Textual Analysis of a music magazine front page:

The music magazine front page I have selected to analyse is a R&B/RAP magazine, for the reason that I know is this is what a bunch of young people like to read about and see these celebrities as inspirational or as an idol. The denotation of the image I have chosen is a well-known RAP celeb Lil Wayne and a gentleman at the rear of him playing the track or beat for Lil Wayne, having a celebrity at the front of magazine will help the magazine sell to the audience because they know that a lot of people like to read about the celebs and the producers of the magazine knows that the fans of the celebrity will help to purchase the item and read about their idol.

The lighting that has been portrayed is a high key lighting however, this can be contrasted with the black background. The designer of the magazine is almost certainly trying to emphasise that rap is cool and as we know they usually dress with the hoodies, low jeans, hats, trainers and long chains so to make it as little Wayne has, you have to have a ‘thug’ approach to life and they usually are connoted with the colours black, red and different types of dull colours and we can also see this in his dress sense what he is wearing was not worn by accident he had to fit in with the rap industry and what the designer wanted for the magazine cover. I believe that the choosing of the background was deliberate and the designer knew certainly what he was trying to show and there is not a setting besides this maybe because they may be in a studio.

Little Wayne has shown a cocky body language and the non verbal communication that has been set out has given us the impression that he has high self esteem. Plus the pose he has given in this music magazine, shows us that he is confident of himself, with the smug look he has shown us with his head tilt to the side. This could be seen as to become like Lil Wayne you have to have confidence in yourself and picking up the magazine might help you to become like him. Even though we know that just picking up the magazine will not help us overnight to become like him yet, we still pick it up and purchase the magazine nevertheless thinking this might help.    

The prop that has been used in the magazine is a microphone and a DJ deck. The MIC is not at little Wayne’s mouth he has deliberately held the wire so the microphone is placed down. His makes the audiences start to think that Lil Wayne possible thins he is too good for the Microphone because of his facial expression that he doesn’t need it and even without the microphone he is still powerful. The DJ deck kit helps to show that he is the one producing the music for Little Wayne but also him being on a lower level to Lil Wayne contrast the different class status that they have and how powerful Lil Wayne actually is in the music RAP industry.



Hence because the magazine is so interesting the audience wouldn’t really notice about the handwriting however we can tell that this handwriting is modern because of the way it looks and the bubble language so this helps us to notice that the magazine is not old this is called a sans serif font.    

In the front cover of this music magazine we can automatically notify that there is a rule of thirds as we can see, the eye catcher of the image is towards the right which is Lil Wayne. We can tell that this picture is a photograph because they would have had to use Photoshop to add the man at the back and make Lil Wayne be on a higher level and closer to the magazine than the man. We call this an asymmetrical composition we can tell that not everything is on the same line with each other as we can see Lil Wayne and the gentlemen at the back.

Buyers also like to look at the subheadings as we can see in the writing it has other different celebrity names to back it up so if you don’t like Lil Wayne inside of the magazine there is more different people to read about that you might be interested in so they are not leaving the magazine for only one fan group. However we can tell that the person who is most about the magazine is Lil Wayne as him and his name are in big. This shows that he is the main attraction and that is the main headline

In conclusion we can see that a front cover of a magazine has an absolute big impact on if a target group would buy it or not. The more presentable a magazine front cover is the more likely it will be purchased and likely to sell to the target audience also having a famous celebrity will help.

Textual analysis of a music magazine double page spread

The music magazine double page spread is usually used to talk about one artist overall and have a main subject about it. The lighting is a high key lighting to portray a very successful R&B artist and how she has become thriving on her journey and become a celebrity as we look closely we can see that the old picture of Jamelia is a low key lighting whereas, the high key lighting is of her now this is probably showing us the effect of becoming rich and what it can do to you and what happens when you be successful we can see that the designer made this magazine the way it is deliberately.   

The non verbal communication that is given in this photograph we can see a contrast of when Jamelia was younger and how she looks now, in the picture of when she is younger she has a big smile whereas in the other picture she is smiling without showing any teeth and seems more calm. We can also see by the NVC she has become successful in life and it has given her confidence and the calm approach shows us she is sitting down and relaxing in life. There is not really much props but the hate symbolises to me that when she was younger she probably didn’t have much self esteem and confidence when she was younger as her face is shadowed however she still carried on to fulfill her dream.

There are also questions being asked so people can see how she has made it and how talented she has become. This will sell to people who want to know more about her and to people who are inspired by her

                  Profiling Your Audience

As we can see on this website the denotation is straight away famous celebrity known worldwide and different forthcoming events and notices coming up. They have chosen to use famous celebrities straight away because it will bring a big impact on the number of views they will be receiving and having more than one genre celeb helps them to get more celebrities, so there is not really a target group apart for the people that like different types of genre to do within the more popular and modern genre’s that people tend to listen to

They have chosen Beyonce and have a subheading of “Stage fight! 18 crazy performance faces” they know that people will want to look at this and see embarrassing picture of celebrities because it is interesting and they know that they the media, will make money for it and we can see this NVC in Beyonce’s facial expression and its almost like she is coming out of the computer when you look at the page. The connotation has a high key lighting however the background of the website has a low key lighting. Perhaps trying to give of a meaning that woman need to shine and men jus need to act casual and relax and stay cool.     

I know when I come to making my own double page spread I will be able to add different genre’s so that it can invite more people to pick up my magazine and make my music magazine successful.

Audience Research Questionnaire

Textual analysis of music

Magazine:contents page

I have a contents page that I found on Google which I thought was appealing to me, I found this contents page very attractive and wanted to analyse on the contents page and I know it will help to sell the magazine. The denotation in this contents page straight away is a known R&B artist ‘Ciara’ straight away this will engage her fans to want to buy the magazine, also in the way she is lying down and has her legs up with her heels near the text like her heels is dangling down, also makes the magazine sell because it is interesting, its different and they would want to buy the magazine. The magazine has used ‘star power’ to sell the magazine to a lot of potential fans and because ‘Ciara’ is successful it is a good idea to use her.

The lighting is used effectively, because with the lighting being high key on the image and low key on the edges gives a nice effect and makes the model stand out on the picture. This is trying to emphasis on the model and how sexy she looks especially since she is wearing a body suite and her legs are out, it makes her look sexy and casual at the same time and in this present time a lot of people want to be like celebrities and seeing this they will want to pick up the magazine and see what else the magazine has to offer.

In the non verbal communication shown we can see this sexy look that she is trying to perceive to the audience, she is not smiling but she is looking directly at her audience. There is not really any props that were intentionally used apart from the heels, the heels make a big effect on the image and makes it very exciting and appeals to the audience. I believe that the background used was chosen because it is relaxed and it shows what this casual yet sexy approach and having the sides fade into black also makes the magazine look attractive.    

The handwriting is modern and we can see a difference in the way they have styled their title ‘content’ it is levelled out in three rows which also gives a nice, casual effect to the picture because it is different and vibrant. Even though the handwriting is modern it still also adds to this sexy approach they are trying to perceive.  

Textual analysis on a

Music magazine: Double page spread

In this double page spread of Lily Allen we can see the main subject is put to the side in a big image, this really helps because we know straight away who the artist is, the high key lighting also give emphasis on Lily Allen and her non verbal communication shows that she is strong and bold. The heading used is really helpful and is cut out like letters for a news letter which is different to most writing and makes it interesting because it isn’t something similar music magazines would use.

The writing is also in big and I like a sentence and this would attract the reader to want to know more on what she is talking about and what people are thinking, especially her fans and people who are inspired by her. The writing is also different some of the letters are capital locked which is really nice and there is also a drop cap used. Lily Allen is not smiling but she looks strong and happy with herself and her life and she is in casual clothing.

My Introduction To A Music Magazine:

My name is Lara Raji and I am 16 years old. I attend Christ the king college and I am in my first year I study AS media as a course. In media I have been given an assignment to analyse a music magazine and ask different groups of people on the type of music they would be fond of to see in my magazine, which I will create. This will assist me to produce my own magazine to entertain my target group. I believe that this will be an easier way to understand what my target group like and how I can make my magazine to be of an eye catcher as lots of young people tend to change the different types of genre that they listen to in the music industry there is a lot of different music to entertain different people so asking different people on the type of music they like will help me to know what to write and what sort of picture they will like. I will be making a magazine front page, contents page and a double page spread for this coursework.