In my analysis I have tried to talk about the target audience and tried to analyse the vibe magazine.
This magazine has a coloured photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. It is in a medium close-up showing his head, hand and chest. He is leaning on a building and his arms are not visible in the shot. The background is of him leaning on a part of a building but his photograph covers the whole magazine so you can’t see the background that much. Behind the man’s head is the Vibe masthead, and in front of him are 5 separate cover lines in black, yellow, light blue and dark blue. The photographed man’s name is in a black sans serif font and there is a repeat of the font in another cover line. There is a barcode visible in the bottom left hand corner.
Vibe’s masthead is very unique. The masthead font is blue with a sans serif font. The whole font is in capital letters and they don’t join together. The font used is similar to the famous ‘bench’ brand to represent the young teen culture. The word ‘Vibe’ means to move rapidly which suggests that this magazine is for younger viewers. So the connotations with the word Vibe would be shake and energy. All the musicians who have used the word vibe show that they are from the younger generation or representing them through the music they produce. This makes the magazine more youthful. The name Vibe tells the audience that it’s a music magazine.
The artist who is on the magazine is the most famous singer ‘Usher’. He is posing in a cool position leaning on a building; his head slanted looking directly at the camera and then showing the back of his hand at the camera while sticking up his ring finger. This is shown to be the cool ‘gangster’ styled position. His pose, body language, clothing are very ‘swagger’ and laid back.
His clothing is a white t-shirt with a grey jacket. The costume was chosen specifically to match the watch and ring he is wearing on his hand and wrist. This clothing was chosen to appeal to the target audience of the magazine who are more likely to be male teenagers. The clothing worn is similar to the costume he wears in one of the music videos. The sunglass completes his look.
Usher’s non-verbal communication is very powerful. His mouth is closed which suggest he is too cool to talk or that he can’t be bothered to while looking directly at the camera. This gives us the relaxed vibe. The lighting is in a high key as the photograph is meant to display daytime. The simple setting shows the ‘gangster’ theme by leaning on a building.
The main cover line that relates to the photograph is “usher the king is back, he’s no.1 and married with a vengeance”. This is relating to one of his songs that went no.1 a few years back. The different cover lines shows that this magazine doesn’t just concentrate on one genre of music or one musician but in fact has a range of musicians from different genres.
The artists mentioned on the other cover lines are Usher, 50cent, Keri Hilson, Nelly, Webbie, Tina, D.Woods, Ashanti, Ryan Leslie, The Knux and Wale. The cover lines are written in a way that reveals what the main issue in society is. This then gives readers that they can be open with the uncomfortable subjects and will encourage readers to buy the magazine more.
The target audience of this magazine would be males and teenage boys between the ages of 14-25. They would have a good knowledge of the celebrity’s life styles and current topics going on. They would have a fine interest in Vibe’s musical styles. They are also likely to be cool, relaxed educated people who love the swagger theme.
I would like to conclude that Vibe magazine appeals to its target audience and that colour is important for a magazine to get its audience.
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