Magazine Cover Analysis

Immediately by looking at this magazine I can tell that this magazine is a rock magazine that mainly talks about famous singers, such as Christina Aguilera, and famous rock bands such as Foo Fighters and Nirvana which are mentioned to the bottom left of the magazine. The clear target audience of this magazine are men which are told by the main image of the magazine. The main image is there to appeal to men as Christina Aguilera is laying on a silk background and naked, covering her modesty by a guitar which reflects the rock genre of the magazine.
I think the age group for this magazine would be 20+ year old men. This is told in two ways. The first ways is by the main image, as men from this age and above are most likely to enjoy this kind of image as it is very provocative, and they also will enjoy the rock music that goes with it as they are put together hand-in-hand with her holding a guitar modestly over her. I think that the mode of address that the magazine is using is that they are using the target audience of males to their advantage by luring them in with this main image, trying to make to audience believe that Christina Aguilera wanted them as she is clearly looking straight into the camera to make the audience believe that she is looking at them so they think they are being directly contacted and buy them magazine.
The relationship that the magazine is trying to create with the reader is a seductive and provocative one as the main image is used to draw the audience in a make them believe that Christina is luring them in to go and buy the magazine. The person on the front cover is Christina Aguilera as she is a famous singer, and at this time she had just brought out a song called, “Dirrty” which was very in with the rock theme as the music video was set in a dirty warehouse with lots of people around and cages for walls, etc. The anchorage reads, “Inside the Dirty Mind of a Pop Princess”. As I just mentioned, this was done at the time when she had just brought out “Dirrty” in which showed her more rock and roll, provocative side.
This is shown in the anchorage as the word ‘Dirty’ is used to describe her which goes with the image due to the way she is being represented making her seem as if she has a hidden side of her that nobody knew about in which she was actually very sexual and rock and roll. There is also a contrast between the way they describe her as having a ‘Dirty Mind’ and also calling her a ‘Pop Princess’ which leads the audience to believe that she is innocent like a princess but has also a very seductive side to her. This makes the audience seem as if they are the one finding out her seductive secret causing them to go out and buy the magazine. The overall message that the artist is giving off is that she is not just a ‘Pop Princess’ as she was portrayed previously, but is also very promiscuous as sexual which has been hidden from view grabbing the male audience as they would like to know more about her seductive secret.
The design block of the magazine is significant as it is a light blue which purposely contrasts the rest of the cover in order to make it stand out and catch your eyes in the news stand. The title of the magazine tells you about its readership due to its use of font as it is a very rock-looking font and very iconic as it is known all over the world for being the font of this magazine. The title of the magazine tells you about the image that it’s is a very classic rock magazine and very iconic as the title has remained the same since the magazine began making it famous throughout the world.
The ‘puffs’ suggest that inside the magazine there will be lots of story’s on stars such Christina Aguilera and all of the artists/bands listed in the bottom left corner, also with stories of political issues such as the use of guns in America and what a celebrity thinks of this making this more appealing to the target audience. These such of stories shows us what type of target audience the magazine is expecting as they are being clear on what the magazine is about, appealing to the male side of the audience with the use of the main image but also a more broad range of audiences by targeting fans of different artists/bands and also talking about real issues in everyday life and a celebrity’s view on them.
There is a significant use of colour. This is used mainly to attract the male target audience by having the very noticeable red background which is very appealing and attractive symbolising the obvious passion of Christina Aguilera as she is naked. This is associated with sex but also the passion and love she has for her music, which is shown by her holding of a guitar which is blue, much like the title, to contrast this image and make it stand out and catch peoples eyes. There are a few strategies used in this magazine to attract the audience. An example of this would be by the use of big bold and noticeable wording such as, “Ultra-Cool Cars” in a light orange, which stands out from the page making the magazine catch the reader’s eye.
By Harry Luke Mulvany

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