Main Task: Front Cover Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis

Denotation:

This magazine front cover mainly consists of a large colored picture of a man looking straight at the camera. It’s a medium close up shot which basically means a shot taken from either the stomach upwards or the chest upwards showing his chest, shoulders and head. He seems to just be standing though we can not see his lower body but he seems to be standing in a black and empty environment. The background of the image is black with the photograph taking up most of the space on the magazine. Behind Drake’s head is a Masthead called VIBE and in front of Drake is 5 different cover-line in yellow and white. The man being photographed (Drake) has his name display in yellow. There is a barcode visible at the bottom left hand corner of the magazine along with the website above it.

Masthead:

The VIBE masthead has a very simple yet catchy layout: Its plain white layout on a black background makes it able to stand out very well. The font is believed to be a customized font developed by VIBE. The word Vibe can bare resemblance to a feeling that is brought across through music. The masthead can immediately give the reader the idea straight away that it is based around R&B and Hip Hop as the word Vibe could be seen as an African America terminology.

Character:

The person on the front cover is world famous Hip Hop sensation ‘Drake’.

Composition: He is posing with a very cool and calm body posture. His clothing and body language suggest he feels he is ‘cooler than a cucumber’.

Costume: His Clothing is a black t-shirt with the phrase ‘Unstoppable’ printed at the front which could suggest how talented he is in terms of his music. The clothing he is wearing is deliberate as VIBE is trying to target a certain audience type through Drake’s clothing.

NVC: His non-verbal communication is a very cool, calm and collective style. As he just tilts his head slightly and stares vaguely into the camera looking like he hasn’t got a care in the world.

Lighting: The Lighting on Drake is bright yet in the background its black so we are not exactly sure what time of the day or where this picture is being taken.

Setting: There is no setting whatsoever, black background.

Cover-line:

The main cover-line bares resemblance to the main image saying: Drake Hip Hop’s new religion.

 Target Audience:

Form looking back at the points made I would say the target audience for VIBE magazine is 12-24 year olds of a male gender mainly but could be viewed as a unisex magazine which is mainly targeted towards Hip Hop and R&B fans.