Denotation:

The magazine cover is made up of four colours black, white, grey and red. The red is to interpret into the signature logo of the magazine ‘Q’. The show is a medium long shot as you cannot see past the knee. The background colour is grey but it seems as if i gets lighter as it goes down the page. The artists name is in white and the ‘A’ goes behind her but the ‘G’ is in front of her. The image of the artist covers the whole magazine cover and is large, she is almost in quite a prerogative position.  Behind ‘Lady Gagas’ head you can see the Masthead and also behind her is a few different cover line stories that are featured inside the magazine.  Barcode is visible at the bottom right hand corner.

Masthead:

Q’s masthead is easily distinguished from other magazine covers. It has its famous red block with a white ‘Q’ in the middle. The logo is ALWAYS in the top left hand corner on every magazine they release, it’s never anywhere else and it’s always just under the running banner at the top of the page.

Character:

A very famous American singer ‘Lady Gaga’

Composition:

Her body position is very sexual and this is confirmed by the use of her hands and the fact she has no clothing on her top half.

Costume:

She isn’t wearing much clothing so this immediately will attract a male audience, her has latex gloves on in the style of ‘Freddie Kruger’ which would then confuse the audience because that isn’t ‘sexy’ but as Lady Gagas’ fashion is always weird and elaborate this actually will be seen as quite normal. Her bottoms have spikes coming out the side ad this completes the rock look that she is displaying in the photograph.

NVC:

Her Non verbal communication is also very seductive as she is looking directly at the camera and her mouth is only slightly open but she shows a lot of concentration.

Lighting:

The lighting is brightly set on the artist to emphasise her presences.

Setting:

The only setting is the grey black drop which fits in with the colours of the writing in the magazine and adds to the ‘rock and roll’ effect Lady Gaga seems to be pursuing.

Cover-lines:

The title that introduces lady gaga on the cover says ‘Move over Madonna, LADY GAGA has RISEN!’ This suggests that Lady Gaga is the new and improved Madonna. There is a lot of rumour that Lady Gaga gets her style and ‘unique style’ originally from Madonna. However, the other meaning could also be that Madonna in the media is also called Madge which also means Mary (as in the holy mother) and since it says ‘LADY GAGA has RISEN!’ it could symbolise that Lady Gaga is Jesus and since she has ‘risen’ she is new and reformed for this article which would make people want to know what’s changed or what she has to say. The other stories on the magazine cover a much large musically audience and go from big international names such a Lady Gaga and Jimi Hendrix to quite artists like Vampire Weekend.

Target Audience:

All the artists mentioned on the front cover are aimed at a much younger generation but, Jimi Hendrix is mentioned which then aims it at the much older generations such a 35-50’s. Male and females as the music is quite balanced.

Denotation:

The Colours are once again very simple, black red grey and white. This time the grey is used as writing and it actually seems to be a ‘faded’ black to show less important information and anything in black and red is important eg. An artists name. The artists head is in front on the magazines name ‘VIBE’ and he is also above any other writing on the page. In the photo you can see his shadow in the photo which is usually erased from a photo showing the was lighting used.

Masthead :

The colours used in the masthead in red fading into black but unlike most magazines that isn’t it’s set colour ‘VIBE’ magazine works with the theme of the magazine by the issue so one day it would be black the next white.  All the writing is done is capitals showing that it is all important information for the reader. VIBE doesn’t tell us or give us an idea of any particular genre of music.

Character:

Cover is of the famous white mc – Eminem.

Composition:

He is in a very angry position, looking at the camera in a intimidating way showing he’s got something to say and he isn’t happy.

Costume:

He’s wearing very plain clothes, but he has his jewellery out showing that he is rich. He also has his arms showing which are covered in tattoos. Tattoos when used in a certain way can be related to violence or ‘toughness’ and in his tattoos you can see his daughter on his right arm that he raps a lot about in his songs and talks about the difficult relationship and on his other arm the name ‘Ronnie’ who was someone in his life who passed away who he really cared about showing some heartbreak and sorrow in his life.

NVC:

He shows to be giving off a bad attitude towards the readers by the way he is standing and staring at the camera.

Lighting:

The lighting is used to put focus on the artist.

Setting:

There is no background but this then puts all the focus onto the artist there is nothing else to distract the reader from him being the main reason of the magazine.

Cover-lines:

The main writing which shows what Eminem will talk about in the article ‘EMINEM COMES CLEAN’ and a list of drugs he used with a quote from the article saying ‘I LITERALLY ALMOST DIED.’ This will immediately attract attention to this issue because he’s talking about a personal time in his life he isn’t just going to discuss anywhere else. All the other cover-lines used on the article are to do with grime or hip-hop artists this shows that the magazine isn’t to do with anything else but hip-hop and grime.  Cover-Lines suggest they are very involving in the readers opinions as there is quizzes and ranked status’ of artists in the magazines.

Target Audience

The obvious target audience is teenage males, since the music is all male based there isn’t any female rappers name on the front cover and Eminem is in a manly intimidating position. There will however be female readers but they are a very small percentage, everything on the cover seems very masculine too. Black and red show to be dark dim colours while stereotypically girls would like bright colours such as pinks and orange.