Market Research

Front Covers

I found 3 front covers: XXL, the source and vibe. On source the colour scheme links with the artists clothing and the props on the front cover. Source and XXL don’t have much writing on their front covers; mainly they only talk about the cover stories in the magazine. On vibe and XXL they have used a direct gaze, they chose to pose the artist like this to intimidate the audience. The reason for this is to grab their attention and again to represent the RNB genre as touch, scary and intimating. They try and make the celebrity’s as outlaws to the music industry. The positioning of the image on all of the magazines has been placed in front of the masthead. On source and XXL they use close up shots rather than long shots. On all 3 of the magazines the celebrity’s name on the front cover stands out to the rest of the writing.

Contents Page

For all three of the contents 2 of them only contain one image but the XXL one contains two. This suggests that my contents page needs to be simple and only focus on the artist. Top Billin' and XXL both include the date when the issue was released on their page. For each photo on the contents page they include photo credit to the photographers, none of the images are close ups which suggests my image for my contents page should be a mid-shot or full body shot. None of the celebrities are smiling and most of the poses are serious, as they are representing there persona as being tough. Suggesting that this is the representation we get from the RNB genre. The colour schemes of the contents page are always dark colours like blacks/whites/greys yet in 2 of them they have a bright colour which makes certain words stand out like the cover story and the artist.

Double Page Spreads

 

 
 

 

 

The image on all over the double page spread doesn’t engage with the audience as it uses an indirect gaze. They’ve done that to make you feel exclusive to looking into a celebrity’s lifestyle. On two of the double page spreads there is a quote from the artists to do with the article. On all of them some reference has been made to the magazine name. The articles on Lupe fiasco and Rick Ross all have a headline to the article. For the fonts they only stick to no more the two colour schemes to keep it easier to read. Two of the images are mid shots whereas the other one is a long shot of the artist, Usher and Rick Ross both have props in their image. On all of the double page spreads some of the words have been emphasised with colours, or the bold tool to make them stand out and show the main references to the article.