2. Magazine History
•In 1997, XXL was founded by former Source staffers as well as other Harris Publication
employees, who wanted to create their own magazine about the hip-hop music and culture
using the model developed by the founders of The Source.
•The magazine's past editors included Elliott Wilson and Datwon. In May 2009 Datwon
Thomas resigned from XXL and executive editor Vanessa Satten, who had been with XXL
since 1998, was named the new Editor-in-Chief.
•In December 2006, XXL took over the struggling Hip-Hop producer and DJ magazine Scratch
(another publication owned by Harris Publications), re-branding it as "XXL Presents Scratch
Magazine". Scratch shut down in September 2007.
• Other titles with limited runs have been launched under the XXL brand, including Hip-Hop
Soul, Eye Candy and Shade45. XXL has released many other special projects including tour
programs, mix tapes and exclusive DVDs. XXL also maintains a popular website, which
provides daily hip-hop news, original content and content from the magazine
3. Target Audience
The target audience of the magazine
XXL is men and women who love hip
hop and rap music. They would be aged
between 14-25 because the older
generation tend to not like rap or hip
hop music. From the image in the
Double page spread the reader can see
that it is 50 Cent and therefore
automatically associate his genre of
music in relation to the double page
spread and the magazine itself.
Furthermore, other giveaways is the
language such as “hustlin’” shows the
slang words used which is what the
target audience of the magazine are
likely to use.
4. Language, Tone and Mode of address
The Language in the article is
quite informal as its an interview
so its more like a chatty
conversation. This is shown in the “ It seems like you’re comfortable being in the underdog role anyway.
I’m more comfortable in a space where people are doubting me than when I’m
quote I picked out, 50 cent’s the favourite. They doubted me before. Obviously I was the only crazy person that
replies are informal as he says believed in me at one point. You know what I’m sayin’?”
things like “you know what im
sayin’”. The tone is friendly and
chatty which makes the reader
enjoy the article more because its
not boring and its like the artist is
talking to you himself. Other
slang words are used like
“hustlin’” which is slang for
“making money” which makes
the mode of address more of a
casual register and informal.
5. Colour and Font
The colour of the DPS is plain and
there is a lot of white space used,
however this makes it look good
because of the skin colour of 50
cent contrasting with the
background looks very powerful.
The continuity of the colours black
and white makes the DPS look eye
catching and professional. The
fonts used are sans serif and the
title is big and bold which makes it
stand out to the reader. The sans
serif fonts bodes well with the
DPS in relation to the genre
because sans serif fonts look
more casual which is what the
DPS is – casual.
6. Layout
The eye flow of the DPS starts from the
image and then to the title and down to
the article and back to the image. This is
a conventional C shape and makes the
layout clear for the reader to navigate
around. Having the image take up one
full side of the double page spread
emphasises the subject that the article is
about making it seem more powerful. I
decided to make my layout for my DPS
similar to this because I thought it was
good for the reader and looked neat and
classy.
7. Layout
Drop Cap Article title
By line
Body text
Slug and
page
number
8. Image analysis
The image is very striking because of the
contrasting colours used. Although the image
is quite plain and simple, and there isn't a lot
of mis-en-scene, in this case less is more and
because of the colour scheme and the fact
the image is on one full page makes the
image look very powerful and striking. The
models pose is simple too however it still
manages to catch the readers eye. This
attracts the readers attention and makes
them want to read the article. It relates to the
whole magazine because it is a striking
magazine which is what the genre of hip hop
and rap is suppose to be about, the lyrics are
striking.
9. How it may influence my magazine
The Double page spread may
influence my double page
spread and inspire me to use
some aspects of it. For example
the layout I thought was really
clear and neat therefore I may
base my double page spread
around it. Using one image a
full A4 page I thought was good
because it creates more power
to the article. Furthermore the
boldness of the fonts I thought
was good so I used that too.
