My Magazine Genre

What’s the genre of the magazine you are going to produce?

The magazine that I’m going to produce is a music magazine (which is a requirement for the main print task) but the category of music I have selected is rap/grime/hip-hop/trap. The reason for me picking this combination of categories is that this is the type of music which I enjoy listening to and therefore, the work being produced by me for this task will be of a higher standard due to the fact that I will be able to relate to the work that I am producing. Another reason for me picking this genre of music for my magazine is that rap music (in the year of 2015) is on the rise, especially the grime scene which is getting a lot of mainstream attention from big radio DJ’s such as Charlie Sloth, Annie Mac and Tim Westwood. Also, the fact that there is a large gap in the magazine industry when it comes to a well-established magazine which covers UK rap music (grime). I believe that sooner or later a magazine which is heavily linked to this genre of music will surface but in the meantime, my magazine will be the one of a kind.

History of rap magazines:

There are only two real, well-established rap magazines and they are both American based. One of these is the magazine called XXL. This is an American hip-hop music magazine which was founded in the year of 1997. This (for a magazine) is quite a recent date for a now well-known magazine to surface from nothing. In the year of 2006, XXL Magazine overtook a struggling hip-hop producer and DJ magazine called ‘Scratch’. In the year of 2013, the XXL Magazine started their own annual award. This is where the public are given the opportunity to choose the top 5 artists in this musical genre of rap/hip-hop. They have now also created a website which is highly popular in the world of hip-hop and it provides daily news updates for subscribers and those who visit the website. To this day, the XXL Magazine is still being published in the United States and comfortably selling hundreds of thousands of magazine.

The other well-known magazine which covers news on rap music and hip-hop music is called ‘VIBE’ magazine. This magazine was founde

d in 1993 by producer Quincy Jones. This particular music magazine was heavily focused upon R&B and Hip-Hop music artists, actors and other entertainers of sorts. Production of ‘VIBE’ magazine was bought to an end in the summer of 2009 but was then purchased by new owners and the magazine is now issued semi-monthly and features double covers and a large online presence. The main target audience for the magazine is predominantly urban, youthful followers of the hip-hop/rap culture. In the year of 2014, the magazine announced that they would only publish their magazine on the internet so they became ‘online-only’. The inside of the magazine consisted of question columns, celebrity gossip, fashion updates and many more features which is just one of the many reasons for the extreme popularity of this magazine.

VIBE Magazine cover page.