Contents page draft

Content page analysis for Vibe

Content page analysis for Master Plan

Audience Research

With this audience research my end conclusion is that out of all the poeple I asked, they would prefer my magazine to consist of dark colours but the minority prefered light colours. With this I made my magazine consist of both dark and light colours that contrast that would benefit all of my aimed target audience. So this was very useful for me and helped me build up the visual appearance of my music magazine

Mood Board

The use of the moodboard was that it allowed me to put in all my thoughts on what I would like and expect to see in a music magazine. It was a visual way of brainstorming which helped me a lot to gain my ideas and important elements to include that would appeal to my target audience. My magazine was based on hip-hop and rap which made me think to include ellements such as the hood 'gangster' look as well as adding babes,music,hats,chains and the new looks.

Profiling Your Audience (male)

The Royalty Reader: Malik is 17, a passionate and diverse music fan. Malik studies at a basketball academy where he plays point guard and studies sports. Malik lives at home with his mum, sister who is 12 and his little brother aged 2. He is devoted to sport and also loves music and is his main tool when hue is travelling from game to game keeping him occupied. He has a wide range of music but his main genre is hip-hop, urban rap, Pop and RnB. Malik loves to party and goes raves with his friends and is part of a bashment /funky dance group and performs in all different areas and events. His hobbies include basketball and hanging out with friends. He is currently looking for a job but finding it hard to balance out his work along with sport. 

I intend to develop my own magazine to target this reader by having a wide variety of music genres such as Hip-hop, RnB and Urban Rap allowing to him to have the latest knowledge on all different types of music and artists. Malik enjoys basketball so I would make sure in would have a couple basketball articles to keep him up to date and draw in his interest. Malik has a love for bashment tunes and I would mention some of the hottest bashment tunes out recently that he could search and listen to, with artists such as Vybz Kartel.

Profiling your Audience (female)

Lydiah is 17 years old, she currently is at college and is studying to be a teacher. Lydiah likes to listen to hip-hop, bashment and some rap songs. Lydiah loves to dance in her spare time and teaches young chidren to street dance. Lydiah lives with her mum and two little sisters and is a role model for her younger sisters due to she has done so many successful things and is doing welll with herself as she wishes to persue her career as a primary school teacher. Lydiah does have a wide range collection of magazines and tries to read them when she can but she does not like to read magazines that are based on celebs talking about loosing weight or how to make yourself look better, she prefeers more music based magazines.

 I intend to develop my own magazine to target this reader by having a wide range of music that would appeal to this reader such as bashment, hip-hop and pop giving her a wide variety and also allowing her to keep up to date with the latest news with music stars and latest singles and albums. Lydiah enjoys dance so i will include a secion that accompanies this.

Textual Analysis of Rolling Stones

Denotation:

 The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a man looking downwards from the camera showing no eye contact. It is a mid-shot, showing his head, shoulders and chest. The background of the photograph is light grey at the top but gradually becomes lighter and is white at the bottom. The photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover and in front the photographed man is the Rolling Stone masthead and in front of him five separate cover lines in white and black, all cover lines are separated by a yellow bar beneath each other. The photographed man’s name is in black and white and is in the second largest font size. A bar code is visible in the bottom right corner.

Masthead:

Rolling stone’s masthead is very distinctive: Yellow with a white outline and a royal blue drop shadow. The font used is a serif font, and after the first letter of each word, the lower case letters join up to each other. The font used is similar to the famous ‘Coca Cola’ writing and resembles American culture.

Character: 

The cover photograph is of the successful American rapper/ singer ‘Lil Wayne’ born 27 /09/1982. Lil Wayne is a well known rapper worldwide in his genre of hip hop and is known as a dominant figure of the hip hop industry that is signed to Young Money Cash Money and Universal Republic.

Composition:

He is posed in a very relaxed kind of way and looks as if he could be sitting down but it is not visible. His pose, body language, lack of clothes and lack of eye contact shows him being very relaxed and a rebellious lack of interest.

Costume: Due to the shot being a mid-shot you can only see up to his chest and he is not wearing any clothing showing his bear skin and his large amount of tattoos.                                                                                                                                                    NVC: His non verbal communication also resembles his rebellious lack of interest with his mouth closed and slightly leaned to the right.                                                                                                                                                        Lighting: The lighting is high key, as the photograph is meant to resemble daytime.                                                                                                                                              Setting: There is no sense of setting within the front cover of the magazine.

Cover-lines:

The main cover line that relates to his photograph says: “Lil Wayne goes rock, rap genius changes his game.” This is making reference to Lil Wayne starting to enter the rock game making new singles such as “let it rock” ft Kevin Rudolf and his Rebirth album was promoted as Wayne’s rock music debut. The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 176,000 copies in its first week. It became Wayne's seventh top-ten album in the United States and produced four singles that attained Billboard chart success. Upon its release, Rebirth received generally negative reviews from most music critics. It has been certified gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America, with domestic shipment of 500,000 copies. The different cover-lines tell us that this magazine does not concentrate on just one genre of music, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about. Artists mentioned on the cover lines include Lil Wayne, Prince, The Allman brothers and kris Kristofferson. The only person mentioned but is not a musician is Ethan Hawke who is an American actor. All cover-lines use a serif font, connoting tradition.

Target Audience: 

Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people male or female aged between 35-55 years old. 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. I would also feel that this single issue could also be made to draw the interest of the younger generation and that is why they may have chosen to use Lil Wayne to appear on the front cover due to they will have more knowledge on him compared to the older generation.

Textual Analysis of XXL

Denotation:

The magazine consists of a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. This image is a medium long shot showing his head, his arms and hands in a boxing stance and his waist. His positioning is firm and bold which shows him being a strong fighter. The background of the photograph is red, white and blue with white stars in the left hand corner which is represented as being the American flag. Behind the photographed head is the XXL Masthead cutting off the end letter. The photographed mans name is in bold white writing and had a very funky urban font that resembles the photographed mans personality.  The main colours of the writing on the magazine are red, white, black and red with the white and black being the impact and most visual colours. The barcode is visible in the bottom left hand corner.

Masthead:   

XXL master head is very distinctive: white text with a red surrounding. The font used is sans serif with a bold printed style text with the letters being separate but you can only get a glimpse of the first and half of the second letter due to the photographed man blocks the last letter. The title is very short but bold and can represent the music style theme of being bold and hip hop, which is the magazines main topic.

Character:

The cover photograph is of a well known and up and coming American music artist named Nasir bin Olu Dara Jone, but known in the music and movie scene as Nas. Nas is an American rapper and actor and is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop.

Composition:

He is posed in a boxer stance. His body language and lack of clothing shows a very rough, fighter personality.

Costume: He has a lack of clothing in the image posing topless showing off his tattoos this has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of this magazine which is the male and female audiences who listen to hip hop and associate this rough thuggish look to hip hop music. The style is very American swag which is mostly known in the ‘hoods’ for just being in jeans and no top and is supposed to portray a manly status.

NVC: His non verbal communication is very aggressive. His eyes directly fixed at the camera and his fists posed in a boxing stance with his fists tightly clenched.  There are no obvious facial expressions the photographed persons face is very straight showing no emotion.                                                                                                                                                     Lighting: The lighting is very bright and brings out the background of the big American flag. The lighting is high key which is bright but natural.                                                                                                                                                                                              Setting: There is little setting, but the American flag once again is the main background and sets the scene and shows off the fact that it is an American based magazine.

Cover-lines:

The main cover-line is in white and is the name of the photographed individual which is placed at the bottom left of the image and is in the largest font and size and also serif and cuts out a small part of the photographed man but does not interfere with the main image. Underneath the main cover line is another cover-line that is also in white but in a smaller font but it has rude term which is ‘nigger’ which is a very controversial word that is used a lot in the hip hop industry and it is related to the photographed person due to his choice of his album name which was called ‘nigger’. The cover-lines all on the bottom left hand side relate to each other with above the main cover-line (Nas) there is a smaller cover-line that says ‘rebel to America’ that is referring to the photographed artist ant then the bottom cover-line relates to why Nas is seen to be the ‘rebel to America’.  

Target Audience

Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be male and female, but most likely to be male members than female aged between 17-28. They would have a good knowledge of American culture and a definite interest in hip- hop music and the American music industry. They are likely to be educated in pop culture and language/ slang.

Textual Analysis of Vibe

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a woman looking directly at the camera. It is a medium close up showing his head, shoulders, chest and top half of the arms. The photographed man is stood in a formal stance with his arms by his sides and is looking directly at the camera. The background of the photographed man is jet black and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. On the sides of the photographed man are six cover-lines in yellow and white and the photographed man’s name is in yellow to the left hand side of the photograph and in line with his head. The barcode is visible in the bottom left hand side of the magazine.

Masthead:

The Vibe masthead is very distinctive: bold san serif font in white. The first three letters are in capital letters and the last letter is lower case. The font is simplistic but goes with the urban feel of the magazine. The word ‘vibe’ which has a slang definition of a feeling or flavour of what is specified, suggesting they have used this slang meaning to resemble their masthead and also once again gives the idea of a urban music magazine.

Character:

The cover of the photograph is a successful Canadian recording artist and actor named Aubrey Drake Graham but mainly known as Drake. He was born October 24, 1986 and currently sighed to Young Money Cash Money and Universal Republic Records. Drake is considered a well known up a coming artist recognized globally.

Composition:

His costume is all black with a black t-shirt with ‘unstoppable’ written across it in bold white writing and also wearing a black baseball cap. The choice of clothing is very basic and more or less is absorbed by the black on black clash between background and costume. In my opinion this could have been changed to give a more dramatic feel.                                                                                                                                       NVC: There is no non verbal communication because his mouth is closed but he is looking directly at the camera.                                                                                                                                                                                                           Lighting: The lighting is low key lighting not revealing much and doesn’t signal an idea of the time period of the day such as daytime or night.                                                                                                                                                                           Setting: There is no sense of a scene setting in this magazine cover because it is just a black background on a photographed male in black clothing. 

Cover-lines:

The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says: “Drake Hip Hops new religion.” This is making reference to how the artist has made a huge appearance and is the main man to hip hop and from being the new kid on the block has made his stamp in the industry and is recognised worldwide for his musical talents. The different cover-lines tell is that the magazine doesn’t concentrate on just one genre of music, and doesn’t only focus on music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about. The artist mentioned on the cover lines are: Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, 50 sent and Kelis (whom are all American artists). Also mentioned are Amber Rose who is a top icon in the fashion industry and Kobe who is a professional basketball player which shows diversification in the topics and people chosen to be in the magazine.

Target Audience:

Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people (male and female, though more male audience members than female) aged 17-25. They would have a good knowledge of American culture and a definite interest in hip- hop music and the American music industry. They are likely to be educated in pop culture and language/ slang. And also for the females have knowledge of fashion.                                                                                                                          

Textual Analysis of BillBoard

Denotation: The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a boy looking directly at the camera. It is a mid shot showing his head, arms and waist. He is standing in a upright position holding a stereo player over his head. The background of the photograph is light blue, and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind the boy is a Billboard masthead and in front of him are six separate cover lines which are white, black and blue. The photographed boy’s name is coloured in white and in the second largest font on the magazine front cover.

Masthead:

The billboard masthead is very distinctive: black with red, yellow, blue and green fillings in the centre of ‘b’ ‘o’ ‘a’and ‘d’. The font used is sans serif with the first letter being capital and the rest in lower case.

Character:

The cover of the photograph is of the successful American singer Justin Bieber. Justin Drew Bieber, born March 1, 1994 is a Canadian pop/R&B singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid.

Composition:

He is stood in an upright position, looking directly at the camera and is posed in a victorious stance holding up the stereo player as if it was a trophy.

Costume: His clothing is casual with a clean cut urban look. This costume choice resembles the singers genre of being very pop with a spicy urban vibe.                                                                                                                                                              NVC: There is no non-verbal communication transmitting in this photograph due to he has a straight face and his mouth s closed but looks directly at the camera.                                                                                                                                                                                            Lighting: The lighting is high-key, as the photograph is meant to display daytime.                                                                                                                                          Setting: There is little setting, however the blue background connotes sky and conveys daytime.

Cover-lines: The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says: “He’s 16, and is about to jump from phenom to superstar. Is he ready?”

This relates to him being spotted for his talent on You-tube by Scooter Braun, then being signed by Usher and his music appearing on music channels worldwide. This ordinary boy to pop-star transition has been a key highlight to the launch of his career. Bieber's debut single, "One Time", was released in 2009 and peaked in the top ten in Canada and charted in the top thirty in several international markets. His debut release, My World, followed in November 2009, and was later certified platinum in the United States. The music video of "Baby" is currently ranked as the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video. The different cover-lines tell us that the magazine doesn’t concentrate one just on genre of music and does not only focus on music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write. For example\; it features Gogol Bordello who is a member of an American Gypsy punk band. As well as Rick Rubin who is an American record producer and the famous Michael Jackson. With this evaluation the magazine focuses on famous American people which show that it is an American magazine.

Target audience:

Considering all these points, the likely target audience will be people male and female, though more female than male age between 17-25. They would have a good knowledge of popular culture and have a interest in a wide range of musical styles and in the music industry generally. They are likely to have an interest in American popular culture.

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