Task 2: Magazines and Audiences

           

This is an analysis of the music magazine Vibe, in this analysis I will be reviewing some key factors of this magazine. These factors are, target audience, appeal of cover, conventions of cover design. The magazine is called Vibe and is aimed at people who have an interest in rap music, this is conveyed by the image of Eminem a very famous rapper on the front cover and the text in the top right corner in Bold black writing, saying "THE REAL RAP" there are also various famous rappers names and other references to Rap music displayed on this front cover.  This magazine I believe is aimed at the younger to middle aged generation because of the modern design of the cover and the fact that all the rappers named on the cover are either new or have only been around for 5-10 years. I would also say that this magazine is aimed at the male sex more than the female just because of the colours used such as Reds, Blacks, and Greys and Whites all very strong colours. Also more men like Rap than females just as more women like soul music or divas to men. The cover has attempted to appeal to the Rap music audience with a number of things. The most obvious one would be the image of Eminem on the cover of the magazine, people who like the music Eminem produces and are fans of his will see this image and want to buy the magazine; the caption, 'Eminem comes clean' will also attract people with an interest into the life of Eminem. Another way this magazine appeals to the audience is by asking questions, asking questions like 'who is the best rapper ever?', 'Are the roots to black for jimmy fallon ?' or 'Is 1998 raps last classic year?' make the consumer wish to read the magazine to find out the answers. There are many evident conventions for this magazine, one of the most obvious ones would be the fact the title of the magazine remains the same for every single issue. This is so that consumers who have an interest in rap music would be able to identify this magazine every single time. Another convention of this magazine is that there is always a famous rapper displayed on the front whether it is Eminem, Lil Wayne or Jay-Z there is always one and something about their life written inside the magazine. This story’s about their life can vary, whether it is drug addiction, family problems, how they came to fame there always something about their life. Another obvious convention would be the sub headings used to attract the reader in displaying various phrases with interest towards the consumer such as 'The 50 hottest rap blogs ranked' etc. etc. There are simple conventions also such as the font, the font used to display the name of the magazine 'Vibe' is the same font throughout every single issue of this magazine the only the thing that changes is the colour.