Production log 27/1/10

I sketched the first draft of my front cover on the 27th of January. At the moment the title of my magazine will be a picture of a crown, which connotes a king, so my title will be king of grime. The grime will be graffitied on my cover because grime music is usually underground and is usually distributed on the streets. At the moment the colours i will use will be, White, black and red. I have chosen white to be the colour of my background as everything i put in the foreground will stand out. The red will be used to highlight the important text also the colour red suggest danger, which is usually linked in the music produced by artist in the grime scene. The black will be used as the basic colour of most of the text, as it will stand out more against the white background.

My magazine will contain many conventions you would expect to see on a music magazine, such as a website for the audience to view exclusive gossip and stories about the artist, i will also have many sell lines which you can see in my first draft of my magazine along the sides. As well as the sell lines i will include a barcode and a main story to attract my Target audience.

Textual Analysis - Cam'ron

XXL magazine has been the leading music magazine in the last 5 years. They specialise in hip-hop, Rap and R&B music. I know this because the image on the front cover is off a famous US rapper Cam'ron. Also XXL is famous for having many other singers and rappers on their front cover, an example of this would be US rapper NAS, Eminem, Jay Z as well as Young Jezzy, who are all the leading rappers in their calibre. Also Cam'ron who is the main image on the front cover is wearing a lot of jewellery, suggest that this magazine is also about image and who's got the most money as well as power in the music industry. The target audience for XXL magazine would be people aged 16 - 25. I think this, because topics which feature in the magazine have a lot to do with teenagers and most musicians who feature in the magazine, their music targets 16 - 25 year old. The sell lines in the magazine suggest that XXL have inside information about different rappers, also under the image of cam'ron, the text says “The dipset founder finally speaks of 50, frenemies and the future". This suggests that the audiences are eager to hear about the fights between rappers and how their career is going. In addition to this, XXL use slang in their headlines which tell us that they are targeting the youth, because older people don't usually use slang or even know what it means. E.g. "frenemies" also "50" only their target audience would know that "50" is 50cent a famous universal rapper.
The front cover is a medium close up shot of cam'ron, he is placed in the centre of the front cover to show he is the most important convention on the cover. The background colour is black which matches with cam'ron's t shirt, which seems to be the theme of this edition of the magazine, also the XXL sign is in red and white which makes it stand out. Also cam'ron used to be part of the notorious gang the bloods, which can explain why the writing below him is in red, in addition to this the colour red connotes danger and cam'ron is known for starting "beef" with other rappers, also cam'ron's name on the magazine looks as if it is sprayed on the magazine like graffiti which you usually see in the ghetto, where gangs tag their gang sign. If you look at the way Cam'ron is dressed, it is a stereotype of how we portray rappers in the music industry. I think the audience is being addressed in by the front cover through the choice of musician. Cam'ron is not a universal rapper, he is known more underground in the USA, so not everyone will know who he is; this issue magazine targets a niche audience as opposed to XXL who target a mainstream audience. In addition to this, the clothes Cam'ron wears targets the youth of today, which can also been portrayed by the jewellery he wears in the photo shoot, which suggest to the target