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Textual Analysis of Front Cover



Textual Analysis- Rolling Stone Music Magazine Front Cover

Denotation:

The magazine Front cover shows Wiz Khalifa a music artist, only looking straight forward at the camera with one eye as the other is closed. The photograph of him is a close-up shot as it shows his head and shoulders. The background colour of the magazine is just plain white which makes the coloured photograph of Wiz Khalifa stand out as it covers most of the magazine cover. At the back of Wiz Khalifa’s head shows the masthead called Rolling Stone, and on the right hand side of the magazine there are five separate cover-lines using the colours red, white and black. Wiz Khalifa’s name is placed at the bottom of the magazine under one of the cover-line in white with a black outline.

Masthead:

The Rolling Stone’s masthead uses three colours which are red, a white outline and black for the drop shadow. A serif font is used and all the lower cased letters are joined up except the first capital letter. The font used is also used for the famous ‘Coca Cola’ writing. The words ‘Rolling Stone’ means ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss’ it is also a band name which are very famous and suggests that it has all of the connotations with a phrase in the past. A lot of musicians have used this phrase that had a reputation of having rock or roll lifestyles. The magazine is easily told to the audience that it is music based as the rolling stone name is used.

Character: The cover photographed is of the famous achieved artist Wiz Khalifa.

Composition: Wiz Khalifa is just looking straight at the camera with no posed movements using his hands or body structure but only using his face for the job.

Costume: Wiz Khalifa is wearing a brown leathered jacket with a white collard T-shirt which is unbuttoned showing his tattooed neck as the photograph of him shows only his head down to his shoulders. He is also wearing jewellery, a gold chain round his neck and a pair of gold/silver earrings and this shows us his sense of style and fashion and to finish it of a small afro with a strip of blonde down the right hand side of his hair.

NVC: The pose he has made on his face shows one eye closed and his mouth wide open; this shows us his sense of humour and characteristics.

Lighting: The lightening is high key which makes the photograph stand out.

Setting: There is no setting as the background is just plain white.

Cover lines:

The cover lines that stand out the most are ‘new faces 2011’ and Wiz Khalifa which suggests that the new artists of 2011 are out and so Wiz Khlaifa was used for the magazine cover because he became famous in 2011. The Magazine is not only based on Wiz Khalifa but other music artists that are mentioned on the other cover lines such as Lenny Kravitz who is an American singer- songwriter. It also includes other information such as the cover line that says ‘Teens Dreams’ and this could be written because the magazine is based on the teenage audience. Another Cover line says ‘Hip-Hop’s Rookie of the year and this shows us the latest news and music. All the cover lines uses different colour, font and size to give it a good effect to attract young adults.

Textual Analysis of Front Cover of a Magazine

Denotation:

The magazine front cover shows a music artist called ‘Kanye West’ as he is looking straight at the camera. The camera angle used is a close-up shot as it only shows his face and a bit of his shoulders. The background colour of the magazine is a light grey colour which makes the photograph of him stands out. At the back of Kanye West head is a masthead called ‘VIBE’ and there are also cover lines beside his head, the colours used for this are pink, blue and black. The main cover line that says ‘Kanye West’ is coloured in pink.

Masthead:

The masthead ‘VIBE’ is blue, big and bold to attract the reader’s eye. All the letters are in capital. The ‘VIBE’ magazine is one of the biggest music magazines in America as it was essentially the black version of ‘Rolling Stone’.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the rapper ‘Kanye West.

Composition: Kanye West is just looking straight at the camera showing an emotion to his face.

Costume:

He is wearing a grey and blue baseball jacket as it only shows the top part of his shoulders

NVC: Kanye West looks very serious in the photograph as he looks very deeply into the camera as if he is concentrating on something.

Lighting:

The lightening is not that bright or too dark.

Setting:

There is no setting as the background is plain.

Cover lines:

The Cover lines that mostly stand out are ‘Kanye West – I am rap’ which relates to the photograph also it shows what he does as an artist which is rapping. It also has a big ‘50’ and the cover line says ‘ + his 50 greatest songs (and 10 to delete) ‘ this shows us varieties of his greatest raps which are all in the magazine. It also includes other music artists on the cover lines such as Britney Spears who is a singer, Colin Munroe who is a singer- song writer, and a record producer, Smokey Robinson who is also an American R&B singer- song writer and record producer, Smokey Robinson who is also an American R&B singer, Jay Rock known as an American rapper, The dream who is an American R&B singer and lastly Antoine Faqua a American film director.

Target audience:

The Target audience for the music magazine is of both genders from teenagers to adults with an interest in R&B.

College Magazine Contents page

College Magazine Front Cover

Introduction

My name is Vanessa Adetunji-Owusu and I am a student at Christ The King College. The subjects that I study are Media, Graphic Design, English lit and lang and Textiles. The media coursework for this project I am doing is research in doing a music magazine. I have made this Blogger to show my teachers and other students my finished work.