Music magazine industry tasks research

Music magazine industry tasks research


Hip-hop/ R&B- Vibe magazine

Vibe is an American music and entertainment magazine; launched in 1993. It was founded by producer Quincy Jones. In summer 2009, Vibe announced it was shutting down production there so it was soon purchased by the private equity investment fund InterMedia Partners. Primarily the magazine features R&B and Hip-Hop music artists but also includes topics such as music, sports, lifestyle, entertainment and fashion. The magazine is issued semi-monthly. The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip hop culture; a lot of which include males aged 18-34 of African American decent because the magazine regularly supplies topics which have a strong “black culture” influence.  In 2014, the magazine moved online-only, which gave it a larger online presence. Vibe magazine was known for the creative direction of their covers. The magazine also devoted several pages to photo spreads displaying high-end designer clothing as well as sportswear by urban labels such as Rocawear and Fubu, Vibe made a consistent effort to feature models of all ethnicities in these pages which shows diversity and equality in their brands image. As well as the magazine, Vibe also publishes books on hip hop culture. R&B singer Mary J. Blige repeatedly made the cover of Vibe, with countless articles following her career. Vibe has a frequent theme on its front covers which is using big hip-hop images to promote their magazines for example on the cover they consistently use big names as of the likes of Nelly, Nicki Minaj, Akon, Neyo etc. Commonly the cover star also has an African American heritage but since the magazine was taking a very diverse approach they began to involve other ethnicities, Kesha being the first Caucasian female to be on the front cover in October 2012.


Vibe magazine has adopted a very bold masthead on majority of their covers. I have chosen a few here where they have used bold red font which contrast the rest of the color scheme on the page and accentuates the brand name, which draws readers in instantly.  On these cover pages they have also used very big stars in the R&B music industry which can really attract an array of audiences because even if someone doesn’t read the magazine, they could be drawn in by the artist on the cover. Vibe has also an underlying theme of the term “sex sells” because they have portrayed some of the artist on the cover in a sexual manor, them being topless or dressed in very little clothing etc. The color red is also a color that connotes love, passion and heat which ties in with the whole theme of the page; this is a very clever marketing technique which a lot of magazines use to catch the eye of people when a magazine is being distributed in shops, newsagents etc.

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