Evaluation Questions: 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


As there are no Dubstep orientated music magazines on the market it is difficult for me to show comparisons to other magazines as I am trying to challenge stereotypical perceptions on such music based publications, much like Dubstep is doing as a music genre. There are however elements which I have taken from existing magazines. Below show's some magazines I gained inspiration from for the creation of my front cover in terms of the model and layout.

Here are 3 magazines in which I gained inspiration from, along with my finished front cover. My magazine featured in the top left hand corner shows my model dressed in a white lab coat, popular "geek chic" glasses, and wearing Dre Beat Headphones. I used this costume to give my model a believable persona, to make him stand out against the majority of bland looking artists, and to also relate back to previous ideas gained from looking at magazines. Artist persona's are not uncommon in today's music industry and are in fact becoming a more popular feature within upcoming artists. Deadmau5 featured in the bottom right hand corner on the cover of DJ Mag epitomizes this statement, using a persona which the majority of people would agree is 'out there' and challenges the common conventions and associations people have in what a music artist should look like. This is the reaction I would like my artist to have on readers and having such a unique style would spark interest in passers by. The slightly visible clipboard is also a prop that was frequently suggested for me to use with the whole science idea and I have done so with the models posture showing resemblance to Ludacris showing a fairly vacant facial expression.


The cover-line I have used to associate with the picture is "Rewriting The Formula For DUBSTEP". The almost pun-like statement can easily be connected with the picture with 'Rewriting the Formula' a common phrase used when talking about scientific related subjects. This connection of the phrase with the picture is similarly shown in the picture opposite, on the cover of Hip-Hop magazine XXL. This shows Hip-Hop artist Ludacris holding a camera with the tag line "Will Shoot Yo' Ass" once again using a play on words with the term 'shoot' commonly used in association with filming.


This is shown again in the example from NME featuring the Arctic Monkeys, dressed up as elves for a Christmas issue with the cover-line "Their favourite worst nightmare before CHRISTMAS". Although not in the same context as this is not the bands general style and persona, it is still relevant in the sense my cover-line is clearly teamed with the picture.


If you want to know why I chose the clothes for both my front cover model and my featuring artist 'Syla' in the contents and double page spread you can find more information (here).


Similarly there is more evidence about the decision of creating a persona for my artist (here).

Although I briefly cover my clothing choices for my other model I felt it vital to show some relevance towards them and to show that this style is visible in real world publications such as Atmosphere Magazine. Here you can see the popular Dubstep artist Sub Focus.


The similarities to my fictional artist 'Syla' are clearly evident. I decided to use my picture in black and white much like Atmosphere magazine. The desaturated effect is seen repeatedly when describing such artists. Both are wearing hooded jackets which backed up by my previous research (link above), is seen as a stereotypical look on Dubstep artists.


It could be argued that both pictures strongly focus on the eyes, Nick Douwma's being the centre of attention due to the rest of his body being blocked by text and a CD, and mine by the vinyl record, a common sight when genre associated gigs are witnessed, blocking his body, resting just below the eyes.

 Here is my double page spread, overlapped with Dubstep artist Gemini. This picture of Gemini helped me base my models overall stance for the Double Page Spread and the similarites are obvious, with some slight differences such as the angle of the shot and lighting although the overall expression and positioning is mirrored. I used this rather than a magazine picture as there are very few magazines which are made using 'Dubstep' as a main featuring genre (if any). This along with the process of getting an accurate representation of the genre based research as well as common conventions of a Dubstep artist, is why this is an approriate choice and would be accepted by the potential readers in the social grouping.