An Examination of 'Source Magazine', an American Hip Hop magazine in terms of Genre, Ideology, Audience, Change through time and principally Representation
Issues: July to September 1999
Genre
The magazine I have chosen to analyse is titled "The Source, the magazine of hip hop culture and politics". Its generic formula consists a number of key elements such as:
¨ Reader's comments and letter page, featuring a combination of both positive and negative (substantially more positive) feedback on the previous months articles.
¨ A section featuring mini-interviews with new up and coming artists (Microphone check)
¨ A collection of full length interviews with established and 'most popular of the month' artists
¨ A regular update page on all the latest news, rumours and facts about the hip hop scene (court appearances, law suits and controversy being the most favoured topic with the editors)
¨ The monthly chart page featuring the latest album and compilation reviews
¨ (Recent addition) A Current affairs journal of professional, international writers experiences in Africa
The most noticeable aspect in the way Source addresses it audience is the wide variety of linguistic discourses and contradictory/contrasting modes of address it features within its pages.
Whilst serious topical debates are conducted with comprehensible, well-constructed sentences devoid of foul language and slang, the remainder of the magazine is filled with the a mixture of the widely recognised 'black' ghetto profanity that has become synonymous with hip-hop music (and incidentally earned much of its music genre the infamous parental advisory censorship label) and the controversial American youth s-language 'Ebonics'.
Source's monthly content follows the traditional codes and conventions of its own unique genre: The hip-hop music magazine/black style and culture magazine. The price of the publication is $2.95 (in Britain £2.50), so effectively compared to rival magazines in America it is relatively cheap considering its physical size (near 400 pages).
Emphasis is placed upon the newest style of dress, newest artists and also in the post-millennium issues Source has added the latest music-creating technology to the consumer race. The magazine's obsession with material wealth, whether in the form of platinum jewellery reviews or the seasonal guide to rapper's (as the hip-hop music artists are also known) expensive cars/ mobile mansions and their equally excessive sound systems, is the key generic signifier and becomes the concurrent theme along with financial success within the magazine's pages. However, this may not be entirely the magazine's own doing as it's institution exists within a society that is equally obsessed with materialistic values and where one's success is measured by the amount of possessions one openly displays.
The rest of the magazine content itself is dominated by advertising, which would lead to the assumption that Source magazine as a financial institution, is heavily dependent on advertising revenue in order to generate profit.
The ratio of advertisements to non-advertisements is approximately 1:2. The percentage of advertisements featured in Source that are record promotions is surprisingly small considering Source's principal mission statement is that of dedication to hip-hop music and its advancement worldwide, which ironically in America is a multi-million pound industry; this accompanied by the ever expanding and highly competitive hip-hop fashion industry advertisements, would appear to produce a large part of the magazines overall revenue.
The magazine appears to target a male readership, which is indicated by the depiction of women, particularly in the advertisements, as sexual objects and rewards of success. A quarterly swimsuit edition is also published, offering the reader ten pages of scantily clad women, posing provocatively in a variety of designer swimwear and beach lingerie. The placing of women with material goods in advertising is of course not a new phenomenon, but Source's continual and consistent presentation of such imagery, could be construed as re-inforcing the sexist notion of women being items and objects available for possession as well. The magazine is extremely visual and relies on images which are sexually provocative, images often associated with certan fashion magazines, posters, record covers.
A fair characterisation of the repetitive and almost stereotype induced icons within the pages of source would be to say that they appear to represent the American media's traditionally narrow conception of 'black-ness', masculinity and its synonymy with macho-toughness.
The 'models' that appear within the magazine (representations of normal everyday people of differing shapes and sizes are noticeably absent) are typically tall, very muscular and fair of face, though the images often portray a sublime anger or aggression through posture. These images 'appear' to inadvertently provide the body template for the 'Hip-hop Man and Women', though the notion of it being covertly constructed may be more applicable.
The magazine exclusively features hip-hop artists that have record contracts with major labels in the music industry. Its selling strategy is based upon/ dependant on the 'pull' that the artists featured on the front cover have. In return for publicity and vital exposure for the established and up and coming artists the magazine uses them to attract its readers. (Still these artists must have released some material for mainstream consumption, i.e. a hit single in the American charts). However, the front cover picture is reserved for the big names, the rap music heavyweights and instantly recognisable faces. This ensures the magazine will be noticed and stand out amongst its competitors on the shelf.
Source magazine has its own brand. It is considered amongst the elite of the hip-hop music industry, to be the best music magazine in its genre. Its brand is an exciting, high quality and personal link to the biggest stars in the industry.
This is evident in the way the relationship between the interviewer and subject is constructed and amount of personal details that are in the in-depth interviews. Many of the artists even pay homage to the Source magazine, some to the extent of naming the magazine in their song lyrics. To receive five microphones (equivalent to 5 gold stars) in the Source album reviews is to hip-hop artists considered to be comparable to an actor winning an Oscar award.
Such is the influence of Source magazine amongst the hip-hop industry, it can make or break artists musical careers and dramatically affect record sales consumption. It now even has an annual music award ceremony (Source Music Awards) that rivals the massive popular, multi-million pound MTV Awards.
Source magazine also covers cultural and political current affairs and attempts to involve its readers in the topical debates that are closely linked and perceived relevant to the black community in America. (Note: that black Americans and black South Africans are the only black communities across the globe that feature within topical debates in the magazine).
However these articles do not feature as boldly on the cover as the interviews with the music artists and play a secondary role in the magazines physical composition. It offers the reader an alternative tone of communication when dealing with such debates/articles.
Source's main rival is a magazine of black music titled 'Vibe'.
Representation and Ideology
The representation of blackness is covertly one of the central themes that channelled through Source magazine, however this task is not simply special to Source, but it is an instrumental agent in the whole process.
A proud nationalism is paraded throughout hip-hop music, which Source magazine unself-consciously promotes, but this simultaneously silences those other black voices, in particular women and gay men and lesbians. The hip-hop culture/ generation that Source claims to represent has in appearance rejected these totalising conceptions of blackness, which normalise certain characteristics such as gender and sexuality.
To the reader, Source presents a robust masculine heterosexuality as the real 'black' signifier and organising motif. Various groups and factions within the hip-hop industry reinforce this notion of 'blackness' by prioritising their own very narrow versions of black masculinity. These are simply individuals within a fragmented and often contradictory hip-hop culture; however, it is often these individuals who receive the most publicity, albeit negative (but any publicity is considered good) and even attract attention of local and national politicians who take on the role of self-appointed music watchdogs.
Source's role in the representation of black people in media is not as honourable as initially appears. Although the magazine throughout preaches the idea of black-empowerment and progress for black people, Source finds its self confined to using and reproducing the traditional stereotypes that co-exist within other media in America.
The main repetitive image of the young, angry black male staring threateningly directly at the reader, in its reoccurrence, not only assists the construction and maintenance of negative media stereotypes, but also deceives the reader into believing that these images, and the type of behaviour and attitude it connotes, are accepted and sanctioned by a black institution that claims to operate for the social advancement of that community.
What becomes apparent from closer inspection of the types of news-bites featured in Source is that the majority of these items are centred around the negativity that is often associated with hip-hop music and its stars. Black celebrities in America, particularly in the 'white' media, often receive most publicity when involved in controversy or a misdemeanour against the establishment. This is the case because these stories attract a lot of attention, i.e. they sell.
It is often the case that, little media attention is given to the black American celebrity doing good for their respective communities and who provides a positive role model. Source magazine finds itself guilty of this tactic of exploiting isolated incidents of violence involving rappers, court cases and indictments, and using them to help construct and to maintain a marketable representation of the hip-hop image and culture through their magazine.
Source's iconic representations of gold teeth, baseball hats, designer trainers and gold chains suggests that a materialistic "make money" ideology is the central theme behind these covert messages channelled through the imagery used throughout the magazine.
This materialistic theme in the magazine reflects the dominating ideology in American society. It is also evident in American soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty but less concealed.
The magazine's cover is consistently involved in reinforcing this ideology, the current month's issue (October '99, issue 121), features four members of an up and coming group, coincidentally named, "Cash Money Crew" (see appendix 1). Four aggressively posturing young men showing off platinum, not gold, jewellery and wearing bandanas often associated with American youth gang culture provides an ambiguous meaning to the reader.
On one hand, the image could be decoded as four young black males who have worked hard to gain the possessions and wealth on display, yet another perspective could take the view that it not only glorifies gang culture, but encourages the anti-establishment/education route to vast wealth, off-shoots of this being crime and drugs. Incidentally a healthy proportion of the hip-hop artists featured within the magazine claim affiliation with one of the previously mentioned offshoots.
Although Source presumably adopts an anti-crime and drugs stance, it does not appear throughout the magazine to openly promote and encourage academic achievement or economic advancement through employment. However, consistent representations of symbols of wealth, i.e. designer clothing, expensive jewellery and equally expensive motor vehicles, leads one to wonder how the magazine is encouraging the aspiring reader to pay for such goods. Many of the current the hip-hop stars are undoubtedly considered as role models for the younger generation of black Americans (though it is not un-common for white youths also to view the predominantly black hip-hop artists as role models), but it is widely known that many of the artists did not follow the conventional routes to success and this in fact becomes romanticised in the Source's interviews.
The traditional 'rags to riches' story has now become synonymous with hip-hop music, and Source magazine plays upon this, in order to encourage people aspiring to become part of 'the lifestyle' that the products advertised within its pages are not out of reach. This is a similar incarnation of the 'American Dream', the romanticised ideology of the American Constitution, that suggest that social equality, justice and equal opportunity exist within American society.
From further analysis of the advertisement and general magazine content of Source, it appears that the covert message behind the repetition of such imageries of 'success' (in terms of material acquisition and financial wealth), could not be dissimilar to the ideological notion of 'By any means necessary" (accredited to the late Malcom X,) .
It is quite evident from analysis of Source's pictorial and written content that a number of noticeable statistical absences become clear to the reader. The absence of visual representations of certain sections of society appears to be a mechanism used by Source when attempting to 'construct' the hip-hip community in America.
Those absent from the magazine include:
· South East Asian communities living in the U.S. (e.g. Chinese)
· Minorities from the Indian Sub-continent
· Women over 30
· Men over 50
· Disabled individuals
Audience
The relationship between Source magazine and its readers, like any other media text/publication is implicitly based upon making the reader feel that the magazine is purposely constructed for that individual or individuals they wish to identify with.
Source attempts to do this by claiming to be the magazine of not just hip-hop music, but of black style, fashion, culture and even politics. This wide repertoire of choice attempts to entice a wider segment of the population into becoming active consumers of their product. In order to do this Source magazine positions its audience within a much wider framework than most other magazines.
Whilst the music and Hip-hop stars appeal to the younger, more credulous reader, the politics and topical issues would attract older more astute readers. In doing this, Source magazine becomes a media publication that is consumed by many different types of readers, for many different reasons and in many different ways. Some readers, it is then fair to say, may only be interested in certain parts of the magazine for a specific purpose/ gratification.
· The need for identification with black culture and political issues
· The need for entertainment
· The need for company
· The need for adjustment and comparison of personal identity against black media role models and representations of 'blackness'
· The need to gain information about hip-hop music, and its celebrities, personalities and artists.
Any one of the above or all of the above may be the reason the magazine is bought, e.g. the reader is interested in the latest album reviews and releases, and uses Source in order to receive guidance for their next purchase. However this reader may have no interest in politics or black fashion and may even be white, but they still become members of that particular audience sector.
This is where Source magazine is effective in attaining a wide audience base, because though the Source reader may not subscribe to the magazine as a whole, they will at least subscribe to one of the mini-genres within it.
However, for some Source readers, the product loyalty is largely connected to the personalities and performers and to the hip-hop music itself. This loyalty, referred to as 'fan-dom' extends to include texts and publications in other media forms, i.e. the Hip-hop music listener then becomes a Source reader, not the other way around due to the primary affiliation with the Hip-hop culture. The culture of Hip-hop music is about lifestyle; Source magazine is similar to all lifestyle magazines in that it is a consumer magazine. It is in the business of offering the lifestyle and the lifestyle products (the clothes, watches, jewellery and attitude), which accompanies the ever-growing consumerist culture that is Hip-hop music today.
The magazine takes full advantage of the 'wanna-be' culture of fashion and style, and often covertly 'suggests' that if the reader purchases the particular item of clothing or footwear, they will become part of that glamorous fantasy lifestyle.
This covert message is often reinforced with images of wealth, popularity and the traditional and often most decisive selling factor, beautiful women. In this respect, Source magazine acts as the line between the real commercial world of spending and the wanna-be fantasy world of spending.
The area in which other magazine genres fail, in terms of targeting and segmenting audiences for advertisers, Source magazine is seen to excel. Because Source magazine's genre (music magazine) falls into the category of hobby/common interest, it allows it to cut across the traditional model of audience segmenting used by the advertising industry: The Social and Economic groupings A-E, and allows for a much wider, diverse segment of the population to offer its advertisers.
The magazine, whilst ultimately under the guise of targeting 'comfortable' black Americans, provides its advertisers with a crossover audience which is intra-linked with white American mainstream culture. This is the case because in the US it is evident that black fashion and music of black origin is the dominant youth culture. Hip-hop and R'nB music (modern incarnation of traditional Soul music) are the two most popular forms of music, in terms of units bought in America and also the world.
The magazine flirts with this crossover audience many of whom are white, middle-class and populate suburban America. The leading fashion designer, Tommy Hilfiger, appears to have taken advantage of this large affluent following and also encouraged many of the Hip-hop artists to endorse his products. Hilfiger's double-spread clothing and perfume advertisement features in every edition of Source, both on immediate inside cover and in more recent editions on the back of the magazine. However black-orientated and 'street' Source claims to be, its responsibility/ obligation to the mainstream and the large percentage of white Hip-hop fans is still evident It also becomes apparent that, whilst the icons and images portrayed throughout the magazine are symbolic of black American and anti-establishment street culture (aggressive posturing such as 'flipping the bird', American street slang for raising one's middle finger, which connotes black youth rebellion, anger and defiance), the almost overwhelming volume of advertisements appear to cater for a much wider audience.
It would be fair to assume that many of the products advertised, for example, expensive designer labels, Platinum jewellery (Platinum being worth four times the price of solid gold), are beyond the financial reach of the average American, particularly the average Black American street dweller, who the magazine claims to represent.
This would suggest that, though the magazine is marketed as being 'street' and 'ghetto' and uses the controversial slang-language 'Ebonics', the advertisers within Source feel comfortable that their expensive designer products will stand a good chance of being bought. From the subtle use of pseudo-rebellion i.e. inclusion in the Source, one could assume that advertisers anticipate that the whole hip-hop ethos will be sub-consciously transmitted into their product via simple association.
This appears to be the marketing strategy employed by the designer companies and is designed to gain credence for their products amongst particular audience segments, which in this case is black people with money.
In more recent issues there has even appeared an advertisement for ' Head and Shoulders', a hair product synonymous with 'straight' non-afro hair. Head and Shoulders' television and magazine advertisement campaigns have always exclusively featured white models for both male and female products.
It is apparent, from closer analysis of the magazine content, that Source presents its audience with a wide collection of contrasting ideas and features contradictory themes and values. As a result of this, the magazine's main message and ultimate statement then becomes difficult to decipher and could make its audience, if the Frankfurt model is applied (collective and passive receptive), confused as to what or whose ideology is on display.
However, emphasis should be placed upon the individual reader and their knowledge and understanding they possess before they actively read Source. It would be near impossible to accept every piece of information, due to the contrasting discourses and contradictions; therefore it would be fair to assume the reader has to negotiate the text based upon their own values and personal beliefs.
With some of the information featured in Source, though it will be seen to be accepted by the reader i.e. the reading and enjoyment of an article that inadvertently glorifies violence and drugs, the message itself may ultimately be rejected.
Durational
The main specific content of the magazine is visibly subject to very little change. From close observation it appears that Source magazine, for the bulk of its pages, that are non-advertisements, relies heavily upon the progress of Hip-Hop artists and the overall direction of the 'fashion and fad' led Hip-Hop industry.
The basic formula from edition to edition remains ultimately the same, but due to the expansion of Hip-Hop music throughout the United States of America and also the world, the magazine seems to have little trouble in drawing upon a diverse pool of artists grateful for wide scale exposure. There exists a tacit relationship between the artists and the magazine; Source provides the artists with exposure and record sales, whilst the artists featured within the magazine provide Source principally with magazine sales and also just as important, credibility.
However, this mutually beneficial arrangement only extends to the artists who are either Hip-Hop music's brightest new prospects, or an established artist who is the 'flava of the month' or an old professional making a well publicised comeback.
Source shows particular 'loyalty' to artists who have become stars and maintained to be consistently in the limelight over their musical careers. There exists a seasonal rota for such artists, (their numbers consist of less than 20), so that within each issue at least one of them will be guaranteed to feature in order to guarantee Source magazine a consist fan base, the artists' fan base.
The price of the publication has remained consistent, even though the actual size of the magazine (number of pages) has actually increased steadily over the last 12 months. However, the increase in content is purely a deceptive increase of advertisements within the magazine and not actually articles.
One discreet change has occurred within the magazine's repertoire of reportage. The magazine has recently taken interest in Africa, in particular South Africa, and its political climate. In the style of classic investigative reporting, Source has taken upon the job of producing a monthly, detailed expose on the atrocities and civil wars that have plagued the continent.
It has always claimed to address current affairs issues and 'black' politics that do not directly subscribe to Hip-Hop, but the magazine has forever restricted itself to tackling issues on a regional and national scale. Source, when approaching these topics had, in the past, only dared to scratch the surface of controversial subjects, using small pictures and confining these articles to less than a full page of text. Recent changes have seen professional writers outside of the Source editorial staff being drafted in to write these specialist articles.
The positioning of these articles has now become consistent; they now occupy a permanent location in the middle of the magazine. The style and layout of this new breed of articles is in noticeable contrast with the rest of the magazine.
Sober and tangible imagery and pictures are used in order to help construct the stories, unlike in the music related articles where the pictures often bear no relevance to the subject of the text (i.e. all fashion poses and posturing). The pictures and images used in these are still large in relative size, but are anchored by concise captions.
The language of the captions is evocative and emotive, though the pictures themselves connote stronger messages.
A subtle change in advertising strategy has also paralleled the changes to the new look articles in Source. There now appears to be a wider audience that is being targeted by the advertisers within Source. The magazine has seen a noticeable increase in the number of white models within its advertisements.
Previously seen as a black model only domain, the advertisements not only feature a number white male and female models, but could also be construed as primarily targeting that particular segment of the market. As mentioned previously in the Audience section, Head and Shoulders have begun an advertising campaign which throughout it does not feature one black model and does not make a single reference to afro-hair or any hairstyles/forms associated with 'black' hair (such as braids, perms or dreadlocks).
However, it is not only cultural and racial boundaries that are being eroded in the name of consumerism, but also a diverse age and gender audience targeting strategy has also become employed.
The magazine in its most recent issues had adverts targeting women, not using women to gain a male attention but targeting women shopper/consumers.
Summary
Though it appears that Source magazine at times sacrifices its overall creditability and accountability to its readers for a healthy stake in the commercialised culture of hip-hop, the magazine still maintains a strong readership. However, what the reader must not forget, is that however culturally motivated Source magazine appears to be, Source magazine is principally a financial institution. Therefore its allegiance to its financial supporters - i.e. the advertisers, becomes the strongest influential force within the magazine. This is evident by the overwhelming amount of advertisements featured in relation to non-advertisements within the magazine.
This also indicates that profit is the magazine's priority rather that of implementing any realistic and noticeable social change.
This 'profit is king' mentality is endemic of institutions that exist in mainstream American society. The magazine's main ideology echo's America's own materialistic dominant capitalist ideology, in which material possessions and finance are almost placed together equally within the same sphere of importance.
Although the magazine content itself is full with cultural, social and political contradictions, and widely contrasting discourses, the magazine's concurrent themes of social and political reform do actually reach an audience, albeit a more diverse audience than first perceived. Source does go some way towards educating, creating awareness and highlighting major issues concerning black people in America, and does attempt to challenge and tackle (at least on paper) many of the structural and social injustices within America with regards to race.
In terms of responsibility, the magazine could be seen to encourage the youthful segment of its target audience to pursue more conventional lifestyles and routes to success.
The distorted depictions of vast wealth and lavish living, with little or no reference to hard work whether educational or vocational, could perhaps, to more impressionable readers, 'encourage' ideas of other non-conventional 'get rich quick' ways to attaining such prizes.
Considering the lack of positive media attention given to black celebrities and role models, Source magazine has a duty to young black Americans, in particular young black men who might look to such a publication for adjustment and identification purposes.
Whether Source handles this responsibility well is debateable. On one hand, Source magazine takes a liberal, non-violent revolutionary stance against social injustice and the institutionalised racism that exist in American society; but the magazine finds itself not revolutionising the representations of 'blackness' and black culture, but rather perpetuating its misrepresentation with the repetition of traditional stereotypical images and narrow conceptions of the black male 'attitude' and role.
Bibliography
Downes, B. and Miller, S. (1998), Teach Yourself Media Studies. Hodder and Stoughton, London
Burton, G. (1997), More Than Meets the Eye. Arnold, London
Ross, K. (1996), Black and White Media, Polity Press, Cambridge
