Vibe magazine Analysis

‘Vibe’ magazine is a music magazine aimed at the young hip hop & R&B listeners. Looking at the front cover of this magazine we know that the main story/article in the magazine is going to be about ‘Janet Jackson’ for two simple reasons, she is the central image and secondly the anchorage text: ‘Janet Jackson likes to watch’. There are several puffs surrounding the central image all stating that there is going to be information/stories about popular artists and groups of the magazines specific genre. The puffs also suggest that the magazine has special photographs and new information about video games inside.
‘Vibe’ is aimed at a younger audience; it is targeted at the age group of 16-24 year olds who like, know and listen to hip hop and R&B music.
The editor has successfully selected artists that they expect the audience to relate to. There is a range of artists which could help increase the magazine sales because even if there happens to be a particular artist or group that the reader may not like some people will still read a story about them.
The central image of Janet Jackson appears to be quite inviting towards the reader, she maintains a direct mode of address and it is humorous that she is posing with a camera as if she is going to take a picture of the reader this pose is also inviting to the reader as it seems to target them individually especially if the reader knows who the artist is. The editor has craftily already made a connection between the central image and the audience. Janet Jackson is placed on the front cover of this magazine. Janet Jackson is a very recognised person if not as an artist. Using a popular artist on the front cover encourages readers to buy the magazine as they know who they’re going to be reading about or looking at. The anchorage text on this magazine is kept short ‘Janet Jackson likes to watch’ the anchorage text is in sync with the central image-Jackson appears to be ‘watching’ through the camera lens and the anchorage text says that she ‘likes to watch’. ‘Janet Jackson is printed in bold, bright blue outlined in white and are the most important words in the anchorage text. This is so it stands out to customers.
We get the impression that the main story is going to be about photographs taken by Janet Jackson as she is the one holding the camera on the cover. Overall, the artist is looking directly at the audience singling them out with the camera lens pointing at them as if she is ‘watching’.
Janet Jackson’s costume is a simple outfit of denim jeans and a white vest top; she also wears quite edgy jewellery. In general her costume contains quite neutral colours that support the whole colour scheme of the front cover. This is a good thing because she fits in with the outline of the cover.
Vibe’ magazine’ initial target audience is 16-24 year olds; therefore the social groups that are being represented in this magazine are teenagers and young adults. The magazine successfully represents this younger generation in two puffs-‘15 crucial video games’, video games are thought to be associated with younger people. Also ‘First ever photo issue! Limited edition’-it is assumed that generally younger people would be more interested in looking at photographs rather than reading posters as photographs have a more sophisticated style. The editor chooses to include photographs assuming the target audiences interest. It is less of an effort and is easier for them to just ‘look’ at something without having to concentrate so hard. The younger generation also enjoy looking at photographs to judge and criticise celebrities with each other.
There is a selection of buzz words in this magazine –‘15’ is a reasonably larger font size than the rest of the text it is associated with and on the cover. Also the text ‘video games’ is coloured in with a white font with a black outline in contrast to ‘15 crucial’ which is coloured all in black. The editor attempts to create a clear contrast to make the most important words ‘video games’ stand out. Its aim is to catch the reader’s attention with the word ‘crucial’. This word sounds as if it is urging the reader that it is essential to read about these ‘must see’ video games. The word crucial could also have been chosen because it is persuasive. The words ‘Hip-hop’ are coloured in a black font with a white outline to stand out against the pale background. It jumps out at the reader as it not only is it in a larger font it is cleverly used to target the audience who are interested in hip hop. Underneath it, it then provides a list of names that may interest the hip hop audience. In my opinion I believe the word ‘exposed’ to be a buzz word. It implies the meaning of a revelation, which consumers are inclined to read about. It is placed next to the name ‘Rihanna’ – a famous R&B artist which most consumers are expected to be familiar with. Using her name increases the probability of people taking an interest in purchasing Vibe.
The title of the magazine is in big, bold capital letters making it very easy for it to be identified. The editor has cleverly created the title to be big and bright but also discrete and in the background. The top of the central image overlaps part of the title despite this; the title remains clear and recognisable. The title is in an effectively dominant font which stands out against the rest of the text on the page. The colour of the title is a light red/orange; however this colour is not thought to be associated with an urban genre. The title ‘Vibe’ however is associated with the urban genre, as it means to have ‘a generally good feeling’; therefore it implies the magazine contains many things to leave you with a good feeling.
The puffs on the front cover briefly state what is going to be inside the magazine. However, the font of all the puffs is the same, this may not seem to be a negative point but the cover is overloaded with puffs of the same or similar size and the same font which make the cover appear plain and plastered. Another factor that makes the front cover have a dull appearance is the background colour (faded white). The colour scheme of ‘Vibe’ revolves around quite pastel colours, the orange and the blue colours constructed together with a white outline colour, clash against the pale background. The main puffs are simply placed on the bottom left and right hand side. They cleverly provide snippets of information about artists and bands associated with the genre of this magazine such as: ‘Rihanna’, ‘Mario’ and ‘J.Lo’ by using buzz words: ‘Rihanna: Exposed’ and ‘Jermaine Dupri’s Wild Night’. Stating the names of the artists/bands that are going to be in the magazine is useful for the audience to decide whether or not they want to read about them.
The slogan: ‘First Ever Photo Issue! Limited Edition Cover’ infers ‘buy now or miss out!’ It is based on the top right hand side of the cover, overlapping the last two letters of the magazine title. The slogan is very small and is quite hard to see instantly. The editor has attempted to make it stand out in another way by using a black font colour for the slogan excluding the words ‘Photo Issue!’- Here the editor has made the text larger that the rest of the slogan and has used a white font colour outlined with black to create a more ‘outstanding’ effect from the rest of the text. The words ‘First Ever’ are also the same font size as ‘Photo Issue!’ however, in contrast it is coloured in a black font colour. This has been formed in order to create another clash of colours to make the text appear eye-catching. The same effect has been attempted previously in the puff ’15 crucial video games’ where ’15 Crucial’ is coloured in black against ‘Video Games’ which is coloured in a white font with a black outline, again used to create that eye-catching effect. The slogan tells us that this magazine edition is special because it is the first time it has produced a photo issue, the exclamation mark after the word ‘issue’ implies that this is exciting news and will persuade the audience to take interest in this edition of Vibe. It also tells us that the front cover of Vibe is a limited edition, implying that it is best for consumers to buy the magazine now as they may not get another chance to, later on. All of the texts on the front cover are in capital letters. I believe that the editor has set this style on the front cover in order to make all the text appear bright and bold. This also implies that the all the text is important, this is a negative thing because it is unclear of where the reader should be looking first.
The magazine’s technique to draw their target audience in, is what the whole context of the magazine is based on – their ‘first ever photo issue’. It is an attempt of promoting a new idea successfully, depending on their target audience to purchase it.
However, the editor also tries to make the magazine issue more appealing by throwing in celebrity names and a small insight into what the inside story contains: ‘He’s Free, But is He Good? The Untold Story of Busta Rhymes’ again, the editor relies on the audience’ taste.