Music Magazines: Front Covers and Conventions

Both of these magazine front covers are from the well known Hip Hop magazine "VIBE" they both include Eminem because I think he is a good rapper and his stories and appearance is important for my magazine and the genre it follows, which generally is a urbanised scene and the artists included have normally gone through traumatic periods in their lives. The image to the left was originally what I had in mind for my magazine, it had a good picture that interests the reader, an interesting story included in the magazine to the left of the image which originally was what I thought my 2 page spread could be based on but I didn't feel I could expand on the story. Therefore I decided to base my magazine on the image to the right as the picture is much more effective and "hooks" the reader in to purchasing it, I will have a similar shot but perhaps more from a upright angle instead of crouching down and also a closer up shot of my artists faces. Also the story to the left of the image is what I will base my magazine on and I will expand on "a conversation between brothers". Showing more conventions of music magazines and how they lure their intended audience in. I will do this by not just talking about how my artist feels among his peers but how he feels about his position in the music industry as a whole. My masthead will be one that stands out like the ones above and will be a recognised brand for readers so they can find it easily, although it may vary in colour from month to month to add variety and possible new readers. Also my background will be a dark background and will have light writing against it so that it stands out on the page and gives it a inviting look for the target audience.