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Denotation
The magazine cover displays a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. The camera shot used is a medium long shot showing the top of his waist, his arms and obviously his head. He is standing up with his arms crossed; his legs cannot be seen in the photo as it is a medium camera shot. The background of the photograph is white but at the bottom and at part of the top you can see that the white fades into a grey colour. The photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind the man is the vibe masthead and on each side of him are different cover lines in grey, red and black. The photographed man’s name is in red block capital letters.
Masthead
The ‘Vibe’ masthead is very unique; it starts off black at the top of each letter and fades from black, to maroon, then to red. The font used on the masthead is a non-serif font as none of the letters are joined up or have small feet or flick ups on the letters. The word vibe comes from the word ‘vibration’; it’s the slang word for vibration and sound is created by vibration and that is related to music which is why the creator of the magazine may have chose the name ‘Vibe’. Vibe is the voice and soul of urban music and culture; this was said by the owner Quincy Jones.
Character
The cover photograph is of the successful American Rapper ‘Eminem’
Composition
He is posed in a very serious and cool guy kind of way. His pose, body language, and clothing, are very thuggish and gangster like.
Costume: His clothing is basically just a sleeveless vest top showing his masculine arms with tattoos all over them. He is also showing his icy wrist watch and Jesus piece chain. The hip-hop and rap culture is seen to be a gangster and thuggish style of music and thugs usually wear chains and icy watches and the man on the front cover and what he is wearing appeals to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be young male teenagers and even male adults. The clothes that He is wearing is similar to what other male rappers wear in video and pictures..
NVC: His non verbal communication is very intimidating. He is looking directly at the camera with his face screwed up in a serious look with his arms folded.
Lighting: The lighting is high-keyed as the background is displayed bright with no visible shadows.
Setting: There is actually no setting all you can see is the man’s body from the waist up with his arms folded looking directly at the camera.
Cover-lines:
The main cover line that relates to his photograph says: “Vicodin.Valium..Methodane”, “literally almost dead” “EMINEM comes clean”. This is making a reference to part of eminems lifestyle that he admits to which may most likely be in the past. He made a few raps about his past life and even did music videos. The “who’s the best rapper? You decide” reference conveys the fact that Eminem has competition with other rappers but it’s up to the target audience to decide who the best rapper is. The different Cover-lines tell us that the magazine doesn’t concentrate on just one artist and doesn’t only focus on music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about. Artists mentioned on the cover line include Drake & Young Money, Gucci Mane, Clipse, lil Wayne
Target Audience
Considering all these points, the likely and most obvious target audience would be people (male and even females, though more male audience members than female) aged 12-27. They would have good knowledge and understanding of the popular rap and hip-hop culture and also a definite interest in the wide range of musical styles and the music industry generally. They are likely to be well educated/well read, and have an interest in American rap, hip hop and R&B culture.
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