Analysis of a music magazine front cover

Analysis of a Front Cover of a Music Magazine

The setting of this music magazine ‘VIBE’ is that there is a main photo of Chris Brown in the middle with overlapping the masthead. Chris Brown overlapping the title connotes that he is an important factor on this magazine front cover. The writing on the on the magazine is around the photo, it is either large and old or just bold and in white green and some red. The effectiveness of the boldness is to captivate the reader, having the writing in mainly green and white shows us that its fresh new hot topics that is on the front. The writing that is in red tells us that it is extremely hot on topic, and red also tells us that it is burning fiery information. The contrast of the black against red can also connote that it’s a sinful, dark secret. In the background there is concrete, which can connote that, strong, indestructible which could represent that the magazine stands out of the crowd. However it could also be seen that the background is so basic as there is not much going on there because they don’t need to loose the main focus away from the photo in the middle.

The costume that is used in the magazine front cover is a royal red t-shirt and indigo jeans with two gold chains around his neck, a big watch, bracelet, and a belt with silver plate on the clasp and a flat peak hat. The significance of the singer wearing normal everyday clothes is to show that it is relax and comfortable vibe towards the audience. Also the red t-shirt is a contrast to the whole magazine front cover as it is what stands out the most. The jewellery he wears tells us that he has lots of money and he wants to flaunt it so everyone knows hes young and getting money. His hat is sitting half way on his head, this is stereotypical for young people because they use the hat a sign of fashion and not for the actual purpose of what a hat is for which is to protect your head/face from the sun or prevent cold.

On the front cover of this magazine cover they made sure there were no props. This brings the connotation that there is only one important thing and it is the artist in the middle, which makes a reflection that the magazine is straightforward and easy to understand.

The lighting used in this front cover is high-key lighting which in this cover is quite homogeneous; it is bright and is free from dark shadows. The connotation of high-key lighting is stereotypically angelic, innocent, goodness and joy. However the image of the artist contrasts with the high-key lighting due to the non verbal communication.

The NVC (non verbal communication) that is denotes Chris Brown with his hands in his pockets with his arms spread from his body this can connate that he is showing a hard front, trying to make himself look as big as possible therefore making him looking as intimidating as he can. His body language gives off the impression that he is a relaxed type of person due to his hands just being in his pockets and his posture is slouched so it shows us that is lazy or it can imply that he is he rebels against society as he doesn’t want to have an upright posture, this is stereotypical of the young generation not caring. The artists’ facial expression shows aggression but at the same time he give off the look that he just doesn’t care. He is looking straight on which tells us he is trying to make a connection with the audience and the fact that his lips are closed and have tension in them has the effect on the audience that it is hard to get him to say certain things, he is a closed type of person which means he doesn’t want to open up.

The shot that they used in this front cover is a mid-shot this is effective on the audience because they can see more body language and also unlike a long shot you can see more facial expression to see the emotion of the artist. It is taken from a straight on angle with a standard lens type. The composition is symmetrical and the focus of the photo taken is sharp, this is important because it makes it more eye catching for the audience just to focus their attention straight to the artist, and the background is not as sharp.

Vibe magazine uses is sans serif font, this shows the audience that it is modern and this also tells us the target of the audience that it appeals to the young generation.