Textual analysis 1

Denotation:

This is a man of the front cover of a music magazine. This is a medium shot; you can see his head and part of his body and his 2 arm because they are on the side of his head. He is also looking directly at the camera trying to get attention of the audience. The picture takes up most of the front cover and so does the title and the name of the artist, which is in bold white capital letters. The magazine name is in big and bold font to stand out and to be eye catching. The bar code is visible at the bottom left of the magazine, there is also a date “May 2003”.

Masthead:

The Masthead is big and bold to stand out. The font is big and covers most of the space on the width of the magazine. The words are equally spaced and levelled so it is easy to read, the title is partly in the background of the magazine; the bottom of the letters are blocked by the characters head.

Character:

The character used in this magazine is a successful male musician R Kelly.

Composition:

The character is posed as if he is thinking, with his hands on the side of his head staring straight at the audience. This could be the look he has when he is thinking of music hence the genre of the magazine ‘music magazine’.

Costume:

He is wearing a normal red short sleeve shirt. This could connote that he is in his own state of mind and prepared to write his music, ergo he is a musician, or he could be in a room in his house thinking; this is shown by the casual red top he is wearing.

NVC:

His non -verbal communication is very little. He is staring straight at the camera; and he also looks focused as if he is communicating with the audience with no words.

Lighting:

The lighting is fairly dim but the artist face is visible. There are also shadows at certain angles of the image. There are various fades shown, the fade in which allows the audience to see the artists face and his facial expressions if any.

Setting: 

The setting is very small, however the grey background connotes that he is in a small room and could be thinking or he could be stressed or could want some peace and quiet.

Cover-lines:

There are a number of cover lines, but the main one that will catch the reader’s attention says: “is he innocent or guilty” this could be referring to R Kelly’s private life and him being accused of doing illegal things. The way that R Kelly is positioned and the background could infer that this is what he could be thinking about and why he looks depressed. Even though this cover line has nothing to do with music, but the artist’s private life, it will still get a good reaction from the target audience and sell magazines because of the many things it could suggest. The other cover lines are not as jaw dropping; but they state different musical artists such as Amy Winehouse, who was a British born singer that had a number of big hits in the music industry and sold millions worldwide. Her name could be there because of a new album that could’ve been released or a number 1 single. (This is an old edition of the magazine because Amy Winehouse has passed away).

Another cover line mentions the one of America’s famous singer, song writer and producers called Timberland. He could be of importance because he may of signed or helped someone produced a good song, more information may be expanded in the magazine about Timberland.

Target audience:

Considering all points made, I think the most likely target could be males and females, roughly around the ages of 25-35. They would have a general interest in music and be a custom to Hip Hop & RnB mainly, but have interest in the wider musical genres and styles. They would also have to follow up on American music to keep up to date because America is mainly where musicians prefer to be and are mostly located.