Front Cover Textual Analysis

The Source’

The masthead of this front cover is in a bold, lime green sans serif font. It is also written in capital letters. This connotes that the magazine is modern and up to date. It also has an image used instead of the middle of the ‘O’ in ‘Source’. It is a hand holding a mic connotes associated with hip hop genre .

The main image takes up most of the front cover. The image uses a face-on medium close up. This means that all attention is on him.  The main image is of Kendrick Lamar and he is shown wearing a crown. It is anchored by the main cover line ‘…Kendrick Lamar Compton’s crown jewel’ which of course links to the image. He portrays a powerful look with his hand on this chin. All attention is focused on the crown as it over laps the masthead and he is wearing a plain black t-shirt so that it doesn’t detract from the crown and his face

The image represents the genre of the magazine as it is modern and has an RnB/Rap feel. This is shown because this genre of music is very much about saving face and seeming cool and collected. The image shows this well. He is not laughing or messing around, instead he has a blank but strong expression on his face.

This magazine is distributed manually and digitally, as there is a BlackBerry code that Blackberry users can scan to get the issue on their phones. This can also be used to subscribe to the magazine.

Here the magazine shows Social networking links for Twitter and Facebook, instagram and etc. Here this gives the reader more advantages to read the magazine

XXL

Here’s a image of the artist Chris brown of close up shot of him This allows us to see the clothing usually associated with the genre of hip-hop, as he we can see the tattoos and jewellery he is wearing in more detail. It also allows us to see his facial expression/his emotion which creates a link between audience and artist

The artist name is larger but transparent which suggests importance as the attention is on him. The words “No more apologies” in bold, white and sans serif font are smaller than the artist’s name which may suggest he is “bigger” than a story The fact that the main cover line is in white is because it connotes to the audience that it is the main story

The masthead is following the colour scheme as it is white on red. The red is lighter than the dark red background which allows the masthead to stand out

The artist names on the dark red background are blended in with red also, which suggests they are of less importance compared to Chris Brown. The names are also not fully shown but if the audience see the first few letters, such as “Gam” they will recognise it as the names are famous.The image suggests the target

audience are teenagers as the artist may attract 16-20 year old females. Due to past history with Rihanna, all hip-hop fans will want to read this, even Rihanna fans as she may be mentioned in the interview, so the image of Chris Brown helps sell to a wider audience

Hip Hop Weekly

The name also makes it obvious that it is aimed at hip-hop fans. The masthead is covered by an image of Chris Brown and Rihanna. This connotes that the magazine is an established and well-known brand. It could also connote that the artists are more important than the brand as they are the main story.

The main image is paparazzi shot, not a studio shot. The body language of the two artists tells us this as they are not looking at the camera. This enforces the style of Hip-Hop Weekly as it is a tabloid magazine that is linked with gossip of hip-hop artists.The main images represent the hip-hop culture due to the artists are wearing. The sunglasses, hats, and jewellery help highlight the genre of the magazine as they are commonly related to hip-hop.

The layout of the page is exceptionally organised. At first glance it looks very messy and busy. However, at a closer look, we see the main story takes up most of the page.