4. How does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be? By just looking at the double page spread you can see who the target audience are, which are hip hop/rap lovers. They are probably aged 15-25. This is shown through the images as the dress sense of the models can suggest the genre. Target audiences choice of band will be the artists such as on the double page spread which is Pleasure P and Juvenile or similar artists. This shows their choice of band as these artists are of the hip hop/rap nation. Target audience- people who are or want to be stylish, young, ‘bad’, cool. They will like hip hop/rap culture obviously. They will be inspired by the two artists shown and are role models to most target audience. Mainly at men as the interview is based on women
5. What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine ‘ Cause you not gon’ compromise with somebody...’ ‘ Roll wit’ a soulja’ ‘ You gotta make the first move’ ‘ Like, Damn I should’ve went a little lighter like that’ The article starts with the lyrics of the song ‘hands on you’ and of course uses colloquial language as in most hip hop music the language is extreme slang. It then goes onto interviewing the artists shown on the article and their language is also colloquial. The language fits the style of the rest of the magazine as this is a hip hop magazine and it is stereotypical to use slang. The mode of address for the article mostly uses direct mode. By looking at the title ‘HANDS ON YOU ’ clearly shows that it is speaking to you and also the song is directly at the audience. There are also indirect speech used such as ‘A CLASSY WOMAN IS IRRESISTIBLE’
6. Blue How is colour used? The colour of the magazine is kept to a minimum making it give a serious image. It looks professional as it is colour co-ordinated making it look simple but yet appealing to the audience. Black is the main colour used for text as it stands out on a white background making it readable. White background is used for most of the pages in the magazine. White is a popular colour for a background as it suits everything. Blue was added to give a bit more colour and not to make it so dull and boring. Also the background of the artists pictures are also colour co- ordinate as it is either blue, white or black. The colours are used effectively. By looking at it we can see that the text in black are for the important text such as the title and subheadings. The text in blue is separated from the text in black as the text in blue is lyrics to a song. The blue text used clearly shows there is no link to the black text making it easy and attractive for readers.
7. What style of text (font type/colour/size) is used? Throughout the article the font type used was sans serif which is used for large headlines, adverts and small amount of text to make it stand out. However this was used on a large amount of text but worked well. Article title This stands out the most as it is the biggest text in the article. This gives the high importance of the title and is clear for readers to notice. The colour is black and the size looks to me like a 72 or more. Slug The colour again is black but is given a bold effect to make it stand out. The size of it is fairly small like the subheadings. Also the blue colour added to the opening and closing brackets brings more attention to the slug. Leading text This was in black and the size was slightly bigger then the slug. However didn’t stand out much as it wasn’t bold. Drop cap This stood out after the article title as it was really bold and the next biggest text in the article.
8. Body text The style of the text was kept to a minimum to give a serious look showing that this magazine is bad, stylish and cool. Most the body text is written in black. However the start of the article where it gives the lyrics to a song is written in italic form and is blue. This clearly shows the two different types of text. Anchor and Page number The text is really small but readable. The anchor stands out as it is in bold and written in black. Caption This is the only text that is written in white. It stands out as it contrasts with the background. It shows what the artists think of females and what they go for. The text of the artists names are written in bold showing their importance. The size of the text is a average medium size making it stand out. What style of text (font type/colour/size) is used?
9. Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience? Most of the double page spreads in the XXL magazine are similar to the one I am analysing. In other pages the images have a serious look and the layout is kept to a minimum. The image of the magazine says its ‘cool’, ‘street’ and ‘stylish’ this is shown through the layout of each page and the images and how they are presented in the magazine. The audience are obviously hip hop lovers and who idolise the artists of that genre.
10. How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value? There is one image on each side of the page one larger then the other. There are a equal amount of text as the image. This is because the image is covering up most the space on the left side however on the right hand side page the text is taking up more space. This shows that the audience are visual readers but like to know about the artists and how they are like.
11. How is the artist presented to the audience through the image? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis ? Pleasure P is presented in a classy way as he is looking smart with a tie and shirt. He is looking directly at the camera. His facial expression looks very serious and on board. We can also see his tattoo on his arm which is usually stereotypical for a hip hop artist to do. Juvenile is presented in a more hip hop way with his glasses on and the brand of it shows in the image. He is wearing a lot of accessorize such as his ear ring and necklace, giving a more stylish look. You can tell he is looking directly at the camera and also has a sharp serious face making him look ‘bad’.
12. How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover? Both the front cover and double page spread create a serious look from the images. They both have kept the use of colour to a minimum by just having 2-3 colours. The text of them both are simple and a sans serif font.
13. Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples Audience do not need prior knowledge to know that the double page spread is showing lyrics to a song and interviewing two hip hop artists!!! However because of the language the audience need to have knowledge on the hip hop slang
