Textual analysis 2

Denotation:

The magazine cover is fairly simple and uses only a range of 3 colours. The image is of a famous male musician staring directly at the audience. It is a close up angle shot; only showing his head and just a part of his shoulders. The background is bright white which allows the image of the artist to stand out; the image covers all the whole of the magazine cover. In front of his hat is the masthead in big red writing, there are also a number of cover lines in black and red and are in normal size font. There is no bar code visible, but there is a web address for the magazine; that is located at the bottom right of the magazine front cover in small white font barely readable.

Masthead:

The vibe masthead is very distinctive and simple, big, red, equally spaced letters and takes up most of the space at the top of the cover of the magazine front cover. The hat is still visible between the letters of the masthead. The word vibe is a wide word but in this aspect it could mean the beat, rhythm, or anything connecting with music and it is also a music magazine. Naming the magazine “Vibe” lets the audience know the magazine is about music before even opening it.

Character:

The cover image is of a successful American rapper Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. also known as T.I.

Composition:

He is posed in a normal manor, even though we cannot see his whole body we can tell he is standing straight. He also looks very serious.

Costume:

He is wearing a suit/ tuxedo. Black blazer, white shirt, skinny tie and a type of packer black hat and glasses. What he is wearing could connote what he is possibly trying to establish, which could be merging the business/ smart look with Hip Hop & RnB culture. The glasses he is wearing could be a fashion and he is used to promote it. Likewise there have been a number of musicians that wear suits and glasses in their music videos and pictures, this could be because they actually prefer to wear this than their stereotypical Hip Hop & RnB clothes; which are trainers, lots of jewellery, baggy jeans, normal t-shirt, and a hat.

NVC:

His non-verbal communication is also very serious and simple. He is just looking directly at the camera and his head is slightly tilted to his left.

Lighting:

The lighting is high key; the image looks as if it is in a very bright but plain white place. The face of the artist is fairly dim/ dull compared to the other bright colours surrounding it.

Setting:

There is no setting for this magazine, except that it looks like the photo was taken in a studio and had a white background put up to give it that serious look.

Cover-lines:

There are a number of cover-lines. The main cover live is a quote from the artist on the front cover of the magazine which says “ain’t no such thing as a secret snitch”. This could suggest that he has a problem with people that “snitch”. Even though this mainly has nothing to do with his music career this will cover-line will definitely be a big part of this magazine getting bought by T.I fans. Another cover-line states an artist called Mavado. He is a Jamaican reggae singer that sings raps and writes his own songs, he is based in Jamaica but some of his songs get played worldwide. This is probably at the front of the magazine to emphasise his success in the music industry and his new song of the time “Gangster for life”.

Target audience:

Looking at all points made, the target audience could be aimed at males and females (mainly males), around the ages of 25-40. They would have to have the knowledge of American music genre and culture and reggae music. They are likely to be very interested in music mainly in Hip Hop & RnB and Reggae; they would also have to be up to date with the artists involved in the music industry or just the artists they like.