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.