2) Analysing a magazine

The music genre of the magazine is R&B/Hip Hop.

The target audience is mainly teenagers and people in their early 20s. You can tell this by the image of famous rapper, Nas, being the main image because he is mostly familiar to people of a younger age. However, the mature gold font may apply to an older audience such as late 20s, early 30s.

The main image is of famous hip hop rapper, Nas.

It relates to the music genre because it is an R&B/Hip Hop magazine, and Nas is a Hip Hop rapper, which links to the magazine in general.

The image is frame in the centre, which has an effect because he is centered onto a white background, making him stand out more. It has been taken at a mid-shot angle and this is effective because it gives us chance to focus, not only on the image, but on the text surrounding it as well.

The clothes being worn in the main image are a red jacket, white shirt and jeans, accessorized with a cross necklace and sunglasses. This has a good effect on the readers because the bright red gives off a good vibe and it may be strange to some people that Hip Hop stars wear cross necklaces and may be religious, so this could contribute to cultural codes.

The colours that have been used are mainly red, white and gold. The red and gold contribute to the mood of the image because it is very mature and bright, also the red jacket stands out on the white background. The white t-shirt which is being worn also contrasts with the background, so not all of the colours are too overwhelming.

The image relates to the target audience of teenagers and adults in their early 20s because Nas is more known to people of this age range and the clothes that he is wearing are normal, fashionable clothes. However, the cross necklace that is being worn may suggest that he follows religion so adults of an older age may apply to this magazine also.

The magazine is called ‘The Source’. This reflects the content and target audience for the magazine because a ‘source’ is something that we get information from so it could suggest that the magazine is full of relevant, exciting information that the target audience would be interested in, in this case R&B and Hip Hop stars and music.

The typeface that has been used is big bold gold font for the masthead and kicker, and small bold gold and white font for the strap-lines. The effect that this has on the readers is that it stands out and it is different because you do not see many music magazines with a gold coloured font, this also suggests individuality, the magazine is different to others.

 The masthead has been placed right across at the top of the page in big bold writing. A minority of it has been covered by Nas, suggesting that it is a well known magazine. The strap-lines have been placed in columns either side of the magazine in small bold gold and white writing and they are important because it informs the readers of what else the magazine contains.

The kicker ‘Nas, the beginning of the N’ has been placed to the left, in big bold writing and is important because it is the main content of the magazine.