Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Main Task: Music Magazine Contents Page Textual Analysis

                                      Music Magazine Contents Page Textual Analysis


This vibe contents page depicts a well known R&B artist called Ciara wearing a sexy leopard like outfit with a pair of heels.  The image used is of her laying down holding eye contact with the camera.

The Masthead for the contents page is a large faint letter ‘V’ which stands for the music magazine name Vibe. The masthead is pasted in the middle of the page and just below the title.  The font used is a sans serif font. The title for this contents page is bold, white and written using a sans serif font.  It is pasted on the right hand corner of the page in capital letters in order to stand out.  

The main image stands out and is of Ciara, a well known R&B artist. In the image she is laying down with her legs up in the air. As she looks quite relaxed, we notice why this is when we read the subheading that goes with the main image. She is wearing a greyish shoulder length leotard with a waist belt. This image is quite effective as it shows the sexy side of her, therefore attracting more readers, especially male readers, even though the magazine is targeted at both sexes. Her jewellery, outfit and shoes could connote that she is a classy and stylish woman. The image also shows her looking directly at the camera, which could symbolise that she is an artist that allows her fans/readers to engage with her.

The issue date is pasted at the bottom right hand corner of the page next to the name of the magazine and the page number.  This is written in a black as to complement the white background. Unlike many music magazine contents pages, this particular contents page does not include a subscription, contact info, web address a competition or editor’s letter. Even though this contents page goes against some of the conventions of a music magazine contents page, the way it is constructed makes it appear to be a good contents page. At the left hand corner of the page, there however are some photography credits which are also written using a black sans serif text.

 The colour scheme used in this contents page is white, grey and a dark shade of grey. We notice that the background colour used goes from a dark grey to white as you get to the bottom of the page.   This colour scheme is quite effective as it sort of assures that the reader’s attention is not taken away by the use of bright colours. The use of the simple colours makes the magazine appear to be a simple music magazine which is serious about its music. However it is quite dull as it only consists of one image and a simple colour scheme.

This music magazine contents page is also dull because it only has 1 image and that is it. This can be effective in some ways as it could symbolise how the music magazine has specific artists that it likes to focus on each issue, instead of many different artists.  As it has a very simple layout, it only has one column, making the text easy to read and maybe attracting more readers as they can sometimes get bored of a contents page full of writing.

This contents page consists of two headings (categories): features and fashion. These are bold and in a black serif font connoting tradition/old fashioned. The sub headings to go with these are written in a grey text and are written in a sans serif font. The text under the subheadings is however a mixture of both a sans serif fonts and serif fonts. The serif font connotes a more modern feel where as the other connotes tradition. This could be used as to symbolise the fact that this music magazine does not only focus on current music news or artists but also on those that are retrospective.

Overall I think this contents page is good as it has a simple layout and is easy to read.  Even though it does appear to be quite boring due to the use of only one image, the reader’s are given impression the article focuses on getting up close with the main artist (Ciara) more than other articles that may be in the issue.


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