This is a textual analysis of a music magazine front cover.
When I first look at this front cover the first thing that catches my eye is the large image of a hip-hop/rap star. The denotation of this magazine are: the colours used for this front cover is really mixed as around the page when the masthead and cover lines are written a variety of colours are used and not just normally the basic colours. By having more colours it sort of brightens the magazine and makes it more appealing to readers. The shot used is a medium close-up shot this is because the image is taken of the head and stops at the shoulders of the person in the photograph. Behind the person is a very dull white background, it starts of white at the bottom and as it goes up the magazine to the masthead it changes to a sort of light greyish colour to sort of make the magazine a little more appealing then having just a plain white background.
In front of the background at the top is a masthead of Vibe and at the bottom of this masthead there are scatter cover lines around the page consist of colours of black, yellow, purple, grey and the colour that stands out the most red. Red is used on this front cover to show that the text written in red is the importance of this magazine. The text that is in red on this magazine is the important bits of the magazine and most of what the magazine consists of. As you see the masthead “Vibe” is in red this is because it is the magazines masthead, the other text that is in red is the name of the rap star Lil’Wayne. This is red because it shows to us that this magazine is focused on him and that there is important news about this artist.
A bar code is visible on the bottom left of the magazine.
Masthead: Vibe’s masthead is written in a large bold font type and put in a sort of bright red so that it stands out and appealing. The masthead can also be written in red so that it associates with the details on the magazine as on top of the masthead it talks about “Blood & Bullets: Is there a Cash Money curse?” in this text it says blood so the colour of the masthead may link with this text, by making the masthead red in creates a link with the masthead and the text written on the front cover. In that text the words “Blood & Bullets” and “Cash Money” is changed to a different colour that the rest of the text as it is changed to yellow while the rest is left black. The colour is changed because these are the key words in the text. It shows to me that the magazine is saying that the hip hop culture consists of people dying and people get shot. Also the words cash money is highlighted because this is the record company of star Lil’Wayne, this gives evidence that the magazine consists mostly about Lil’Wayne. But apart from only talking about Lil’Wayne it also talks about American programs as this is an American magazine. But this magazine doesn’t only consists of music it also includes other topics as it says “Does Hillary Clinton still matter” this shows that it also talks about political matters and not only music. Also next to the bar code there is a small advertisement of I-Tunes.
The Cover photograph is of Hip Hop/Rap star Lil’Wayne. He is posed in a certain angle and pointing at something. This is very smart to have him pointing as if the magazine is looked at it shows him pointing at the cover lines that say “I’m more afraid of life than death” this is smart because it is quoted of what he has said and it shows what he is trying to tell us. He has a very serious look in his face this shows to use that he means business and he is not joking, by having him like this is shows the seriousness and makes you want to believe what he says.
On the left hand corner of Lil’Wayne’s forehead it says “I Love Music” this shows to us that he is very dedicated to music as he got a tattoo to show how much he likes being in the music industry. In the image he is wearing a suit with a white shirt and black tie. The white shirt in this image is very bright by having the shirt shiny it attract the reader to look towards the shirt which then attracts them to his hand which is pointing at the text so it shows to the reader what he wants to say.
The clothing he is wearing is very strange because in the hip hop culture in doesn’t really consist of artists wearing suits, he should really be wearing baggie clothing and big chains to show the American hip hop culture. Wearing a suit shows the seriousness and it kind of explains the quote “I’m more afraid of life than death” this is because by having the suit it shows to that he could be going to a funeral as he is wearing a black tie and the quote says death. The suit emphasis the point of the quote to readers more by having him dressed in a suit and not hip hop clothing, the quote “I’m more afraid of life than death” shows to use that someone is about to come to their death or it can possibly be him that’s why he is dressed that he is going to a funeral with him pointing at the quote.
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