The second magazine that I will be analysing is a music magazine called Vibe.
Audience: The target audience of this magazine looks very different to the target audience of the magazine we last looked at. By just looking at the front cover we can immediately tell that this magazine is aimed at men. We know this because the whole 'vibe' of the entire front cover looks like it appeals to men. Such as the colour of the text and background, the type of cover stories that are inside this magazine and the main image. The whole front cover has a sort of dark and aggressive look to it. This is because mainly of the colours that are used and the main image. If we were to narrow down the target audience even more I would suggest that the target audience is males between the age of 18 - 30, primarily because of the aggressive look that this magazine portrays, it comes across that males are within that age band are more likely to read this magazine.
Masthead: Just like the masthead of 'Billboard' is covered up by the main image, the masthead of 'Vibe' is also displayed in the same way. Although not as covered up as Billboard, the masthead of Vibe is still covered up by the artist's head. This gives it a good effect and I think it is covered up just enough for it to look effective yet also still being able to read what the name of this magazine is. The colour of the word 'VIBE' keeps to the colour scheme of the magazine which is a dark and gloomy look which enhances the look of the main image. It is a very simple masthead which sort of follows the norms of general music magazines of this genre. It doesn't need to be fancy or sparkly as this does not appeal to the target audience of the magazine. It doesn't look too much that this magazine is trying to create a brand compared with others. It is just a plain simple font, with a dull colour on a grey background. You could argue though that this dull effect on the masthead is the brand they are trying to create, which in a way works well as people would see that same font and colour and know it is the magazine 'Vibe'. However, this does impact it on attracting new customers as it wouldn't quite stand out on the shelves of shops as well as other music magazines.
Main Image: The main image on the front cover of this magazine is very meaningful. The mode of address of the person on the front cover is looking straight at the camera which like 'Billboard' engages the reader and has a greater effect on what the genre of this magazine is. The image is of the rapper R.Kelly. We know this as it says on the header above at the top of the page in bold white letters so it implies that R.Kelly is important we automatically relate the words and the picture together. The main image itself is an image of R.Kelly looking into the camera, with his hands on the side of his head with no facial expression. This suggests he is thinking about something and as his face looks depressed it implies there may be a shocking story about R.Kelly inside this magazine so if you're a person who likes reading music gossip or are just interested in R.Kelly's life. The image is also quite big which fills up most of the page. This proposes that this person is very important and the main cover story will be out him. This interests mainly people interested in R.Kelly but can also attract people who are interested in this type of music genre and he is seen as a god.
Text: On this front cover the text is a key aspect to promote this magazine to its audience. If there was no text then no one would know what is going on and what is inside the magazine so they wouldn't really be interested in purchasing it. The look of the text is also critical. The font and colour and even the way the text is spaced out across the page gives an insight what the target audience is and if it attracts them. The colour scheme suits the audience and so does the font of the text. Just like the masthead the font is kept simple with not many colours used. The main colours that are visible are black, red and yellow. They have kept to a general house style which is the cover lines are black and the sub cover lines are in red. They use yellow in some parts of the text because this is the text they want to stand out. As the yellow is a very bright colour, it contrasts against the other dull colours surrounding it. When you first look at the page the first thing that catches your eye is yellow text, so this works well as the bits in yellow are the key parts of the content of the magazine and this is what they want the reader to see first.
Brand: Like all magazines, 'Vibe' is trying to create a brand. The brand is decided on the mainly the font of the masthead and the cover lines, the colour of the masthead and cover lines and the choice of images that are used, primarily the main image. The brand that this magazine is trying to create is an aggressive men's magazine. This doesn't mean that the people who read 'Vibe' are aggressive people. but what the magazine is trying to do is that if you are someone who reads this magazine then you are cool and people must respect you. It does this by the cover lines and displaying what is inside, the type of stories that are filled in that magazine depends on what brand and reputation it has over the audience. When looking at other 'Vibe' magazines I see that they keep the same simple font and colour for the masthead. Also, it is always located in the same place on the page which is centred at the top. Furthermore, every 'Vibe' magazine that I have seen has the main image of a single person with the mode of address always looking at the camera. This also helps create the brand because they have kept to the same format and house style so people immediately recognise the brand 'Vibe'.
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