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.
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