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.