Textual Analysis 5

Textual Analysis - CHRIS BROWN

Denotation: The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. It is a medium long shot showing her head, arms and waist. He is leaning against a wall his hands are in his pockets in the shot. The background of the photograph is red (not clear enough to describe), and the photograph covers the middle of the magazine cover. Behind the man is the VIBE Masthead, and in front of him are nine separate cover-lines in white, green, black and red.  The photographed men’s name is in white and there are whiting underneath each cover line separating them. A bar code is visible in the bottom corner.

Masthead:Vibe’s masthead is very clear; white capital letters in bold. The lower case letters aren’t joined up to each other. The word ‘vibe’ is normal used when speaking about music.. All of the musicians who have used this phrase in their music had reputations of having bad, hard, and naughty and almost thug lifestyles- making the magazine seem dangerous and risqué. The name ‘Vibes’ tells the audience this magazine is music based.

Character:The Cover photograph is of the successful American singer ‘Chris Brown’.

Composition: He is posed in a very suggestive ‘tough guy’ kind of a way. Her pose, body language, and clothing, are very aggressive, strong and intimidating.

Costume: Her clothing is a plain red t-shirt, jeans and silver accessories. This costume has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be male. The clothing worn is similar to the costumes used suggest Chris Brown is tough, with high status.

NVC: Her Non verbal communication is also very aggressive. His facial expression is angry and tough. He is also looking directly at the camera.

Lighting: The lighting is high key, as the Photograph is displayed daytime.

Setting: There is little setting, however the red background connotes danger and is therefore in keeping with a tough appearance. He could also be on the street.

Cover-lines:The main cover-line that relates to her photograph says: “IS THAT CHRIS BROWN?”  This is making a reference to a piece of music he did before this picture was taken, that was called ‘Yeah 3x’ (released in 2010).  This was the video where she got rid of he a young child to scream out “hey its Chris brown!” this showed his success in the fact people knew him. The different cover-lines tell us that this magazine doesn’t concentrate on just one genre of music, and doesn’t only focus on music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about.  Artists mentioned on the cover-lines include Usher, Chris Brown, Will.I.Am (There is a definite emphasis on American artists). The only person mentioned who is not a musician is the debarge family, who is a family who experienced intense highs and lows. The way the cover-lines are written reveals that this magazine also focuses on current news events as well- e.g. “Cocaine heroin, prison, HIV…” It suggests that VIBE magazine is a new fresh magazine, and is on it’s away to becoming an American institution. This can tell its readers they will receive accurate and challenging Journalism.

Target Audience;Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people (male and female, though more male audience members than female) aged 14-55. They would have a good knowledge of popular culture and a definite interest in a wide range of musical styles and the music industry generally.