PURPOSE AND INTENTION

The purpose of my music magazine is to bring a commercial publication to a genre that has never had one devoted solely to it. UK hip hop is a genre that has been around and has been producing quality artists and tracks since the late eighties and still has not been given its own magazine, although there have been a lot of UK music magazines, none of them look deeply into the hip hop genre and most are unknowledgeable about the un-commercial artists of the genre. They seem to have no insider knowledge of the UK hip-hop scene. There have also been many hip hop magazines through out the years, yet they have always seemed to focus on commercial, American hip hop, and they have always seemed to be oblivious to the work of successful UK artists, such as Jehst , Kyza and Farma G, who have produced work that easily equals if not surpasses the quality of more commercially successful American artists’ work. So, the question must be asked, why has UK hip-hop never had it’s own magazine? With quality artists and a devoted following, I thought it was about time a magazine was made by UK hip hop heads, for UK hip hop heads.
My second intention was to create a magazine that gave the reader an in depth view into the scene that the chosen genre was related to, as the magazines I have looked at always focused on the music (fair enough, as it is a music magazine!) but whilst looking at these music publications, I decided to look at aspects of UK hip hop that would not necessarily be seen in a music magazine, although most people who listen to UK hip hop are also interested in graffiti, break dancing etc.

TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE

Different magazines are aimed at different audiences. A magazine audience however is not solely defined by the music they listen to, there are many different factors that make a target audience profile. You could look at class, gender, age, location or any number of different qualities that could affect their product purchasing preferences. It is important for me to define my
My magazine is going to be targeted at 16-23 year olds, as it is quite a mature, sophisticated magazine, as in it takes itself and the music quite seriously, and 16 is around the age where most people tend to develop their musical interests further than the more popular side of their personal music genre, and start to look into the lesser known/underground side of their favourite genre.
My magazine is going to be aimed at people who live in the more culturally rich cities and towns in the UK, like London, Brighton Glasgow etc. as the UK hip-hop genre/scene is quite a community based genre, and is centred around hip-hop nights, organized graffiti jams, conventions etc. with, although by bringing it to locations where they are less familiar and more disconnected from the culture, my magazine could bring the culture to them.
The readers of my magazine will be mainly males due to the masculine culture there is in the UK hip-hop music scene. There are a significantly small number of women within the UK hip-hop genre as most UK rappers, graffiti writers and singers nowadays are male. However that is not to sat that female readers could not take an interest in my magazine, because as my questionnaire proved, females are also interested in UK Hip hop and share many of their views that my male interviewees had, so I think it could still be appealing to girls.
As I said, my target audience will be around 16-23 and quite mature, and I would expect a majority of them to have some sort of income, weather it is a full time job, part time job, or just a Saturday/Sunday job. Due to this regular income, I believe that they will pay an average/slightly above average price for their music publication. However I also need to think about the spending bracket for my readers who do not have a job, part time or otherwise, I would think that my readers would be in the C1 bracket.

INTRODUCTION

For my media A-level project, we have been assigned the task of creating a music magazine. We will choose the genre, target audience, and everything else that goes into making a music publication, and the end product will be a front page, contents page and double page feature. I will be documenting my process and choices, including what images I will include, what images I will not include, who my target audience is and my flat plans for my pages, and you will be able to see my ideas grow into a final product.
My magazine will be a UK hip-hop magazine that takes a relaxed yet mature approach towards giving the readers an insight into the underground UK hip hop scene. As an avid listener and long time supporter of the genre, I will be my magazine will give an “Insiders view” into the gritty world of UK hip-hop, with gig listings, exclusive interviews and insider information, my magazine will be perfect for both passionate followers and intrigued new comers.