Magazine Research & Planning

Genre

1) The genre that my magazine will be is rap. It will be rap because it intrests me and I think it is a very powerful genre. What I mean by this is that the lyrics can be very hard hittign and emotional, and it is very easy to tell a story through rap, and this is why I find it interesting. I find it really easy to relate to some of the rap lyrics aswell and i started listening to it when all my friends were into it.

2) Rap music has been around for quite a while now but no where near as long asd other genres like pop. Pop started around the 1920's/1930's, whereas rap mainly started around the 70's/80's. Gilbert Scott-Heron was one of the first rappers. He was a spoken word performer (rapper). He started performing in the early 70's. The main two people who started rap music off were Tupac and Biggie. Tupac released his first solo album in 1991. He sold over 75 million records worldwide as of 2010. Biggie released his first solo album in 1994. Tupac and Biggie both made rap big and made it a more recognised genre around the 80's/90's.

3) Rap music has changed a lot over time. The main change is that most rap music used to be underground and was not really recognised and stereotyped with a gang culture, whereas over time it has become more mainstream and people have started to accept it more and it is more recognised and it is not seen so much in a bad light as much now. Also, content of rap music has started changing over time. Back when rap first originated, people would rap about life and its stuggles, but now a lot of people just rap about drugs, alcohol and girls. This is another change. However, you do still get rappers who have good meaningful lyrics.

4) Technology has had a big influence on rap. With technology the way it is not, rap is more accessable to people who enjoy listening to it, so this is another contributing factor as to why rap has become more popular. Also a big thing is auto-tune. Back when rap originated, auto-tune would never be used, no-one would have dreamt of using it. Now, artists like T-Pain use auto-tune in most of their songs and this is something that is being used more and more in all genre's, not just rap. Auto-tune is not a good thing in my eyes because it allows people who arnt talented enough to be artists can make it big in the world.

5) Other media platforms such as TV have influenced rap becuase on TV rap is now used in adverts, on TV shows as backing music, on talent shows, people sing rap songs. In fashion magazines you see how rappers dress and how they act and people may follow a trend and this is all making rap bigger and bigger. Rap in films such as 8 mile and Notorious and Get Rich Or Die Trying are all movies about certain rap individuals and they generally show how hard they had life and there journey to the top. 8 mile is about Eminem, one of the best rappers to have lived. Notorious is about Biggie and shows his life. And lastly Get Rich Or Die Trying is about 50 Cent. All these three movies shows about all of their stuggles and they way they made it to the top. All these movies about rap are revealing more about rap and bringing it into the spotlight and more people are getting to know about it.

6) The micro elements of rap are:

• Lyrics - the lyrics are a micro element because they help to build up an image of rap which is a macro element. Image is a macro element because it shows how the whole of rap is percieved. Lyrics help to tell a story but they are not a macro element because they are only a small thing compared to everything else involved in rap, such as voilence, drugs, alcohol, girls and gangs. Lyrics help to show this because alot of rappers are now rapping about stuff like this instead of about good things in life like the old rappers used to.
• Sound - the sound uses a lot of sampling as a lot of the time, they don't make thier own tunes. Rap is very post modern and intertextual. For example 'Stan' by Eminem, this used Dido's song called 'Thank You'. This provided the catchy hook for this track.
• Humour - a lot of rap songs invole humour in a very particular way. They have a lot of funny/twisted jokes which also make it interesting because if you listen carefully it tells a story in a funny way and it is very clever sense of humour. 

This is 'Stan' by Eminem ft. Dido. If you listen to this, you can hear all the sounds, and also if you listen to the lyrics, you can see why I mentioned about humour in a twisted way.

Examples

I am going to give you two examples of old rap and new rap. You will be able to see and hear the difference straight away and this just shows how much rap has chanced over time.

This first song is called 'Changes' by 2pac. This song is about changes happening in his life and about how tough life was!

This next song is called '6 foot 7 foot' by Lil' Wayne. This is very different to Changes and you can spot this straight away. The song is a lot more upbeat and the lyrics are more to do with drugs, girls and alcohol. The lyrics are very clever and funny though, which fits into the humour category.