Background of VIBE magazine:Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production in Summer 2009, Vibe was purchased by the private equity investment fund InterMedia Partners and is now issued every-other month with double covers, with a larger online presence. The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. As of April 2013 Vibe is currently owned by Spin Media.The magazine owed its success to featuring a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music, or the rock & pop-centric Rolling Stone and Spin. As of June 30, 2012, Vibe has a circulation of 300,943, of which 202,439 was paid, and 98,504 was non paid. Advertisers ran the gamut from record labels to fashion houses to various cognac brands.

Information from Wikipedia

Genre: Music Magazine.

Target audience: Teens interested in music.

Frequency: printed in the UK every other month.

Housestyle: Vibe uses a dark background to assure the bright yellow masthead and strap lines stick out very clearly and easy to read from far away. They use the bright yellow on features that will catch the eye of their audience. The dark background could also relate to how its quite a serious and deep genre of music rnb and hip hop. Creating a serious mood about their music.

Institution/distribution- Vibe is published by a man who has a specific genre of rnband hip hop, so he has a strong idea of his target audience(people into those genres of music) . He has published other magazines or been an editor of ones such as NME so therefore specialises in music. This magazine would be distributed in a music shop most likely of this hip-hop and rnb genre.

Overall impression, how effective is the front cover: overall the front cover is not very effective in giving a clear indication of what may be found inside. It is effective however as the main image is of three popular and recognisable artists, therefore the audience can assume there will be stories about their favourite artists within the magazine. It has also used a clear typeface so writing is clear and seen from afar. Also the colours used are eye catching but still serious by using a darker background, keeping the audience for more teenagers and young adults then children where the background colour would be far brighter.

Design: The title of the magazine ‘vibe’ is displayed at the top of the page in big, bold, yellow letters. The font of the title is clear but in a teenage font to appeal to a teenage audience as they are the group with the biggest interest in this genre of music. The most dominating part of the design of the front cover is the three famous artists on the front. The picture is even in front of the title as they have confidence the title will still be recognisable, they use the image over it to draw attention to the artists face as they are all well known artists from three different genres( Bruno mars- pop, B.O.B-rap). All other writing is in typeface so it is easy to read ‘the new pop’, implying it is the latest thing and ‘hip’ and ‘trendy’.

Image/ pose style make up: There is only one image on vibe but it dominates the whole cover, drawing attention to their serious expressions on their face showing this is a serious magazine- which relates to the genre of music it is promoting e.g. rap is often quite serious. This is a typical element of a music magazines as images are more intriguing, especially of well known celebrities the image of well-known celebrities is eye catching. The celebrities they have chosen are important because they are very popular with majority of teenagers which is who ‘vibe magazine’ are aiming their product at teenagers, so using artists they know and may even idolise is a good way to intrigue them.

How are words used? And what language they use to address the reader : They use fewer words on front cover of vibe to keep the attention on the main image and facial expression of this. Displayed at the top of the page is the masterheading in big, bold, yellow letters to assure it is clear and easy to read. Vibe has put the image over the masterhead as you can still see what it says and would still be recognisable easily. It is displayed at the top of the page so when stacked on a shelf in a shop people can still clearly see the masthead of the magazine. The masterhead is the main word on the front cover so it is kept simple-to assure it is memorable, the word relates to the kind of music often published in this magazine- how rap artist often talk about the ‘vibe’ of a rap or song and it is placed clearly at the top of the page in the typical masthead position.

Housestyle: The housestyle on vibe contents page has changed the colour scheme as the front cover but has still kept to darker colours- like a dark red. This dark colour scheme maintains a serious mood about the magazine. The contents page uses white on the writing against the red to assure it is clear and sticks out and is easy to read e.g. title(contents) and the logo in the top right with the date underneath- a typical feature of a contents page.

How are words used? And what language do they use to address the reader: one of the subheadings on the left hand side in the contents is ‘fashion’ this shows that although it is a music magazine like most people in the music industry it still has a focus on image as well. The image reflects this by how he looks quite ‘flash’ expected of a rapper, he represents a stereotypical image of a typical rapper. There is little writing on the contents page this is so you focus more on the image and are more likely to read the magazine to find out what is inside.

Images/ pose/style/makeup: the contents page only contains one main image similar to adult magazine Q. This is because music magazines of a specific genre know that the majority of people who love their genre of music (their audience) would easily recognise an image of an artist which represents this. Due to the recognisable image of him the audience are more likely to read the contents to find out where they can read about this artist. The pose he is pulling is quite aggressive by the way he is gritting his teeth and pulling on the chains around his neck. He uses props in the image such has hat and jewellery typical ‘fashion’ of rap artists to have a lot of ‘bling’. The necklace expression on the face of the necklace matches the face the artist is pulling representing the type of music he produce – rap, usually about aggression and having expensive ‘swag’. It also shows his tattoos again relating back to his rebellious music and tough image as a rapper.

Design: The layout has expected features of a contents page by how the contents is divided into certain sections e.g. features and fashion. They have used one main large iconic image dominating the whole page a typical feature for the contents page of VIBE. The contents uses big bold letters on the title ‘contents’ so it is clear where you can find what you want to read. They use limited writing to assure pages they wish to read are quick and easy to find-which is the aim of a contents page.

Overall impression, how effective is the contents page: overall the contents page is not as effective as a contents page should be. The whole purpose of a contents page is to assure what is in the magazine is easy to find as people rarely read a whole magazine however there is little text to guide you to the page making the whole purpose of the contents page unclear. However the spacing by the way the text layout is small and all on the left brings more attention to the iconic picture of the artist relating most likely to the main story in the magazine and therefore gives you an idea of what this issue will contain. The smaller writing on the left also brings more focus to the title ‘contents’ and the logo in the top right corner making it easier to know what page is the contents page and the logo maintains a housestyle through the magazine. It also uses a dark coloured background then white writing to make sure the writing sticks out and is easier to read. It is good how the subheadings ‘features’ are in a larger font and different typeface to make what you wish to read easier to find however the size and lack of text needs to be improved. They keep more primary colours because of their adult audience, where as a magazine aimed at children may use brighter colours like bright pink because younger audiences need to be drawn in by brighter colours instead they use the iconic image of the artist that dominates the [age to intrigue their audience in as it is most likely an artist they would recognise and want to read about. All of this gives an overall professional impression.

Housestyle: The double page spread of VIBE magazine has maintained the bright colour yellow against more neutral colours (black and white). They keep these colours as it makes the magazine more recognisable by it's consistent housestyle. They also keep this housestyle as it maintains the serious mood they want to portray as the genre of music they write about (RnB and hip-hop) often have deeper lyrics on serious things therefore these colours are more appropriate to attract their audience. They do still use bright yellow, large writing in a clear typeface with serifs to make sure important words are easy to read from far away. The bright colour yellow is also eye catching so will attract their teenage audience where as all dark colours may make them bored and uninterested. Design: Vibe has a predictable and typical

layout by having one large image on the left page of Whiz Khalifia, so the primary optical area is an image of him so they instantly know who the article is about-automatically attracting his fans to read it. The layout also uses large, bold, yellow writing in a clear typeface with serifs to make sure it is easy to read. They make sure the pages blend together so it is clear it is a double page spread by keeping the same colour scheme of black, white and yellow e.g. the yellow on his hat matches how the opening questions are highlighted yellow. The content of the text also relates to the image, the sub-heading says 'how high?' and in the image Whiz Khalifia looks high by his facial expression and his action of blowing out smoke. The text is also in neat, organized columns making it look professional which is most suitable for their target audience of teenagers to young adults, rather than randomly placed with no structure looking disorganized which would often be found in magazines with younger audiences.

Overall impression: The double page spread has a strong overall impression, even at a glance you would instantly know it is a double page spread because of its suitable layout. B keeping the black, white and yellow not only maintains the deep, more serious impression it also makes vibe recognisable, because of it's consistent housestyle. By giving a whole page to an image it draws a lot of focus to the expression in the image which is an excellent way to attract their target audience of teenagers to young adults, who would relate to Whiz Khalifias fight to achieve and get 'high' up in this world but in their own 'vibe'.

How are words used? And what language features? They use large initials of Whiz Khalifia (wk) connected together in a clever way, keeping to the housestyle colour scheme, making it more memorable and recognisable. The one question that really sticks out the most with big, bold, capital letters with serifs is 'how high?' is a double entendre (could have two meanings), it could have the meaning of getting high as in the taking of a drug like weed and experiencing being 'high' or itcould be to do with success as we often hear the word 'high' like 'high achievements' or 'being at the top of the ladder' so it could relate to how high his success is or how high in the charts he is. Both of these would relate to their younger demographic as younger people are more likely to start experiencing deviant behaviour and also at a stage in their life where they want to make big achievements and may be unsure how to get there, the time in life where they are finding themselves. Image/pose/style/makeup: The double page spread has

one main image on the whole left page making it the primary optical area. Having a large image of an artist is a typical feature of a double page spread as you instantly know who the article is about- this means . Having the image so large assures it is a main focus of the article, so you can focus on the expression she is pulling and body language without reading you will instantly have readers because of people who are interested in Whiz Khalifia. To catch the audience's attention to read the double page spread even further is the expression and pose of the image. The image of Whiz Khalifia he looks high by the way he is blowing out smoke and how his eyes are drowsy, getting high is often a connotation with his music with song about weed. This also represents rebelliance and deviant behaviour which would interest their target audience of teenagers to young adults as that is when most are at their most rebellious or deviant behaviour so may relate to the audience. Although Whiz Khalifia's eyes are squinted, the image still gives a direct mode of a address by the way his eyes are still looking forward at the reader making it more personal and inviting to read the article.