Textual Analysis of a Music Magazine Double Page Spread

The double page spread is taken from VIBE magazine, has a colour photograph of Jamaican artist, Mavado. He is leaning his body against a young child, and he is pointing upwards directing for the child to look into the camera. This allows for us to see the whole of his body but the child is stood between is legs. He looks very clean and simple, dressed in a white t-shirt with a simple green design and a pair of dark blue jeans. He has been photographed as a long shot and it has been taken from a slight high angle but it can only be seen slightly. He is photographed with 6 other visible people, which would have been deliberately placed in the shot. The image has been spread across both pages, which causes for the image to have a fold in the middle.

He is posed in way that shows the child is more important. He has allowed for the child to be placed in front of him which shows that even though the child is unknown, in this case the child is to be mad one of the main subject of the image.

The colours used in the double page spread are the colours seen in the image. In the article there are two sections where the beginning of paragraphs are changed and altered into a larger font and mirror colour green that is on the t-shirt worn by Mavado. The colour scheme used is white, olive and red. The red font is made very prominent as it is a quote line from what Mavado had said in the article. Authors usually do this as it is something that needs to be enhanced on and it is usually something that will attract the attention of readers and make them what to know what is in the article. The olive font is taken from one of the men in the photograph. He is seated to the left of Mavado and he has been made to look at Mavado with the young child and it was a discreet technique used by the magazine authors. The white is used as a background colour for the double page spread. This allows for the article to be seen on a visible and clear background that doesn’t clash with any of the other colours used. This allows for the words in red and olive to stand out on a simple background.

The headline on the double page says:

“Everybody Wanna See, What’s Mavado Gonna Do? Who’s Goin’ Up Against Mavado? Who’s Gonna Die?”

This is a direct quote from Mavado, so we are aware that he said it, and it being in bold red font allows for us to know that it must be in relation to who he is and what he does. There is an apparently rivalry between Mavado and other Jamaican artist such as Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man and Aidonia as they are from different areas in Jamaica and because of this they have different views and this is conveyed and spoken about in their music. They are separated in to the main sections called ‘Gully’ and ‘Gaza’ and in this case Mavado is from the Gully side. They have almost rules and laws that they abide by and they are mostly able to express themselves through their music.

The font used in this article is sans-serif font that diverts away from the traditions of using sans font like magazines such as The Rolling Stones. The font gives a sort of hardness and edge to the article and what is being spoken about. It is very serious and with the extract quote from the article showing that Mavado is speaking about a fairly important topic, the look and convey what message the article is based on. There has only been one font used but the size has been altered depending on how important the information is.

Many readers can find it off putting seeing a fair bit of writing and this double page has a fair amount of writing. There are 6 columns of writing, the 4 inside columns being shorter than the outer columns which mean that there is not as much writing as it looks.