read
about drawing more
readers in.

4. Main image overlaps the name of
Hip Hop the magazine showing the model is
more important than the magazine.
Three main colours link
in to what the main
image is wearing
There are three main
colours used on every
magazine making the
magazine have the same
house style throughout
E.g. Black yellow white
Anchors that point out
other stories readers
would want to read
about drawing more
readers in.
In every issue of this
magazine there is an
offer of a free CD
enticing the reader in.

5. Conclusions
In both Hip Hop and Vibe both have very similar if not identical conventions which
show that I would have to use them if I was to do a hip hop magazine. These
include the model overlapping the title, good use of anchorage, three main
colours creating a house style and the model wearing those three colours so that
it fits with the magazines identity.

6. Indie/
Alternative
Magazines

7. Most of the front cover is written in full capital
Magazine title is off centre
NME and is shown in the top left
of every magazine this
letters, this makes all the important stories stand
out so that potential readers see them and get
drawn to buying the magazine.
differs to hip hop
magazines where the title
is always centred and
overlapped by the main
image. Although the
overlapping of the main
image does occur in this
genre of music magazines
Two or three main colours
creating a house style. This
cover is mainly two with
Red and White but the
Blue from the models
clothing could also be seen
as a main colours.
Anchorage at the bottom of
the page this is seen in all
NME magazines.
The three main colours do not link into what the models are
wearing this shows diversity and is a difference used in indie/
alternative magazines compared to Hip Hop magazines

8. Q Magazine title is off centre
and is shown in the top left
of every magazine this
Free gifts are offered to pull
the reader in.
differs to hip hop
magazines where the title
is always centred and
overlapped by the main
image. Although the
overlapping of the main
image does occur in this
genre of music magazines
Four main colours are
seen on the front of Q. This
breaks a main convention
of most magazines where
three is usually the rule.
In Q the main image is
usually a close up of a
current mainstream artist.
Usually from the neck
upwards.

9. Conclusion
There are not many similarities between NME and Q other than the off centring of
the magazine title this would tell me that if I was to do an indie/alternative
magazine this would have to be included as a feature. Other than that there aren't
many similarities which means this genre is wide open for ideas.