Research For Music Magazine - Deciding what Genre

I have decided that I am going to design a urban music magazine, but I am currently unsure which style. Therefore I researched various styles of urban music magazines to analyse.

This is a rap magazine, it would appear to have a target audience of between 15-28 year olds who have an interest in the rap industry and the culture that surrounds it. It follows a common format of having the mast head along the top of the magazine and using one full page photo of a model and inserting cover lines into the left third. I like the black white and red them as it is eye catching and draws attention to the mast head. Unlike a majority of magazine cover formats, The Source has inserted a cover line above the mast head which is unusual. It is clear that the more important cover lines have been highlighted using red, red connotes power and stands out, for this reason it is an ideal colour to use to draw in the niche audience the magazine are aiming at. By putting in recognisable words and phrases such 'Hollywood' and 'Nas' the cover is appealing to a certain audience type. 

This is an example of a weekly R&B magazine, its target audience is those who have an interest in R&B music and culture (perhaps a youthful audience). It follows the common format of having the masthead along the top third of the page and using the left and right thirds for information. A commonly recognisable model has been used to attract the potential reader and his name has been stated in the left third - This is unusual for a magazine cover as the left third is usually used to address more than one cover line, however on this cover the smaller cover lines have been put on the right hand side. I like the simplicity of the magazine cover as it draws attention to the detail that is there, EG the T.I article - by using the similar font size to the title, the magazine is telling the reader that this is the main article featured within.

 This is a Hip-Hop magazine aimed at those who have an interest in the hip hop culture. The older model on the cover suggests that the magazine is also aiming to appeal at an older audience as well as the typical urban  music magazine readers. The only way in which the cover abides to the common cover formatting is by applying the title in the top third and making the font larger than the other cover lines, it also uses a recognisable model and using an image that features between their head and torso. The barcode is usually located along the bottom of the cover in either the left or right cover, on this front page the barcode is found above the little information that is given on what can be found within the magazine. The format seems to have no use the vertical thirds that many magazines abide by, only 5 cover lines given along the bottom. I personally feel that the magazine is solely relying on the model to appeal and sell to the customers but I don't believe that it will be enough to do so as potential readers rely on the cover to gain an insight as to what they can find within the pages.