HIP HOP MASTHEADS

The hip-hop logo is bold and sharp this is similar to the genre of music as hip-hop music is very sharp and to the point. The colour of the hip-hop masthead changes to suit the colour scheme of the magazine. This makes the logo very diverse. The colour is very flat with no fades or outlines. The P has the words connection running up the letter this is left transparent and the picture or colour behind it can be seen.

The text is normally covered by another layer normally a rapper. The masthead is tall and takes up a quartet of the top section of the magazine. This could relate to how hip-hop is very loud, by making the masthead big bold and tall it relates the loudness of the music genre.

The vibe magazine masthead is similar to the Hip-Hop connections magazine masthead, However the vibe magazine has not got any words running through each other like the hip-hop magazine has. The masthead has a bold font and is fat and big across the top of the page. Similar to the Hip-Hop connections magazine the vibe masthead can be coloured to match the colour scheme of the page. The colur red is very common among vibe magazines. Some fade effects are sometimes used on the text. The bold text could show power and dominance. The masthead takes up the top quarter of the page.

The XXL masthead never changes colour unlike the Hip-Hop connections and vibe mastheads. The logo has a bright red background with bold white font. Like the other magazines this masthead is used as a layer and other images are placed over them e.g. bottom right hand corner. The masthead is very bold and bright and would be easily spotted from far away.

The Source magazineThe source magazine masthead is bold red with a slight shadow and a black thin stroke going around the letters. “The” is rotated and lent on the main text. The source sometimes changes colour from red to white however it does not change colour allot. It is very noticeable that mastheads are used as layers in all magazines as the main image tends to overlap the masthead. The font is bold and stands out. The masthead takes up the top section of the magazine.

The codes and conventions of Hip Hop magazines

Most hip hop magazines use bold text with a stroke out like to make it bold and stand out. This may be because these magazines are loud and dominant. Most hip hop magazines use the colour red frequently this could represent aggression or defiance. The use of these bold fonts and colours make these magazines very noticeable and loud on a shelf of surrounding magazines. Most of them had a main image of a rapper on the front. This would also catch the eye of people when looking for a magazine.

All of them had relatively short names for mastheads such as XXL or VIBE. This could suggest the magazine is to the point. All the magazines had a main colour scheme and the masthead was diverse in that they could change according to the colour scheme of the magazine.