Music Magazine Analysis

Front Covers

Masthead – This is not like a typical magazine because it has two mastheads but they are both very large so to anyone who passes by the magazine it is clear who the magazine is produced by. The red in the masthead also stands out against the black and white background to make it more noticeable. It’s behind the artists head which follows the conventions of a typical front cover.

Main Image – The main image is a mid shot that has been mirrored to exaggerate the fact that Kanye West is a controversial person and shows the two differing opinions between the people who ‘love’ him and the people that

‘hate’ him.

Buzzwords – “Exclusive” is used to show that the story can only be found in ‘XXL’ and shows that this issue is special. It gives the magazine a unique selling point

Main Cover Line – It says “love hate” to show the differing opinions about Kanye West and how controversial he is. The mirroring effect goes with the main image and further exaggerates his controversial nature.

Cover Line – “Special Collectors issue” is used to make the audience think that they should buy this edition and makes it seem that this issue will be much better than the rest.

Text – The text is in all capitals this shows the importance of this particular issue it also makes it seem more serious. A simplistic font has been used to make it stand out but also shows the professional side of it.

Colour – The black and white are contrasting colours with connotations of white being good and black being evil this is done to further show the clashing opinions people have about Kanye West.

Cover Line – “The man himself "implies that he is writing the article himself

Conventions – The barcode is essential for the magazine to be sold and the website shows the reader where to go for more about the magazine

Masthead – The text is bold and big making it easy to read from afar. The red and white is a popular colour scheme among hip-hop magazines and it has been used here. It also stands out against the rest of the page that is darker which straight away draws the readers attention to the masthead.

Skyline – It contains the name of other hip-hop artists so anyone who might pick up the magazine might recognise one of the artists and scroll through the magazine looking for articles about them

Main Image – The main image shows the ‘Black Hippy Crew’ In the cover line it refers it as K.Dot’s (Kendrick Lamar's) crew so he is positioned in front of the other members he is also in the middle which draws the most attention to him. His white hoodie makes him stand out against the black background and the other members who are wearing darker clothing. They are looking straight at the camera which addresses the audience directly. The serious facial expressions give the audience an impression that it is a serious magazine

Conventions – The barcode is essential for the magazine to be sold and the website shows the reader where to go for more about the magazine

Content – It’s made clear to the reader that this magazine is only about hip-hop as pretty much all the text on the front cover is to do with hip-hop artists

Cover Line – Single cover line shows the main focus of the magazine it’s also quite large and says “black hippy” in white against a black background because the contrast stands out

Props/Costume – Jewellery on the main artist shows his wealth compared to the others and is a symbol of his power, it’s also just common clothing for rappers to wear which conveys that he is a hip-hop artist to the reader

Masthead – Very Bold, partially blocked by artists head this shows brand is well known as they don’t need to show the audience the full name. Takes up a lot of room to make up for not seeing it properly

Main Image – Stern look to portray gangster image and tilted hat both are conventions of a hip hop magazine. Image is extremely large and takes up most of the page so the reader recognises the artist straight away and it grabs their interest

Colour – the red text contrasts with the blue background could connote chaos (red) destroying peace (blue)

Pull Quote – Used to get reader interested in the interview Tupac is bigger than the rest of the text because he’s a well known name in the hip-hop scene and saying he’s been compared to him is a shocking thing

Skyline – Tells the reader what to expect from this issue

Buzzwords – “exclusive” suggesting that this magazine is the only magazine to cover this story

Conventions – The barcode is essential for the magazine to be sold

Plug – “Power 30” is large but also very vague which will make the reader interested and flick to the page that’s relevant

Conventions – The barcode is essential for the magazine to be sold

Skyline – Says names of other similar artists which show it’s a hip hop magazine and makes readers interested because the magazine’s likely to contain information about other artists

Cover line – “Cash Money Young Money” appeals to their fans and they will be more likely to read it

Masthead – 3D effect to make it more appealing and make it stand out it bright red goes with the other colours and matches text

Main Image – Shows hierarchy between the two because the one with tattoos is placed in front and takes up more room. The sunglasses convey that it’s a hiphop magazine

Contents Pages

Main Image – The artist has a concerned maybe depressed look there’s a female hand reaching over and grabbing his heart which could convey being “heart broken” by a woman

Colour – Grey commonly conveys depression and gloom it contrasts against the red heart being taken

Header – Vibe always write contents broken up into 3 lines this is their house style and it makes the reader recognise what magazine it is

Background – Large “V” is also Vibes house style and it makes them recognisable against competitors

Layout – The picture gives off a big message so there is less need for as much text as we can see the image takes up a lot more room than the text

Header – “top billin’” means he’s at the top of the programme for a show it is also a reference to “bills” as in a word for money. The header and image are both money orientated

Text – other artists names’ are in bold so people who pick up the magazine know who they are instantly

Main Image – Shows the artist looking stern surrounded in a pile of money holding a briefcase full of money. This shows the genre of the magazine because a lot of hip-hop is about showing off how much money you have.

Representation – The artist is represented as being extremely rich “top” suggests he’s at the top of the hip-hop industry

Logo – This is the house style and makes the magazine recognisable

Main Image – Shows a female blowing a kiss to the camera the article is called “eye candy” so she is represented as flirty

Images – This contents page is dotted with smaller images to give the reader a little preview of what is in the magazine

Header – It is covered by the womans hair but it is still recognisable as saying “the B-side”

Logo – This is the house style and makes the magazine recognisable

Colour – Very simplistic mainly white and black so it can stand out with the red hyphen which is because of the house style where XXL try to incorporate red into a lot of their pages

Double Page Spreads

Colour – Colour scheme is black and yellow which is a reference to the artists song called “black and yellow” They are also contrasting which look good together

Ideologies – There’s smoke billowing from the artists mouth and the header says “how high?” suggesting he’s smoking cannabis, cannabis reflects the genre as a lot of hip-hop artists openly smoke it.

Hanging Indent – Commonly used on articles in many different types of magazines, this one is yellow which goes with the colour scheme of the page

Main Image – Shows a close up of the artists face partially covered with smoke on a black background. The background is black not only because of the colour scheme but because it helps show up the white smoke better

Text – The hanging indent and pull quote are made to look like a child’s handwriting this is because he says people still think he is a child when he is 18.

Main Image – Mid shot at a slightly low angle this gives the impression that the artist is still short like a child. Stern look to show he’s unhappy about being labelled a child like it’s mentioned in the pull quote

Mise-en-scene – Chain and baseball cap makes it clear to the audience that he’s a rapper and shows the genre of the magazine is hip-hop

Colour – very simplistic his white t-shirt matches the white background to make it visually pleasing