XXL magazine - Rick Ross

Denotation:

This magazine consists of a coloured photograph of a man looking directly at an object on the scene. It is a close up shot showing his head facing sideways at the camera. He is staring deep maybe into space and with the close up shot we can see his eyes inside the shades his wearing. The background of the photograph is black and the photograph covers just more than half of the magazine. Behind the man is the XXL masthead, and next to his face are four cover lines on colour white and blue. The photographed man’s name is written big in white and there’s a straight line separating the cover line in front of his glasses. A bar code is visible in the bottom right corner.

Masthead:

XXL masthead is very distinctive red text box and white writing inside. The font used is a san serif font and are all in upper case letters. The colour used is similar the famous colour of the American flag which connotes American culture. The word ‘XXL’ comes from an initials as every of the letters has their own meaning suggesting that this magazine has a good history and people are familiar with the letters ‘XXL’ without giving a full meaning. All artists who have used this letters have a reputation of a good vibe to make people remember things such as catchy songs, making the magazine seem contagious and music based.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the successful American rapper ‘Rick Ross’ aka ‘Boss’.

Composition:

He is posed in a composed gangster looking kind of way. His pose, body language and clothing are very bossy suggestive and provocative.

Costume:

His clothing is a leather jacket only visible from the neck because of the shot. He’s wearing an expensive name brand shades(Louis vitton) written in gold on the shades. This costume has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be young teenagers. The clothing worn is similar to costumes he wears in most of his music video shoot and has a ‘boss’ connotation.

Nvc:

His non verbal communication is relaxing. His mouth is open slightly to allow him blow out the smoke out of his mouth without putting in much effort and his looking away from the camera.

Lighting:

The lighting is low key as the photograph is meant to display night time.

Setting:

There is no setting a blank background have which connotes what’s on the mind of the character while staring away from the camera.

Cover-lines:

The main cover line that relates to his photograph says “Rick up in smoke Ross”. This is making a reference to the piece of music video he did before this picture was taken. This music and video to accompany it was controversial because it featured him wearing name brand clothing and suggestive lyrics. This was the video that gave everyone the impression of him being a boss. The different cover lines tell us that this magazine doesn’t concentrate on just one genre of music, and doesn’t only focus on music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about. Artist mentioned on the cover lines include Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, Jadakiss, The Dream, Bow Wow, and TI( there is definite emphasis on American artists. The cover lines are written in a sans serif font which connotes that this magazine is out of tradition. It suggests that XXL magazine are more modernised as they were before. This can tell its reader they will receive accurate, entertaining and informative journalism.

Target Audience:

Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people (male and female, though more male audience members than female) aged 16-30. They would have a good knowledge of what’s new in the music industry and are mainly interested in entertainment. They don’t have to be well educated but aware of the latest in the American music and their styles.