Denotation : The magazine covers includes a colour photograph of a male looking directly at the camera. It is a close up shot of the male revealing only his head, neck and his shoulders showing only the collar of his jacket. The rest of his body is not visible to the audience. The background is a lighter grey compared to the colour of the jacket that is being worn by the male. The photograph covers the whole front cover of the magazine.
The barcode is visible at the bottom left hand corner of the magazine.
Behind the male is the Vibe masthead, and around the male are four separate cover lines in black, blue and pink. The cover line to the right of the male consists of six different celebrity names but they are all under one cover line as they are all to do with the same topic. The male photographed on the magazine cover’s name is written in a pink sans serif font. This could be due to the fact that the magazine would like to appeal to a female audience as well as a male audience. The colour pink is a unisex colour and is used three times on the front cover. This allows for the topics written in pink to stand out as they could be of much more importance to the other information that simply co-ordinates with what the male is wearing.
Masthead : The ‘Vibe’ masthead is very unique as the colour scheme of the front cover has been used in relation to the clothes worn by the male celebrity. It is a bold blue writing used with no outline or shadow added to it. The font used is sans serif, and all the letters are written in capital locks with none being joined up, but written individually instead. The font reminds me of words are written in a bold font to give a statement – it connotes the feeling of when a vibe is give in music – a strong , firm bold texture and feeling in melody and rhythm of a song. The word vibe means a feeling or emotional given of f by one person to another. The vibe that the magazine wants to give is one that is very welcoming and informative of what is taking place in the industry of music. It has a strong connotation with an individuals feelings and the magazine wants to give a feeling to the audience when they read the magazine. The word vibe is a homonym, a word that has more than one meaning. The title of the magazine gives a suggestion that it contains more than just music as vibe has many meanings and can be interpreted in many ways y different audiences. All the musicians that have been on covers of the magazine have had different sounds and inputs into the music industry. They all add their own vibe to music and this connotes that there is association with the name of the magazine and the musicians chosen to be front covers. The word vibe tells us, the audience, that the magazine has something to do with music and musicians.
The cover photograph is of Kanye West. He is posed in a very blank way; suggesting that he is just taking an everyday photograph, looking directly into the camera. His facial expressions are very plain and empty but his non verbal communication is showing that he is tired and the image has enhanced on his grey hairs, supporting his expressions. He is wearing a blue and grey varsity jacket, which is an American style footballer’s jacket. He has worn his to contrast his facial expressions as what the reader sees in his face contradicts what he is wearing. This outfit has been purposely chosen to appeal to the target audience, who are very likely to be of a younger age, being about 15 up wards. As the clothes represent quite a trend of American fashion, younger generations are easily influenced and with this being an outfit worn by a successful and influential music artist, younger people are sure to pick and make it a continuous trend.
The fashion and style in this image is very modern and has been in vogue for about the last year or so. It is a look that was made us of in the 80’s with artist like Salt’N’Pepper and it is a retro look that has been re-interpreted in a style that fits the trends of today. This has been done by using more appealing colours and colours that can be worn by both men and women, something that wouldn’t necessarily have happened during other time periods due to stereotypes.
The main cover line that relates to his photograph says:
“the truth hurts, KANYE WEST ‘I AM RAP’ + his 50 greatest songs ( and 10 to delete) “
This is making a reference to the fact that Kanye is a rap artist and at what he is doing , he is the best. He is calling himself ‘rap’ as he feels that there is no one like him in the genre and he has done all that a rap artist would need to be classified as a whole kind of music. He is an artist known worldwide and has had released amazing singles and albums, and has in his time, been called one of the greatest rappers around.
There being more than one coverline shows that the magazine isn’t just focusing on rap music but it has take many other music genres into account. It shows that the magazine and its authors are quite diverse in what they choose to write about. Other artists mentioned on the coverline include Notorious B.I.G , The Dream and Britney Spears . Despite all of the artists being American , they range from different music backgrounds which shows the diversity in the magazine.
All of the coverlines use sans-serif font, connoting that they have diverted from traditions of using serif font but decide to use a modern aspect to the magazine. This suggests as Vibe is a fair recent magazine, it has decided that they will use fair modern features on their magazine to show that modern ways and attitudes can be beneficial as well. Something that readers can rely on for new, exclusive news that is interesting and vibrant.
When I review everything and take what has been analysed into consideration, I would say that the mostly likely target audience would be for the younger generation , both male and female , beginning at the age of 16. They would have a fairly good knowledge of music and what genres there are and they would also be interested in fashion and the latest celebrity news. They are likely to be still in school and at the age where they are developing opinions and views on certain areas and subjects in life.
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