Analysis of Music Magazine

Textual Analysis of a Music Magazine Front Cover

The assignment will demonstrate a clear understanding of a textual analysis of the front cover of a VIBE music magazine.  Furthermore, using the correct terminology to describe the magazine and the content it holds and analyse the cover in depth.

Vibe magazine is well known around the world and is based around the world of Hip-Hop, Rap, Soul, Jazz and R ‘n’ B. It tends to feature people from all walks of life, musicians, artists, entertainers. The front cover given to analyse has a picture of a female R&B and Hip-Hop singer named Ashanti. Ashanti is wearing a white dress with diamond necklaces, bracelets, ring and pearl earrings; the background is a green but mellow screen. Ashanti is seated on a round stool with her right hand casually resting on her left leg while her head is resting upon her left hand.     

Ashanti is wearing a white dress which symbolises purity, innocence, angelic ness and wholesomeness. However, her stance represents seduction, sexy, sassy, elegance and confidence. The mellow green in the background is refreshing and calm, but eye catching and allows Ashanti and her dress to stand out in this vibrant cover.

Mise-en-scene revolves around costume, props, setting, lighting and Non- verbal communication [NVC]. Ashanti’s costume is a white dress that is short and fitted to suite her figure and body, it is also sheek it is all kept neat and tidy with diamond jewellery, her costume is kept very simple to allow Ashanti to have the main focus and her white dress does that very well, by drawing us in. The costume is a short dress and low cut at the front to attract mainly guys as it is seductive and sexy but shows she is disciplined as it is not to revealing.

 On the other hand, teenage girls and ladies may see this as a place they want to aspire too or may imagine themselves buying a similar dress like what she is wearing or want to look like her. Ashanti, wearing the props and costume indicates to the audience that she is an attractive young black woman that is respectful of herself and can be sexy but elegant at the same time. Props were kept to minimum with just a black stool which she is seated on, this is a good technique as it is making sure Ashanti is not drowned by props around her and consumers will be interested in what she is wearing and how much it cost rather than the props and how much it cost.  This is similar to a Marilyn Monroe photo as she wears a white dress which is revealing, covered with diamonds, a pearl necklace and a fringe with all her hair rested on her right shoulder.

There setting for Ashanti photo the mood or atmosphere that I believe was trying to be created is the times of when blues and jazz was popular even the stool I believe was used to create that type of setting, when people would go to clubs and listen to some soulful and live music. Men would have the hair slicked back wearing suites and women would wear long elegant dresses with jewellery and sway their hips to the lovely music. The photo is taken in front of a green screen they tried to use a colour which wasn’t dark but vibrant that could also make the white dress and the font which is also white stand out so it could give the front cover that vibrant eye catching feel to the magazine. The lighting used in the front cover is a high lighting because it is quite even and free from shadows which is not surprising as she is wearing a white dress. This allows us to get a full look at what she is doing and how she posing.

The type of NVC that I am receiving from the VIBE cover is direct eye contact looking straight which means she is giving full eye contact to the camera which in turn means she is looking straight at the person whoever is looking at the magazine to show she is fully focussed and giving her one hundred percent concentration to the audience. The position of her left arm on her head implies she is comfortable with herself, relaxed, but also wants to look pretty.  Ashanti’s head is tilted down with her mouth slightly open and her eyes gazing directly forward connoting that she is teasing the buyer and knows she is being photographed.  Ashanti’s right arm is on her knee with her left leg raised slightly showing her thighs it draws guys attention their and allows them to visually imagine “playing with their mind” overall  Ashanti seems like if she is in her element in the front cover. Ashanti’s body language is strong and upright, but not in a domineering manner, it is more relaxed connoting that that she knows what she wants and what she is doing and is in control.

The anchorage on the front cover tells us a lot about the style and type of magazine VIBE is. It indicates that its target audience are mainly black people. The font and sized used connotes that the magazine should be taken seriously VIBE written in white with black around it connotes its firm and strong. The topics that are spoken about in depth within the magazine are written in brief and underlined, but are still in uppercase and bold font connoting that it is important and something that must be read

  The font used on the front cover is big and bold which is relevant to the genre it bases it content on music, people and entertainment.  It has no flick ups and generally connote a font that is more modern so by analysing these key factors I can conclude that this font is a Sans-Serif font which is also bold which kind of represents the image as a whole, even though the singer is dressed classy and her pose is elegant she is bold, which makes her stand out. They also made sure that the information that they put in bold was clear to read from a distance and is quick and easy to read and important and what they put in lowercase is less important to the buyer, until they get to that specific page in the actual magazine. The font and the way it is placed were based on Ashanti’s pose.

The composition of the image has an asymmetrical composition as on the right her left hands is behind her head and on the left her right hand is on her knee this connotes a sense of imbalance but in a beautiful way as she poses.

In conclusion, the assignment has demonstrated a clear understanding of a textual analysis of the front cover of a VIBE music magazine.  Furthermore, using the correct terminology to describe the magazine and the content it holds and analyse the cover in depth.