This document provides an analysis of the XXL hip hop music magazine. It summarizes the key aspects of the magazine's design and content based on a close examination. These include the use of a white background on the cover to stand out, bold font choices, prominent imagery of rappers, inclusion of advertisements, focus on hip hop music news and artists, and publishing by Harris Publications Inc. The analysis also describes features of the magazine's website at XXLmag.com that complement the print version.

1. XXL Magazine AnalysisBy Charlotte HollandI chose this magazine because it stood out compared to all of the dark and dingy music magazines, especially because XXL had a white background which I thought was unusual, and also I have an interest in a few of the artists which caught my eye on the front cover e.g. ‘J. Cole’. Another reason for why I chose this magazine was because I see that it was world wide and on the side it says ‘printed in the USA’ which I thought could be interesting.

2. Generic ConventionsFront Cover

3. MainImageThe main image of rapper, Rick Ross, shows confidence and importance because of the positioning of him. The image of him has been brought forward in front of the title and captions on the front cover. By having the image covering the title, it addresses that the audience of this magazine are regular buyers because you can’t see the whole title, so people who are unfamiliar with this magazine will not be able to recognise the name. The actual pose of the rapper shows high status in many ways, especially because of the front-on view of his face; which is the main focus. By holding his hand up quite high shows his watch which grabs our attention and also his shiny sunglasses; this has been done to show authority, glamour and expense.

4. FontBy having the smoke flowing out of his mouth gives off a relaxed atmosphere and makes it feel the magazine feel quite calm and smooth in contrast to the rest of the magazine. I feel this because the font that has been used on the magazine front cover is outstanding being bold, big, narrow and tall, which reflects on the type of magazine that it is and the artists and bands who are featured in it. The font that has been used throughout the magazine front cover is consistent and is very similar for both the name of the magazine and the captions. This adds a professional touch because of how consistent everything is. Different size fonts have been for the captions on the font cover, this has been done to show the main articles and the smaller articles; which is effect.

5. ColoursThe house colours of this magazine front cover are white, black, gold and red. The main colour is white, which makes the magazine look fresh, clean and superior. It also makes it stand out because usually magazine backgrounds aren’t white. Black and gold have been used alternatively for the captions which looks different because most often the captions are one colour, but I think this has been done because there are no other small pictures on the front cover which might urge the readers to look inside to find out what’s in the magazine. The magazine’s name is white with a red background, this is really eye catching because it’s the brightest colour on the page and being red it shows importance. The use of black and white, monochrome, creates an mysterious representation, also linking to the smoke and no other images on front cover. The 3,4 colours that have been used made this magazine really stand out against the rest of the music magazines because of the simple but creative use of colour to intrigue the audience.

6. InsideThis magazine is a very visual magazine inside, and has many one page and double page advertisements which suggests that the magazine makes a lot of money and many people want to advertise their products in this magazine. On the majority of the left-hand side pages of the double page spreads there is normally texts and information which contrasts with the big whole-page images on the other page which normally relate to text on the other page or is an advertisement. It is mostly made up of double page spreads even if one page is image based, both pages relate to each other; which show that most of the topics in this magazine have a consistent and even amount of space – equally divided up. With the smaller articles on one page, and an advertisement on the other.

7. AdvertisementsThis magazine costs £3.95/$5.99 which is reasonably expensive, but I think that it is worth it as it includes lots of information but on the other hand is over filled with loads of advertisements (as shown on this page). It is only issued monthly therefore the price is decent and has a months worth of information packed into it. These advertisements related to the genre of ‘Hip-Hop’ music which this magazine is about because of the glamour and relation to music. I found many of the advertisements dark which lead to me the idea that the magazine’s target audience was males in specific. Then i realised most of the products like clothing and shoes were males so this determined the audience.

8. Typeof Music/MagThis magazine is based on Hip Hop music; A style of popular music of US black and Hispanic origin, featuring rap with an electronic backing. HIP HOP NEWS, MUSIC,ARTISTS,ALBUM REVIEWS &LIFESTYLE.

9. PhotographsThe majority of photographs in this magazine are upper body shots with a few whole body shots. A lot of the images of the artists are either very serious-faced or happy/laughing faces showing emotion which their singing is based on. Quite a lot of the shots also involve microphones and hand gestures that suggest their profession in the music industry.

10. Editorial/EditorIn the Editorial the Editor Vanessa Satten writes as she would speak it by writing words like ‘nah’, ‘ya know’ and ‘wanna’ which shows the magazine quite informally but this is what the editorial is about, giving a little bit of information on the editor, which this magazine does very well. She also uses rhetorical questions like ‘get it?’ to interact with the reader and make it seem more like reality. Satten also tells us a lot of information about the magazine and the people starring in it genuinely which would help new-time buyers get a feel of the magazine before reading any articles.

11. ContentsThe contents page starts on page 8 after 3 double page spreads of advertisements. Then continues on page 10, so there are two single pages of contents on the left side of the double page spread and the right side of the pages are both advertisements, which this magazine is full of! The first page of contents information links very well to the front cover because of colour theme and also this page stars Rick Ross (who appeared on the front cover). This contents page has subtitles for some of the pages and also gives a small paragraph of depth into what them specific pages are about.The second page of contents, on page 10, is more visual showing pictures relating to the page numbers and subtitles with one line of information which contrasts with the other contents because there is less information given away.

12. InstitutionThe huge institution that publishes this magazine, XXL, is Harris Publications Inc. They are an American consumer-magazine publisher based in New York. They publish over 75 titles, all their publications are different genres although they’re major division are Harris Outdoor Magazines which include titles on hunting, finishing and firearms. Some of their other magazines are Juicy, King, Dog News, 0-60, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, Small business opportunities, Men’s Workout, Exercise & Health and Celebrity Hairstyles.

13. Online www.xxlmag.comTheir website includes many useful features like; news, bangers, video, features, reviews, the break, the mag, eye candy, lifestyle and subscribe. Another useful thing that I found on this magazine was the ‘latest news’ section, it is updated more than once an hour most of the time and gives a headline of the news. At the bottom of the webpage it has a footer which I found different to many other website magazines which included links to their twitter, facebook fan page, sharing and YouTube etc.The layout of this website is very similar to their website and makes it feel like he website itself but online! Also, I liked how the colours from the magazine have also been used on the website which shows links and connections which are vital for a professional business.