Magazine Analysis - Vibe Contents

This is the contents page from the magazine Vibe. Vibe is an American publish magazine and would appeal mostly to a younger audience who enjoy Rnb and hip hop music. The layout is very simple and easy to understand with one main image and the text pushed to the side of the image. This also includes the masthead which is kept on the right hand side of the page and split into 3 levels which is a housestyle of Vibe magazine and therefore makes it easily recognisable for frequent readers. It also makes the magazine look hip and trendy which is very important to the target market of the magazine.

The main image of the artist Kanye West takes up the majority of the page and is clearly the most important part of the page since all the text is pushed away, making him the main focus. He is also directly addressing the audience as he is looking straight at the camera which provides an entry point for readers and since he is looking quite serious it makes the reader feel obliged to read about him.

The colours used are greyscale and make the page look very professional and high-class but is quite unconvential for a music magazine which tend to cram quite a lot onto the contents page. However it does connote depth and since the magazine is published quarterly, the audiences need to be certain that they are getting their money worth.
The calm, coolness of the artist's face also reflects the music genre which tends to focus as much on the artist as it does on the music. He is also posing for the audiences so as to make him appear sexy and since the demographic of the magazines audiences focus a lot on appearance, appeals to them. His sex appeal is also demonstrated by the female arm draped across him holding the bold red heart which provides a sharp contrast between the monotone. Also male readers will aspire towards his success, weath and sex appeal.

The V behind Kanye West balances out the v of his cardigan, making the page look professional and give the reader a sence of security. This also relates to the name of the magazine 'Vibe'.
The typeface used is very flowing but easy to read however I think the writing should be made bigger.There are clear subheadings so that if a reader wants to quickly skip through the magazine to the bit they want to read it is easy to find for them. There are different types of typeface in the contents table so that the different parts are easily distinguishable from the others.

Contrary to most music magazine conventions, the contents page is quite empty with the majority of the focus just being on the artist Kayne West. However, Kanye West is a global superstar, who would be easily recognised by most people who would read the magazine. It is set out very similarly to many front cover pages and has conventions more similar to front covers than it does to contents pages. However, the simpicity of the page reflects the music genre and the fact that there is only the one image of the artist connotates the target market prefer to take things slower than the target market of a rock music magazine like Kerrang! Which is often crammed full of images and text. However, because the magazine is published quarterly it can afford to spread the contents over several pages.

The language used in the contents is casual makes the magazine seem friendly and therefore the audience can relate to it. There is no subject specific lexis used so it is easy to read for both first time readers and frequent readers. The language used is more sophisticated than most magazines and uses several literary features such as the alliteration of 'dollars for donuts'. This makes the magazine sound poetic and therefore more sophisticated.

The main image connotes that the music genre is a very serious and heavily influenced by appearance of the artists aswell as the music itself. This is shown by the fact that there is only a small caption to accompany to the image and that most people that read the magazine are most likely to know who it is.

This contents page uses the mode of address of the artist looking at the camera to identify with the audiences and make them feel as though the artist is directly focused on them.

The main purpose of this contents page is to show the reader the type of artists featured in the magazine. It also reinforces the importance of appearance and sex appeal in artists for the target audience.

In conclusion, the Vibe contents page is quite unconvential in certain respects such as not having the masthead across the top of the page and only having one image on the page. However, it still uses the narrative device of the numbered pages which is a stong convention of all literary texts, not just magazines.