Vibe Cover Analysis

The front cover of the November 08 issue of Vibe magazine follows many of the conventions of the music magazine genre. The general layout of the front cover is conventional. The masthead is positioned at the top of the page in the largest font, as it is important for the reader to be able to identify the publication. The colour scheme for the house style of the magazine has been established on the cover. The colours red and blue have been repeated in the font against a white background, perhaps to emphasize the political theme of this issue. The choice of white for the background helps define the political theme of the issue and the feature politician’s values. Only using three colours is conventional of a music magazine. All the font on front cover is in sans serif, apart from the quotation, and this helps create uniformity and defines the house style. There is no ‘dead space’ on the cover of the magazine, which suggests that this is a full and exciting issue. Immediately above the masthead is a strap line, highlighting the importance of this issue. Although this is in smaller font than the rest of the text on the page, its importance is made clear by the way it is positioned so close to the masthead and that it is in bold. The main strap line on the front cover is positioned centrally to the left of the page. ‘OBAMA’ is the largest font of the page, excluding the masthead. It is further distinguished by the blue colour, which is only otherwise used on the ‘V’ of the masthead. It is posited directly to the left of the cropped image of Barack Obama, which connects the surrounding strap lines to him. The connection is further anchored by additional text directly above, which reads ‘An Exclusive Letter From’ which gives the reader further information to the content of this feature. This is another convention of music magazines. Underneath this is a paragraph, leading with quite an extensive strap line ‘ Real Talk 99 Stars On The Most Important Election Ever’. This is then followed by a paragraph of names R’n’B and hip hop artist, all in the same font, however, some names are in bold, some are in larger font and the most predominant names in large red font. The final strap line is considerably smaller than the others, perhaps to show its relevance to the rest of the issue. However, it is in the same blue hue that was used for the word ‘Obama’, and therefore unity is created across the cover to include this final strap line. The choice of image used on the cover of a music magazine is essential to defining the genre of the music magazine and attracting the target audience. The politician featured on this front cover, Barack Obama, would be familiar to not only the target readership, but also many American citizens and anyone else who is following the US presidential elections. This may be used as a ploy to attract more people to purchasing this issue than usual. The core readership for Vibe magazine is 17 to 34 American, of both gender, and the values of the magazine are defined as ’courageous, soulful, and devoted to the music, entertainment, sports, fashion, media, arts, and politics of our new, stridently multicultural, modern society’. Therefore, when looking at the cover we should be able to identify how the core readership is targeted and how the magazines values are expressed. The photograph has been cropped to show only half of Obama’s face and very little of his clothing. It is clear he is wearing a shirt, which suggests professionalism and connects well to the political theme. The close up camera shot is very striking and creates intensity, especially the way that he appears to be looking straight at the reader.