Textual Analysis 3

Textual Analysis – LUDACRIS

Denotation: The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera and something covered the other eye. It is a medium close shot showing her head and shoulders. The background of the photograph is white, and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind the man is the XXL Masthead. The photographed men’s name is in black and white. There are words in yellow. A bar code is visible in the bottom corner.

Masthead: XXL’s masthead is very distinctive: Red with white capital letters. The first letter of each word. The masthead ‘XXL’ suggests that there is something bit about this magazine which sets the magazine apart from the others. ‘XXL’ is short for extra extra large. This statement is normally used for clothing which suggests that the magazine has something that makes this magazine the best one.

Character: The Cover photograph is of the successful American rapper ‘Ludacris’.

Composition:  She is posed in a very aggressive and angry ‘hard man’ kind of a way. Her pose, body language, and clothing, are quite simple, nothing outrageous.

Costume: From what is visible on the cover his costume consists with a simple black jacket. This is probably the same style he has worn in the past from music videos and photo shots. This tells the audience that has an artists clothing isn’t the most important thing to Ludacris. His clothing (costume) has been carefully chosen to appeal to the target audience, which are probably males and his fans; which wouldn’t take the artist seriously if he was in a brightly coloured jacket. The artist himself would have had some type of decision to the outfit, which tells us this is the audience that he has a simple style.

NVC:  His Non verbal communication is also very suggestive. His mouth closed. His facial expression is aggressive pulling a ‘dirty look’. He is looking directly at the camera.

Lighting:                                                                                                                                                 The lighting is high key, as the Photograph could be argued that it’s meant to display during the day.

Setting:                                                                                                                                                    There is little setting, however the white background connotes simple-ness and is therefore in keeping with a simple style.

Cover-lines:

The main cover-line underneath the American rapper Ludacris says; “LUDACRIS; will shoot yo’ ass” This relates to the photograph of what appear to be a camera/gun. This is making reference to a line Ludacris is famous for using. And the famous line is used by other American rappers, gangsters and actors. This line was also in a film Ludacris played a role in; Fast and Furious 5 where a group of people plan to take the head gangster down. Throughout this films cars, guns and swearing is used which connotes the ‘bad boy’ image which a lot of American rappers hold. The different cover lines consist of information on the empire, fashion and music has such. This tells the audience that the magazine doesn’t only focus on the music side of things. Artists including Will Smith, 50 CENT, and LL COOL J etc are placed next to his head. This tells the audience that this magazine has a genre of rap, hip pop and rnb. Although ‘eazy-e’s empire 20 years later’ tells the audience that there are some articles not just about the ‘fabulous’ lifestyles of rappers. The words on the magaziene are in capitals with link in with the connotations that the magazine is extra big and better than the other competitions. It suggests that XXL magazine has existed for a while and is interested in the history of music as well upcoming news. This can tell its readers they will receive accurate and challenging Journalism while/after reading this magazine.

Target Audience

Considering all of these points on the cover such as the cover-lines like ‘Hollywood issues; will smith, 50 cent… and easy-e’s empire. The likely target audience would be people male and female, though more male audience members than there would be female audience members, they would be aged 18-40. They would have a good knowledge of popular culture, this time period and some centuries back and a definite interest in a wide range of rnb styles and the music industry generally. They are likely to be well educated/well read, and have an interest in American popular culture.