Main Task: Textual analysis of a music magazine front cover

Textual analysis of a music magazine front cover

Denotation

The denotation of this image consists of a famous singer: Kelly Rowland with a direct contact with the camera, hugging herself in front of a greyish, faded green like background. She’s wearing a black see through top and greyish trousers. At the top left hand side of the magazine is the title of the magazine.

Connotation

The main image of this JET magazine is of a Midshot of a famous singer Kelly Rowland which takes up most of the magazine front cover. This could suggest this music magazine is mainly an R&B magazine as she mainly produces music from that genre. As she’s from a black background it could also suggest that it mainly features stories on more black artists than white as many magazines produced in America are like this usually depending on who the publisher is and what type of magazine genres they publish. Her NVC shows she looks serious and fierce. Her arms could be wrapped around her as to symbolise her passion for music and just how closely she keeps it to her. The background could suggest that R&B genre of music is quite calm as the colour seems peaceful. As Kelly Rowland is a global well known artist, this is good as it could help the magazine attract readers; it could help attract fans of Kelly Rowland but also help to attract more fans for her. As she is directly looking at the camera, we get a sense of interaction between her and the person reading the magazine.

Masthead

The masthead – ‘JET’ is pasted on the top left hand corner and is in a sans serif, white text. It stands out because it is bold and has a background which does not clash with its colours.

Main Coverline

The main cover line anchors the main image as it is about Kelly Rowland. It is written in a sans serif text and is on top of the main image and says ‘Kelly Rowland, IN charge’. It is written in white and pink and also blends in with the rest of the colours used in the magazine. The pink arrow anchoring the text in pink just below the main coverline saying ‘On record Label Drama, New Music & Creating Her Own DESTINY’ could symbolise because she now going solo from her group destiny’s child she is now in charge of her own music and is looking towards making her way to the top as the arrow is pointing in an upwards direction.

Coverlines

The first coverline at the top right hand corner says ‘Is Obama losing with independents?’ this could represent that the music magazine also focuses on issues going on in America not just focuses on the music industry. The second coverline below that says ‘what’s in this fall: 3 Beauty tips Just For You’, this text is also sans serif but is written in 3 different colour shades: green, light green and white. This coverline could also represent that the music magazine features articles on health and beauty as well as other articles relating to the lifestyles of celebrities. The colours used for this font could symbolise the glamour in which this magazine portrays in each articles about the people it features.

Dateline

This feature of the ‘jet’ magazine has a dateline under the masthead; it is white and written in sans serif text. As this magazine is a music magazine and is purchased in stores it has a dateline of ‘Sept 6/13 2010’. This shows that this is the 6^th of 13 issues to be published. Like many magazines in which are sold in stores datelines are mainly there so the readers can keep up to date with the articles as well as stories involving the music industry in which are released at that particular time of the year.

On the bottom left hand corner of the magazine there is also a bar code in which has the price of the magazine on top of it. As many music magazines are sold we notice that this magazine cost $1.99.

Selling line

Unlike most music magazines, ‘JET’ has no selling line, which is quite unusual for magazines, this could be because the magazine is already up in the market and doesn’t really need to sell out it’s editorial philosophy in order to target it’s main audience.

Conclusion

Overall I think that the magazine front cover is very effective as the colours that are used for the front cover all go well with each other and the main image used is very good at attracting readers. Also that it not only shows that the magazine is for the readers entertainment but also suggests that it’s target audience if roughly from those of the age of 16 to people in their late 20’s. I would also say this music magazine cover is simple but yet looks professional as it has a consistent style in which is kept; using 2 types of fonts and not looking too busy.