music magazine analysis 2

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a mixture of dark and light colours in the photograph.  The woman is directly looking at the camera; it is a medium shot showing from her waist to her head. It seems to me that she is standing up as her posture is straight. The background of the photograph is black blending in with her cardigan. The photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover; likewise the woman’s hair in the photograph is slightly overlapping the masthead. In front of the photograph are three separate cover-lines in red, on the other side there is a lot of names of famous individuals and groups in white, however they have the women in the photographs name really big and sharp in the centre of the magazine cover in red.  It seems to me that Madonna is the star of the magazine as the magazine says “all interview Madonna”. There is a selling line just under the barcode, we the audience can identify the cultural background just by looking at the selling line as it has an English flag. There is also an advertisement at the bottom of the magazine.

Masthead:

Q masthead is very distinctive: red background and white a letter representing the magazine. The font used is a serif font; it is similar to Rolling Stone. The founder of Q magazine is Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, Q was first published in October 1986 and it was originally called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands. The magazine ‘Q’ show’s its individuality by using one letter that conveys a lot of structure and purpose of the magazine. Q magazine conjoins a lot of qualities that the readers are looking for, such as fashion, music, and comedy.

Character:
The cover photograph is of a successful American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur ‘Madonna Louise Ciccone’.

Composition:
She had fierce but yet an approachable look to her, as she is posed very fierce way as she gazes directly at the camera grabbing on tight to her cardigan with her mouth open showing a little bit of teeth. She shows her serious side likewise in my eyes the way she is dresses suppose that she is a dancer.
Costume:
Her clothing, she has on a sparkling glove that is cut out to expose two of her fingers,  she has a black shiny cloak to me it looks like shiny polyester- satin, the lining of the hood is grey with same material as the cloak. This clothing was smartly and purposely chosen to appeal the targeted audience as it has a rich and elegant look to it.

NVC:
Her non-verbal communication is very seductive as her mouth is open this sends an approachable, and welcoming message and vibe to the magazine, this is given off without her even a written or verbal speech.

Lighting:
The lighting is high key it is used really effectively, as her face is really bright and the light is reflected off her cardigan as her cardigan is really shiny. It represents day time.

Setting:
From what I can see the setting would be most likely to be in a studio, as I am aware that the background is black.

Cover-lines:
The different cover lines tells us that this magazine doesn’t concentrates on just one genre of music, but draws references from the world of sport, comedy, film and even politics. This could relate to everyone as it has a variety of options to read from. Artist mentioned on cover lines include Madonna, Michael Stipe, Russell Brand, Kaiser chiefs, Girls Aloud, Mighty Boosh, Ian Brown, little Britain, arctic monkeys, and Robert plant . It also introduces another mainstream magazine label “rolling stone”. The magazine combines English and America artist. The font is in sans-serif font. The use of the colour red, emphasis energetic it could also could be symbolic to seriousness. However I feel the maker’s of ‘Q’ magazine intended to do this to relate to the buyers.

Target audience:
Considering all if these points, the likely target audience would be people ( male and female) aged 16-30, because teenagers and above have more knowledge in politics, and music  as they have a wide range of musical styles, and are more open with their opinions. This magazine shows an interest in pop, rock, indie, and also comedy and entertainment.