Magazine Cover Analysis

This magazine is called “VIBE”, a US magazine based on all the biggest stars in the R&B and Hip-Hop music industry. The central image used is a close-up of hip-hop artist T.I, who is giving a direct mode of address by looking straight down the camera, which shows that he wants a personal relationship with the reader as he seems interested because he is looking straight down the camera.. This would make someone want to open the magazine and read as if a famous and big artist seems interested in the magazine, a possible reader would want to be interested as well. He is on the front cover because he is a famous rap artist and he is someone that fans of “VIBE” would be interested in The central image is super-imposed over the title, which shows that the central image is very important and is the main thing the magazine wants to catch the viewers’ eye.

The target audience of this magazine, by looking at the front cover, appears to be fans of T.I and/or fans of the genre he specialises in (rap, hip-hop). The age group of the target audience are most likely going to be young adults and/or teens as this age group are the main people who listen to the kind of music “VIBE” are representing. These people are likely to have interests of rap-music and the lives of famous artists associated with this type of music.

The anchorage text of this magazine cover says “People have been comparing me with Tupac…”; this would be a topic that hip-hop fans would be hugely interested in as Tupac was one of the biggest rap artists and whether they agree or disagree with this statement they would want to discover more. By using an ellipsis at the end of this “…”, the magazine is indicating that there is much more to learn about this topic which would entice people to buy the magazine and read on. This implies that the artist is just as good as Tupac if people are saying this; Tupac was an iconic figure and to be compared to him, T.I. is suggesting that he is or is going to be successful. The overall message that the artist is giving is that he is one of, if not, the best in his particular genre of music.

The type of social groups being represented are young males, like T.I; as he is being portrayed as hard-working, successful and good at what he does, he is indicating that young males should be hard-working, successful and good at what they do.

The buzz words used on the front cover of this magazine includes the word “exclusive”. This suggests that there will be information within the magazine that you cannot find anywhere else so readers will want to buy it to discover this information as it cannot be found anywhere else.

The title block is at the top of the magazine cover and is big and bold. However, the central image blocks out 2 of the letters in the title block. However, by doing this, it shows that the magazine is confident as though readers cannot see the whole title, the magazine must believe that just by showing the first and last letter people would be able to establish what magazine this is. The title also shows that the image of the magazine is cool, bold and confident as it’s written in block capitals in a colour that contrasts the background colour. The puffs include various artists’ names; this would suggest that there will be other hip-hop artists involved within the magazine and not just T.I. If a fan of “VIBE” magazine didn’t like T.I, the puffs could entice them to read the magazine. This encourages the point that the magazine wants hip-hop fans of various artists as its target audience.

The slogan is “2010 in review: ALL THAT WAS COOL, CRAZY AND CRASS”. This suggests that the magazine will have content that is “cool”, “crazy” and “crass”. The colour used for the font is a contrasting colour of white to make these puffs stand out as much as possible to catch as much attention as the title.

Lastly, the magazine uses a famous artist to attract the audience as he is likely to be popular with “VIBE” fans. Also, the puffs used consist of other big artist’s names so that it will attract further attention, as well as alliteration in the slogan to interest the reader.