Comparing music magazine from covers

In this Task I will use my textual analysis skills to compare two distinct music magazine front page. below I have compare two examples of front cover magazines.

Language

Firstly, some of the text is in Gold which emphasises the rich and famous lifestyle with the money and the jewellery. Also, gold is known all over the world as rare and precious, and with Akon wearing a considerable amount, this tells the reader that he can almost anything he wants. The word 'Akon' is in such large lettering, stating that he is the main subject of this certain issue. Also, there is some text in pink which also implies that people, such as Akon, can get get all the girls. Furthermore, pink text shows that the magazine is largely aimed at females and so with Akon being seen as a sex object on the front cover, it is hard to see this magazine not being bought.


Institution

Firstly, the institution of Vibe magazine is to commercially make money. This can clearly be seen as the bar code and price are clearly displayed. Also, the have a website (http://www.vibe.com/) which is again, clearly stated on the front of each edition of Vibe magazine.



Ideology

The ideology of Vibe magazine is to promote R'n'b and Rap music and give this genre a good reputation. The message Vibe magazine tries to bring across is that rap and r'n'b music is the way forward and not all people into this music are involved in things such as drugs, crime etc. This can be shown through coverlines such as 'R'n'B' and 'Hitmaker'.

Audience
The audience for Vibe magazine are roughly between 16-28 as rap and r'n'b music is usually listened to by people of a similar age to this.

Representation
Here, Akon is represented to be a so called gangster by his hand jesture in the shape of a gun, the way he has no top on, and he is wearing bling to emphasise his 'bad boy' image. This appeals to younger males who read this magazine as they will want to be like this

This is the from a well known magazine called NME.  It is very hard for music magazine to attract a larg number of customers, this is because not everybody has the same taste in music. This means that the magazine should only aim for a specific target audience so that they can attract the most customers. This means that this magazine should talk about what is going to be included in the magazine so that the audience can look at it and see if it’s the right magazine for it. The magazine does show this and also shows the type of band that going to be included in the magazine as well.  From this we can learn a lot about the magazine such as the type of mysic, the bands interviewed festiavls and the latest news in the music industry.

The main picture used on the magazine shows us the member of the enemy signing and playing live at a recent festival.  The magazine has edited this picture to make look more affective and pleasing to the audience, they have edited around the singer and given him a glow to make him stand out more.  This attracts the the customer more because it makes the singer stand out and look better.

The colour on the magazine has been used well as they have onlye used a small amount of colours in the magazine. This may infer that its target audience are not young children but a much more older targeted audience.  The way they have used the colours is very effective because they have made the name of the band in yellow which makes the name stand out more then everything in the front cover.