Magazine Analysis- Vibe

The Cover


The title ‘VIBE’ is an urban word for ‘rhythm and chill.’ This connotes the content within the magazine informing the reader what is it is all about in one single word. It gives but cool, relaxed but informative information about the magazine and what the house theme is all about. It is also the logo for the company in which the font is very bold and basic. It is all one plain colour; however, this sometimes does change according to the main article of the magazine which is published on the front i.e. the colour of the background changes. The logo is right at the top of the page always taking up almost a quarter of the front cover. This stands out from the magazine and immediately catches the viewer’s attention due to the fact that is easy on the eyes, as a consequence of its short name, but also very large which stands out in your face. In addition, this font and logo corresponds to the definition of the title as it is written in a bold and relaxed way, not overloading the reader’s brain with lots of colours and edgy shapes like in other magazines such as ‘KERRANG.’ This emphasises the ‘chilled’ mood. Therefore, this could also be the reason not to have a strap line (not overloading the brain with words to keep the ‘chilled’ theme.

The main image is a medium long shot of the R and B singer, Usher. He is wearing vintage pilot uniform standing in front of a U.S.A aeroplane. His facial expression appears to be looking ‘relaxed’ corresponding with the title. Sun glasses are the main feature of his face adding to the vintage pilot look as well as the badges, back pack, gloves and helmet he is holding in his right hand. This gives the impression that he ‘means business’ which accustoms the font lines matching the picture ‘Usher. There is no competition.’ Consequently, the look of a U.S.A army pilot creates an image of respect and dominance in which he can beat other music artists in the industry. Similarly, the army uniform accustoms the name of the singer ‘Soulja Boy’ thus, he is seen as a threat which creates tension upon the front cover of the magazine encouraging the viewer to buy and read it.

The main figure is in the middle of the magazine in front of the title. His eye-line is purposely equal with it as the viewer would always firstly look at the eyes of the person, incidentally they would then see the title behind it. This is another method of attracting attention to the logo which immediately imprints into the persons brain due to the short one syllable title. This also advertises the magazine as even if the viewer does not pick it up, due to the instant imprinting of the magazines name it can be spread through word of mouth.

There are no other images on the magazine as the publisher does not want to overload the reader with too much information which could contrast with the title. Unlike with rock magazines there will be more pictures overloading the front cover relating to the wild and loud music genre.

Other than cover lines relating to Usher and Soulja Boy, there are only a few other phrases on the front cover. These consist of ‘50 crazy celeb tweets’ at the left hand side printed around the main figure and ‘Meet the mean girls of morehouse’ printed at the bottom of cover, where the figure has faded. However, these all have the same font style and colours (yellow and white) that stand out from the picture. Therefore, they can be easily seen and displayed on the magazine, despite that they are slightly smaller than the two main cover lines corresponding to the main image. Furthermore, just above the title at the top of the page there are names of famous urban music artists advertised in the magazine. The fact that a lot are mentioned informs the reader that there is a lot of content in the magazine and that they will get their moneys worth. Similarly, despite that they do not have describing words with them create suspense in which the reader wants to find out why they are mentioned and what is mentioned about them in the articles. As a consequence the cover is almost talking to its reader.

VIBE does look quite similar to other magazines such as ‘Q’ which have a similar target market. Although they do differ in a numerous amounts ways. For example within this issue there appears to be more going on within the front cover of ‘Q’ due to the fact of more colours and effects such as water creating a large effect movement. However, are still a similar layout with the text presented around the main image and the figure being in the middle. In addition the unique selling point of VIBE is its ‘chilled’ approach to advertising urban music.