Textual Analysis

Vibe is a music magazine which mainly features R&B and Hip-Hop artists. As well as providing coverage of urban music it also features actors, other entertainers, fashion, cars and electronic gadgets. The magazines target audience is predominantly young, urban followers of Hip-Hop culture, being mixed genders. On the front of the magazine we see T.I. T.I. is a well-known R&B/Hip-Hop rapper, supporting the target audience of this particular magazine. He is seen rubbing his hands together with a stern look on his face. My first thought is that he is trying to uphold his ‘bad boy’ rapper look, by making him look ‘hard’. But then as we look at the cover line that supports the main image we see that people have been comparing him to another rapper. So then we assume that he is posing like this to almost threaten those who are comparing him, and to let them know that he is his own person. His strong frowning expression on his face shows us how he feels and tells us not to mess with him. Looking at the colours used on the magazine we see that the magazine consists of three main colours, dark blue, red and white. The dark blue in the background keeps the magazine quite simple, yet because it is so dark it allows the red and the white to stand out. Looking at the use of the colour red we see it has been used for the masthead, and a few cover lines. If we look at the cover line at the bottom left it says ‘Keri Hilson has been a (very) bad girl’. However only the words ‘Keri’ and ‘bad girl’ are the colour red. The colour red suggests danger, sexuality and heat. This implies that Keri is a sexy woman, and the use of the red emphasises that.