How do Vibe and Rolling Stone represent race and ethnicity?

The predominant difference within music is 'black music' vs. rock/indie/goth/metal, and so on. Black music magazine Vibe is often set apart from other music magazines such as Q, Mojo and Rolling Stone. However it is more or less the genre public that sets these apart due to the stereotypes related to genre.

Vibe was launched in 1993 by founder Quincy Jones who "envisioned a magazine that would be to urban music and urban culture that Jan Wenner's Rolling Stone would be to rock music and the generation that defined it". It's clear to see there was a niche in the market to produce a magazine that solely promoted and represented hip-hop and rap. Vibe has held its title as being a magazine that focuses on these genres and stereotypically speaking, and from looking at the website, you can see clearly that Vibe is targeting young black males and females, between the ages of 18-25. The adverts displayed are black artists and actors, such as; Rhianna, Lil Wayne, and Drake. 

Despite this, Vibe doesn't set itself apart from any other music magazine "VIBE is a music magazine, the way  Rolling Stone is a music magazine." Alternatively we can take a look at Rolling Stone website, here on the left, and see that it features Wiz Khalifa and Jimi Hendrix at the top of the '100 great guitarists', proving that the rock genre is made up of numerous races. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

S.C. Watkins. (2005) Hip Hop matters: politics pop culture and the struggle for the soul of a movement. 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music

http://www.vibe.com/