Front Cover Analysis One

The magazine "Vibe" is founded by the producer Quincy Jones. The magazine specialises in R&B and hip-hop music, also covering artists, actors and other entertainers from these genres.  The magazine production closed down in summer 2009, and was purchased by a private equity investment fund called InterMedia Partners.

The masthead is very catchy as it uses alliteration, “cool, crazy and crass.” The use of it draws the audience in and it sticks into the readers head. The title “Vibe” connotes colloquialism as it conveys a musical element, which can be interpreted as a way of identifying the youth. The front cover adhere the conventions of other music magazines within the same genre because many other music magazines have the same layout.

The main image of the magazine is Keri Hilson. The use of mise-en-scene is very vital, she is wearing a leather hat, which looks like an upgraded version of a police hat, this could add to the sell line of her being a “a very bad girl”. The use of jewellery or “bling” shows us that the target audience is again directed towards the teenagers as they are the people who normally buy these sorts of items.  The overall colours used in this magazine are white and red for the typography, black for Keri Hilsons costume and blue for the back ground. The text is written in red and white whom stands out as it is on the blue background, this contrast makes it easier for the audience to see and read the information giving.

The magazine “vibe” is targeted to the youth, from the ages 16 to 25. I say this because this age range is more aware of the genres R&B and hip-hop.  The sell lines show that the magazine is filled with gossip in the R&B and hip-hop genres. This connotes that the target audience is again aimed towards the mid teenagers, as they are interested in daily gossip.  The sell line “exclusive” shows the audience that the information in the magazine is new and would be very rare to find, which makes them eager to buy it. The colour scheme in the magazine is very basic as they only use two colours for the text. This makes it easier for the audience to see what the magazine has to offer them as they are not bombarded with different colours. The layout of the magazine shows the artist Keri Hilson in the middle, around her are all of the topics that are going to be covered in the magazine, this allows the audience to know what is going to be featured in the magazine before they buy it. The use of alliteration, “cool, crazy and crass,” also grabs the audience’s attention as it is very catchy. “Has been a very bad girl,” this sell line draws attention to the word very as it is written in bold red letters and is slightly bigger than the rest of the of the words, this shows stressing on the word very and it makes the audience think that Keri Hilson has done something remotely wrong.The main image is of Keri Hilson. The connotations of the main image are to show Keri Hilson as being seductive. The use of mis-en-scene allows us to see this as her body language and her clothing is very feminine and seductive which makes the reader automatically see her as the main image as they are drawn in by her appearance. Her clothing is very eye- catching as it compliments her woman figure which would most likely attract young teenage boys.