RESEARCHING THE GENRE
THE HISTORY OF R&B
Rhythm and blues is a popular African and American music that started in the 1940s and was referred to as 'race music' originated from black people but the term was deemed to be racist and is now referred to as R&B. There has been several shifts in the meaning of R&B, in the 1950's it was referred to blues records. R&B developed from a combinations of genre, such as electric blues,gospel and soul music.
CHANGES IN R&B During the 1980s new producers began adding slick drum beats to the traditional African American music and since the rise of the music video the objective of R&B has changed dramatically. It is also less soulful and often has similar features of hip hop and pop.
REASONS FOR CHOOSING R&B
I decided to pick R&B as my genre, as I believe it is popular at the moment and has a broad appeal. Artist such as beyonce, usher and Alicia keys have been popular artists whist I've grown up.
RESEARCHING DISTRIBUTION
IMAGE: Magazines often influence their reader by what images they use, as people aspire to be like famous singers and want to look like them. This image of the very toned man is a good example. Yet the way the man is standing and his facial expression is very direct, along with the fact he has several tattos. The image gives a reflection of the what will be included inside the magazine. Making R&B seem like a particulary aggressive. This mid shot image stands out well against the black background and is effective how it overlaps the mast head.
TEXT: There are several plugs on this front cover, mostly of famous artist featured in the magazine. The use of red and white text makes the magazine look slick and profeestion. Also o be the variety of fonts work well as it highlights different sections on text. Numbers next to the important information, allows the text to be shortened to its simplest form.
COLOUR SCHEME: The black background has a tiled effect that softens the harsh colour. The red, white and black combination is simple and attracts the eye straight to the image. The red is particularly striking.
IMAGE: like the VIBE front cover this on has a very direct image. The side on angle creates a with drawn effect and as mystery. The image is also behind all text meaning its doesn't stand out as much as others. His facial expression makes him look quite sad and almost scared.He is wearing casual clothes as well, showing R&B is fairly informal. Yet the hat add an essence of class.
TEXT: The mast head and the sub heading BILAL are the boldest thing on the cover the fact the font is bigger and thicker than all the others makes it lot more important and captures the reader attention first. The plugs are also at a slant separating them from each other allowing more words to be in one space. The font used for the mast head is very strong and symmetrical creating a clear identity for the magazine.
COLOUR SCHEME: The connotations for red could be passion, implying that the artist are passionate about the music they create. I think the orange text slightly clashes with the red background so ill need to consider colour choices when planning my cover.
IMAGE: Having such a famous artist (such as Rihanna) will increase the ratings of a magazine substantially. The fact Rihanna's hair is so bright represents her outrageous personality, and the pose/position she is in intrigues the reader.The image has also quite clearly been photos hoped giving an unrealistic example of skin to younger audiences. Like the first front cover tattoos are on display reflecting the genre. The image is in front of the text attracting the focus away from the mast head. The dark shadows create a party atmosphere.
TEXT: All the text on this page is white making the magazine look pure and clean. The faded effect on the bottom of the word Rihana cause the font to blend in with the background.The way the plugs are highlighted yellow, shows its important and proves there other features rather than Rihanna.
COLOUR SCHEME: I think white text works well with most background colours, particularly against the dark blue. yet the most striking colour is the red hair it over rides everything else on the front cover, i not sure this is a good thing. Ill need to take that into consideration when choosing my image.
IMAGE: The head shot in this cover is very casual looking and it hard to understand the expression on her face. I think the fact she is blowing a bubble with chewing gum makes the magazine look like its aimed at a younger audience. The image also looks very photo shopped as her skin looks flawless.
TEXT: There is loads of different types of fonts used in this magazine cover. I think the mast head would go better if it was in red as the black is a bit to harsh a solid.
RESEARCHING TARGET AUDIENCE FOR R&B
when rhythms and blues was first developed the target audience was mainly black African American. Yet today the audience is much wider and the genre is much more popular. From my research I have noticed that more female than males listen to R&B therefore my magazine will be aim predominately at female between the ages of 15-28.
I ask 20 people who said they listen to R&B music to fill in this questionnaire to find out which gender age and nationality like R&B music the most. I also found out what there favourite artist is. My finding indicated the more males than females liked R&B yet females favourite artist were a mixture of both female and males artist. And that the most popular age for people who listened to R&B was 16-20 and 21-25.
RESEARCHING MAST HEAD
After looking at several mast head from existing magazines I have realised that the font and colours are the two most important elements. Having bright colours in the mast head, like the BILLBOARD mast head may limit the choice of colours available to use in the background and main image. I think having a black background looks professional and would create more of an R&B feel.
This is my mosck up I have included all the elements i thought were successful when researching existing covers and adapted them to create a uniques cover.
RESEARCHING MAST HEAD
After looking at several mast head from existing magazines I have realised that the font and colours are the two most important elements. Having bright colours in the mast head, like the BILLBOARD mast head may limit the choice of colours available to use in the background and main image. I think having a black background looks professional and would create more of an R&B feel.
This clash mast head to the left is effective as it has a combination of slanted and straight letters and the text flows very well with the small gap between each letter. I have found with many magazines that they have a variety of colour choices for there mast head which they are able to adapt to suit the image on the front cover and the issue theme.
DECIDING ON THE NAME OF MY R&B MAGAZINE
These are the three possible ideas for the name of my front cover. As the magazine will primarily be aimed at females I wanted the name to be related to the characteristics of a successful artists or the making of R&B music. The idea UNLEASED is based on the idea of upcoming artists and then this theme could be continued through out the magazine, with interview and feature article on new artists to the charts. On the other hand ELEMENTS focuses on the idea that R&B music today is a combination of different elements from other existing genre. And DIVA is often a word associated with R&B artist who have big personalitys.
PLANNING MY MAIN IMAGE
These are the four options for my front cover image. I wanted to capture the image from a variety of angles to see which looked the most effective. It is important there is enough space around the image for the plugs and mast head therefore I'm three would not be suitable as it too close up, and the top of her hair is cut out of the picture which would look strange on a front cover. Image 2 is unusual as it is from behind and would be striking on a magazine shelf. but, I don't think it suits the genre of R&B. Shot one and four are my favour as they add emphasis on the theme of R&B, yet I think image four is the best as having the hair up makes the headphones stand out more and highlights the magazine is about music. Even though I wont be using the other shots on the front cover i may use them for the other pages in my magazine.
This is the image I'am using for my front cover. I have added various effects to each and have asked my target audience which they prefer. In my results I found that the enhanced image on the left got the most positive feedback as people thought the vibrant colour stood out compared to their others.
This is the first stage in making my layout of my magazine. Once I has decided on the image and edited to be suitable for the cover, I added the mast head along with the magazine slogan "bringing R&B to life"
The next steps were adding the main storyline, which was based on the upcoming artist Miss Kelly Jay. I decided to use a variety of fonts to direct the readers attention.
This is my final front cover, I decided to add a banner at the bottom as some of the people I ask for feedback said it looked like a poster before.
