Vibe magazine - Usher

Denotation:

The magazine consists of a man looking directly at the camera although we can’t see his eyes because of his shades. It is a medium close up showing his head, shoulders up to his chest pocket. He could have been standing or sitting down while posing at d camera with his index finger up showing the jewellery on his index finger and wrist as well as the tattoo on the surface of his hand. Behind the man’s head is the vibe masthead and in front of him are 10 cover lines in various colours such as black, blue, yellow, red, and white. The photographed mans name is written in bold, and a bigger font and a bar code is visible in the bottom left corner.

Masthead:

Vibes masthead has a very distinctive colour blue with the biggest font. The font used is a serif font and after the first letter the lower case letters came in place. The font used in plain and smooth which connotes the artist music of the front cover. The word vibe comes from the feeling or mood your when listening or hearing a particular type of music. The vibe also relates to the kind of attitude artist in the magazine has and the kind of tension they create to the audience this connote the kind of music and genre the magazine is into. Many people are now using the word vibe to describe their feeling, this could have been because of the reputation this magazine had built for itself. The name vibe tells the audience this magazine is music based. The website has been giving at the right hand corner of the magazine for readers that want to find out more information.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the successful American dancer, singer, song-writer, entrepreneur and actor ‘Usher Terry Raymond’, stage name ‘usher’.

Composition:

He is posed in a lean back position with his index finger raised up to show the ring on his finger suggesting he is already taken by another woman and an almost straight looking face to show a sign of seriousness and to look cool.

Costume: his clothing is a leather army looking jacket with a zip on his right breast pocket, his wearing the jacket while its opened up to show the white shirt his wearing underneath. The black shades, wristwatch and the ring his wearing completes his outfit as a R&B singer. His costume was choosing carefully to indicate the kind of music he promotes and the lifestyle his living. The ring symbolises his relationship with a partner and him rising up his index finger shows his responsibility as a married man and how proud he is.

NVC:  His non verbal communication applies a sign of seriousness in him. His face looking sharp and not smiling and his index finger rose up almost looking like a middle finger as to say ‘back off’.

Lighting: the lighting is medium key as the photograph is meant to display evening times.

Setting: there is a little setting because of the shot the photograph is taking in, however the blurry background connotes the artist putting everything else behind him and putting his career and marriage in front of him.

Cover lines: the main cover line that relates to his photograph says “usher… the king is back he’s no.1 and married with a vengeance”. This makes reference to all the no.1 hits usher had in his music career and the exaggeration of him being the king shows his importance in the music world and what you can compare his work rate to. Another cover line that says ‘ultimate sex survey: starring 50 cent Nelly Webbie Trina D.Woods and you’. Shows that vibe magazine is into different genres of music with the names of big artist. ‘Keri Hilson strips down’. This cover line would allow the audience to believe that there will be a picture of Keri Hilson stripping down in the magazine, whereas it’s just a figurative meaning of her letting out the things she’s been hiding behind close doors. There’s also a distinctive cover line written at the top of the magazine in black and yellow writing over the top. It gives information about boy bands for audience that may find interest in them and wrote about what Christ Stockes said to YouTube allegations in the magazine.

Target audience: considering all these points, the likely target audience would be people (male and female, though more female members than male) aged 25-45. They are likely to have experience of marriages and good knowledge of popular culture and a definite interest in a wide rage of musical styles and the musical industry generally. They are likely to be well educated/ well read, and have interest in American popular culture.