Research For Music Magazines

Layout:

The image that takes up the most space on the R&B front cover of VIBE magazine is a long shot of the famous singer Ciara, with just a plan dark blue background. The reason for this is to show what the main article in the magazine will be about and draw the audience’s attention in, as Ciara is a top R&B female singer and has the main article in the magazine. So the image of Ciara takes up most of the cover, however the masthead “VIBE” is balanced in big bold letters and is at the top of the magazine, where most readers tend to look first. However the image does cover some of the masthead, showing that the magazine is a well known R&B magazine. The writing is more on the left with the image more on the right and centre making the magazine balanced as its proportional. The alignment of the magazine is more left sided. The image of Ciara is emphasised as it’s a long shot and the main story about Ciara. The contrast of the image on the blue background to make Ciara stand out, also the colouring of the text is mainly yellow and blue, which goes with the background and makes the magazine cover flows. So the effect of the layout makes the genre of R&B obvious and makes the image and stories stand out which draws the attention of the reader. 

Image:

The main image on the front cover of VIBE is a long shot of Ciara a famous R&B singer. The image draws a lot of attention as it a sexy image to go with the R&B genre and shows readers it is an R&B magazine and her fan base will buy the magazine. The image relates to the text as the main story is about her “NEW MUSIC, NEW BODY, NO BOW WOW, Ciara Don’t You Wish Your Girlfriend Was HOT LIKE ME?” This relates to the sexy image of Ciara revealing her new self/ appearance. In this image Ciara is dressed very sexy/attractive showing off her figure in a tight leather black dress, with her hair curly and long and out. This shows her as a sexy female, with high confidence, which is the typical view for R&B female singers. The colours used on the front cover are mainly blue and yellow to go with the background of the front cover and so the story stands out, however the unrelated stories are in different colours to make them stand out as well the mood set is very calm and seductive. The image attracts male and female audience due to the sex appeal and due to females looking at her as a role model and beautiful. So the image relates to the genre of R&B and the target audience as she is a top R&B female singer with a wide fan base. So the image is good to display the representation of the magazine.   

Language:

The language used on the magazine cover is used to represent the genre R&B. The magazine uses linguistic devices such as a rhetorical question “Don’t You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot like Me?” the effect of this is to engage the reader and to show her sex appeal and confidence, so it attracts readers to read on and makes them feel included and they are being spoken to directly. The language used on the front cover is informal and slang “2Much” and “HOT”, this type of language goes with the genre of R&B. The text relates to the image because the main story is about Ciara and that is the main story on the front cover taking up a lot of the cover. The typeface that has been used is bold, blocky and all capital letters. The title is covered by the image, which only well known magazines would do. Also the text has been placed around Ciara to emphasis her figure and sexual appeal, which is very important because it affects the text. So the image draws the audience’s attention to the magazine.

Genre:

The genre of the magazine is R&B and this is represented through the outlook of the magazines front cover. The magazine represents the R&B genre and this is shown through the name of the magazine “VIBE” which is a well known R&B magazine. Also through the image on the front cover of Ciara a well known R&B female singer and the way she is portrayed in it through the sex appeal. Also the text is related to other famous R&B singers or rappers such as “young jeezy”. So the genre of the magazine is made obvious from the front cover, that its R&B.