Music magazine front page textual analysis





T.I. Vibe Magazine



Denotation

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a man who seems to be looking directly at the camera. It is a medium close up shot showing his head and shoulders. He looks to be standing up but we are not quite sure of this because he may be sitting down and we are just unable to see this because of the view which we are given. The background of the photograph is white, and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind the man is the Vibe Masthead, and in front of him there are four different cover-lines in black, red, gold and blue. The photographed man’s name is in black. The cover lines on the right of the page in black and gold are separated by the change in colour. As well as the ones in the small bordered box on in the left third the type is in two different colours black and blue, under this box is the barcode visible at the bottom. In the lower right third there is a bubble with red and black writing.

Masthead

Vibe masthead is very distinctive: it is a block red solid colour. The font used Arial Black font, after each letter of the word there is a space so that the word looks more spread out and creates an impact. The word ‘Vibe’ is written in this writing because of the origin of the magazine for hip hop music so this would need strong writing. The actual word ‘Vibe’ is an urban slang word known or connected with the noun rhythm and as well with any musical aspect or quality indicative of a genre mood or atmosphere. So the name ‘Vibe’ tells the audience that the magazine is music based.

Character

The cover photograph is of a popular American Hip hop/Rap artist ‘T.I.’.    



Composition

He is posed in actually a very casual way and seems to be a very relaxed photograph. His facial expression and the way he is standing with his head up and the big grin on his face, show that he wants to be shown as a very happy person and the cheesy grin is done to give the readers the cute “Aww” effect when looking at the cover picture.

Costume

His clothing is a white suit dinner jacket; with a white shirt and a black bow tie which has been undone which is the same with the first few buttons of his shirt. This outfit has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, which most likely is to be women. The style of the crisp white suite and bow tie is trying to give the image of the ‘Bachelor’ who knows how to dress well and likes to have fun.

NVC

His non verbal communication is very cute and quite cheesy but not overly so that it is as much as to be a turn off. His mouth is in a big grin to show his white teeth and he is looking directly at the camera.

Lighting

The lighting which they have used in this photo is high key lighting because it wants to give correspond and play against the bright whites in the photo and the black bow tie.

Setting

There is no setting in this photo and looks likely to be done in a studio and on a white background.

Cover lines

The main cover line that relates to the photograph “T.I: Has the last laugh”, the main cover line is a line which opens the readers mind to want to know why he has the last laugh. This also relates to the non verbal communication to why he is so smiley and looks to be laughing in the photo. The different cover lines tell us that the magazine does seem to focus on just one genre but we may be wrong and it may just be for this on of issue, but most likely it does just focus on one genre of music. Artists mentioned on the cover lines include T.I., Common, Marc Anthony, J.Lo, and Kevin Michael (there is a definite emphasis on American artists). We can also see that the way that the cover lines are written tell us that the magazine also looks at current news events aswell-e.g. “The confessions of Mayor Ray Nagin”.

Target audience  

Considering all the points and putting everything together, it is likely that the target audience would be people (male and female, but more likely to be a female audience than male) aged 20-40. They would have good knowledge of what was hot at the moment and what wasn’t, also a wide interest in mainly the music genres of R&B, Hip hop and rap. They are likely to maybe lower class or even middle class, maybe not particularly well read but they have a good interest in American urban music culture.