Main task - Codes and conventions of music magazine front cover.

There are a numerous amount of codes and conventions for music magazines, ranged between obvious and completely new to the audience. However for a hip-hop soul magazine the codes and conventions specifically that the audience would already be aware of, are as follows:

• Masthead(situated at the top of the front cover)

On every magazine front cover there is a masthead. A masthead is a large, bold-usually drawing attention- title for the magazine. It regularly signifies the genre of the magazine, e.g when the genre is music, the mastheads for hip hop soul music magazine are normally the same, and the names of known music channels on the television, or something relating to soul. As if the genre where gossip, the masthead would normally have something to do with that such as, heat, bliss, and the name gossip itself.

• Barcodes

The barcode is to signify that the magazine is for sale, and is present on every front or back cover. It is normally situated in a corner.

• Prices

The price of the magazine is sometimes more noticeable on certain magazines that others. For children magazines, or cheaper magazine the price may be placed in a bright coloured bubble to attract the reader to the price itself or to give it life. However hip-hop soul music magazines do not tend to make their price stand out as the colours used are normally dull.

• Taglines

The tagline is the memorable phrase normally placed below the masthead, to create a friendly effect, mode of address. The tagline can also lead to humour depending on what the tagline states and for what audience. The tagline has to be catchy so that people enjoy reading it, and want to discover more throughout the magazine. This in turn makes the reader sometimes remember the magazine, therefore buy it again, all depending on the how effective the tagline is and how it comes across to the audience. Hip-hop soul music magazines, do not always tend to have a tagline, as the content is more important.

• Cover lines

Cover lines are situated in almost every magazine genre existing. This is because the cover lines create the excitement, mode of address. They represent a teaser to what is inside the magazine, therefore have to be short, snappy, but hold a great deal of importance. The cover lines on a hip-hop soul music magazine catches the audiences' eyes when they pass the magazine, e.g for music magazines, the cover lines state artists names and information about them that their target audience would want to know. This means that the audience would draw to the magazine and read it.

• Images
  

Images are present on most magazines, as they are used to attract the audience visually. There are subsidiary images placed over different sections of the front cover but normally around the main image followed by information about the image. On a hip-hop soul music magazine, the images are aloud to overlap, therefore the main image can me large and overlap the masthead too.

• Main Image

The main image is basically what it says it is. As the main image is what will make the buyer look at the magazine. Therefore if it is of a celebrity of the right genre an age group then the magazine will sell well. The main image can also be used to create a colour scheme, therefore is compared to to the colours. In some hip-hop soul music magazine, the main image looks like it is off the page, and the artist or band whose image in on the front cover, normally wear close suitable with the colour scheme.

The not so obvious codes and conventions of music magazines are as follows;

• Consistent dark colours

Most of the colour schemes in music magazines are dark colours. Except for those of young, excitable genres such as 'Top Of The Pops'. In a music magazine with the genre of hip-hop soul, the colours vary, but they are never normally bright and stand out.

• Block font

For an attracting visual effect the font of the main texts like the masthead, is mostly in block fonting. Most hip-hop soul music magazines, use a mixture of font as this is mellow, matching with the music, therefore they tend to use italic even for their masthead.

• 2-3 colours(limited, mostly black, white, and red.

On quite a lot of music magazines, such as 'Q', 'Kerrang' the majority of the colours are limited, and they are limited between the colours black, white and red. However, for a hip-hop soul magazine, the colours can vary but stay at a low intensity, and shade of colours.

• Stories from cover lines linking to the genre of the music

The stories on the front cover, usually link to the genre of the hip-hop soul music magazine to direct the reader, and so they are aware what it inside the magazine just by reading the cover lines.

• Linking/contrasting colours

The colours tend to link or contrast so that either way there is an effect of the vision of the front cover magazine as a whole piece. This can draw in the readers as their eyes are caught by the colours.

• Buzzwords

Buzzwords are the words that are stood out by using a bright contrasting bubble, or a different, larger or bolder font. The words could be as follows; 'New', 'Save', 'Latest', therefore the buyer will be attracted to read the front cover as they might see it saying its cheaper, or new. creating differences to all the other magazines. Hip-hop soul magazines, seem to use more buzzwords that have to do with the music itself.

• Appropriate layout to target audience

The layout has to be similar, appropriate and understandable to the target audience. This is so they audience feels safe, and easy reading the front cover as they understand the layout. They then may feel obligated to purchase the magazine.