Scratch magazine - Analysis

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of two men, one looking directly at the camera and the other looking at the DJ set. Both photographs are medium long shot showing there head, arms and waist.  The main image is a man standing up with a microphone in his hands and thumb pointing at himself. The second image is a man slouching low playing the DJ set. The background of the photograph is dark green and the main image covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind the main image is the SCRATCH masthead, and in front of him are seven cover lines along with two cover lines at the right side of him. The photographed men’s name is in white and blue and there are different colour cover lines to separate them. A bar code is visible in the bottom left hand corner.

Masthead:

SCRATCH masthead is very distinctive: yellow with black outline and black drop shadow. The font used is a sans serif font, and all the letters are in upper case letters. The font is very simple plus with a meaning. The word ‘SCRATCH’ comes from a phrase disk jockeys users or supermarkets use all the time. ‘Scratch card’, giving a suggestion of ownership and money based. This could mean that this magazine are making lots of money through the years and are rewarding the audience with maybe points that could be converted into money. All of the DJ’s who have used this phrase in their occupation had a reputation of having good income from what they do. The name ‘SCRACTH’ tells the audience this magazine is music based.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the successful American rapper ‘Lil Wayne’ and ‘DJ Khaled’, who is a successful producer and a DJ.

Composition:

the man in the main image is posed like he just finished a concert with microphone on his hand and pointing at himself with the same hand using his thumb while the other man in the second image is posed like he is performing for a big crowd, two of his hands on the DJ set and in a melody posture.

Costume:

The main in the main photograph is wearing an era hat, t-shirt with writings on it on the inside of his black jacket zipped up half way and blue jeans with a visible chain hanging down low from the jeans. He wore this costume in his video shoot of ‘I wanna rock’. The other man is wearing a full costume of a blue tracksuit, shades on his eyes, chain handing down low from his neck, bracelet and a watch around both of his hands. Their costume has been chosen carefully to appeal to their audience which is mainly male.

 NVC:

The main image has his thumb pointing at him and his face almost close to being a straight face but he glared it suggesting its all about him. The other image posed his body rhythmically suggesting dancing to a piece of music.

Lighting:

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

Setting:

There is a little setting however the dark green background connotes nature meaning the photographed people are naturally born to take up what their doing as occupation.

Cover-lines:

The main cover-line that relates to their photograph says: “LIL WAYNE DJ KHALED SIMPLE THE BEST”. This is making a reference to a piece of music they put together and took the world by storm. This music and video to accompany it was controversial because it featured both of them wearing similar costumes as to the ones on the cover page. This was the video Lil Wayne showed the rock star side of him and balanced it with the gangster American image his been known for. ‘I wanna rock’, has millions of views on YouTube and making hits on both American and English TV. The different cover-lines tells 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 Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, Snoop Dogg, UGK, The Fixxers, T-pain, Akon, Mannie Fresh, Marley Marl and Swizz Beatz (there is a definite emphasis on American artists). The way the cover-lines are written reveals that this magazine also focuses on current news events as well- e.g. “Dipset wants your beats!” All of the cover lines use a sans-serif font, connoting modern tradition. It suggests that SCRATCH magazine has been of existence over a long period of time and it’s always keeping up to date and has almost become an American institution. This can tell its readers they will receive accurate and entertaining 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 20-40. They would have a good knowledge of popular culture and a definite interest in a wide range of musical styles and the music industry generally. Minority of them are likely to be uneducated but have a good understanding about the latest news in the music industry, and have an interest in American musical styles and production.