Textual Analysis 2

DENOTATION

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. It is a medium long shot showing his body from the waist to the head. He isn’t sitting or leaning on anything he is simply just standing there looking at the camera. His posture brings out his shoulders and muscles as he is topless. The background of the photograph is black but the background is of black tiles as if he was in a shower and he is wet. The photograph covers the whole of the front cover of the magazine. Behind the man is a ‘Vibe’ masthead, and in front of him are about 6-7 cover-lines in white and red. The photographed man’s name is in white. A barcode is visible in the bottom left corner.

MASTHEAD

The ‘Vibe’ masthead is simply red and plain but it still grabs the attention of readers/buyers of the magazine. The font used on the masthead is a non-serif font as it doesn’t contain any flick ups or small feet on any of the letters. The font used is more modern because the letters are not joined up together like a serif font would be. The word Vibe comes from the word vibration and vibration is used to create sound; without sound there is no music. That is probably where the owner of the magazine got the idea of the name of the magazine.

CHARACTER

The cover photograph is of the famous black American singer ‘Trey Songz’.

COMPOSITION

He is posed in a very seductive way to attract female audiences; he is shirtless and wet and that is the sort of things that girl would like and especially the fact that he has muscles; his pose, body language is very sexually suggestive and provocative to teenage girls and young adults.

COSTUME

He isn’t really wearing any clothing; all you can see are the tattoos on his topless body and you can just about see his Calvin Kline Boxers. The image has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be young females.

NVC

His non verbal communication is also very seductive. His body is wet and he has a sort of screw face which makes him look like a bad boy type. His mouth is slightly open and he is looking directly at the camera.

LIGHTING

The lighting used is low key lighting because the image looks quite shadowy and directional and the background is dark.

SETTING

There is very little setting, however the black tiles in the background connotes water, swimming or a shower and is keeping with the theme of water as Trey Songz is wet; he could be in a shower.

COVERLINES

The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says: “Trey Songz the hardest in R&B”. This making a reference to what his target audience and his fans think of him. The different cover-lines tell us that this magazine doesn’t concentrate on just one genre of music, and doesn’t only focus on just music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about. Artist mentioned on the cover-lines include Young Jeezy and Buju Banton (there is a definite emphasis on American artists). The way the cover-lines are written reveals that this magazine also focuses on current news events as well- e.g. “HAITI: A survival story”. All of the cover-lines us e a non-serif font; this suggests that the magazine is modern and not old fashioned and appeals to its young audience.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people (male and female, though more female audience members than male) aged 14-25. They would have a good knowledge of popular culture and a definite interest in a wide range of musical styles and the music industry generally. The target audience would definitely be good fans of the magazine and the artists in the magazine and they would know the structure of the magazine already; they are likely to be well educated/well read, and have an interest in American popular culture.

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