Music magazine brief

Brief

The brief for this piece of coursework is to produce an original music magazine and to decide on the genre of the magazine which needs to have at least four original images taken by myself.

For this piece we have to design a front cover, contents page and a double page spread.

What is the chosen music genre, which your magazine will focus upon?

The genre I am going to do is r&b music.

What are the key features of this genre?

Typically the r&b genre is perceived in a slight negative way. Usually r&b artists are full of “bling”, attitude and money. Most r&b artists are seen as trouble makers, gold diggers and thugs, they all have a reputation of shootings and stabbings and are not really seen in a positive light. However r&b music is very popular and many artists are doing well in this industry, for example 50 cent and lil Wayne.

R&b also has always been thought to be just black American males but its now spread to a small percentage of different ethic backgrounds and females also are involved in this industry now. For example female r&b artists such as Nicki Minaj have now become very popular, female artists are seen as sexy in the way they dress, act and are perceived through the media.
R&B artists also have a repetition of guns, knives and crime; these are proven in the images shown on the front of magazines such as Respect magazine.

Images of both genders that are used on current magazine covers, CD covers and videos, for example, are mainly with the person being half naked or at least showing plenty of bare skin. The images that I have noticed of r&b artists also illustrate the “bad boy” look which is what most r&b artists try to perceive through either lyrics, publications and/or media.

What magazines, currently in publication, cover this genre?

The current magazines I research and found on the r&b genre were XXL, vibe and respect magazines.