Research: VIBE magazine front cover analysis

Another music magazine that this time deals in hip hop and rap artists is VIBE. VIBE’s front c covers seem to differ nearly every time. However the main image on the front cover is always either a close up head or head and shoulders. This is an important thing to notice for this magazine as having a head and shoulders allows the artists hands and arms to be in the shop which then allows them to represent themselves in a way in which they want to look. For example the front cover with Eminem on is a head and shoulders shot, this has him looking at the camera with his arms folded. Now the shot is close enough for his facial expression to have some effect on the reader but also his stance with his arms folded show us that he is confident and he is also looking directly at the camera also showing that he is confident and not afraid to look directly at the reader. Both images with Usher and Drake the artists have their head at an angle. This keeps their image from being uniform and shows that they can be different and out of the ordinary from the rest of society. Both are looking directly at the camera displaying attitude and defiance to show their confidence. Usher is also using his hands and at a first glance looks like he’s swearing and because this looks like a controversial image at first glance then this may attract the reader as to why the artist would do this. Also it shows that the artist is not afraid from being a bit rebellious and do something a bit ‘naughty’. All of these magazine also have colour schemes this allows for continuity and also if you want something to really stand out then you can change the colour of that word because then it will be noticed, for example the front cover featuring Usher the coulours are blue, yellow, black and white. Then there is one word in red large its “swagger” this can explain a lot to the reader all about Usher and the pose on the front cover meaning that the reader can get the gist of what part of this edition is going to like. I think that I would like to look at using a style more like vibe for my magazine as it is more simple than Kerrang and this allows the reader to pick things out easier and in my opinion looks a lot better.