Main Task: Front cover Textual Analysis

Denotation

The denotation of this front cover is a colour photo of a man in a dance position. It is a long shot showing his whole body from top to bottom. You cannot see his eyes or his upper facial features. There is a light mauve covering the whole of the background of the magazine cover. Behind him is Billboard which has the colours blue and yellow filling the letters and there are various purple, grey and black mastheads around the page.

Masthead

The Billboard masthead is very simple, there a small use of colours, there is only yellow and blue filling the ‘o’ and ‘a’ in the word, otherwise it is a black word with no other effects; this connotes simplicity and shows that the magazine is what it portrays. The font used is a sans serif a very simple font again reiterating my previous point. The name billboard presents a wide meaning even though on a magazine cover it connotes that it’s on a billboard for hundreds to see. Also as billboards do, the magazine represent celebrities as it does here with Chris Brown. The name ‘Billboard tells the audience that the magazine is going to be about celebrities.

Composition: The composition of the main image is him standing in a pose that he has done after a performance or at the start of one. He his holding his head down with his hat over his face while leaning back slightly. This pose is very similar to a pose that Michael Jackson did connoting ‘the king of pop’ as shown in one of the mastheads suggesting the magazine is related to music.

Costume: He is wearing a white vest, light blue jeans, a flat cap over his face and other pieces of jewellery like a silver chain and a silver bracelet and a ring. These items of clothing have been picked specifically to portray the genre of Hip Hop/Pop and R&B. The connotations of this costume are aggressiveness, violence and fear which this type of genre can be associated with.

NVC: His Non verbal communication is very hard to read because his face is covered but from his body position and arm it connotes coolness and calmness. This can relate to confidence on the stage which is reiterated by him not looking at the camera.

Cover-lines:

The main cover line which relates to the main image is “Chris Brown The king of pop?” . The king of pop is a phrase that is associated with the music artist called Michael Jack son who died in the year 2009. Michael Jackson was one of the top music artists which why he had the title “king of pop”. “King” connotes to be prestigious and able stand out. But now the cover-line puts forwards the idea of Chris Brown who also is a great music artist having this title, Does Chris Brown fit the connotations of king? The “?” in at the end of the phrase leaves this idea open hiding itself away from any controversy by given the title to him open handily. The other artists mentioned in the coverlines are Aly and AJ Mickalka, Rob Thomas, Jason Aldean, Amy Whinehouse and R.Kelly which shows the magazine doesn’t just focus on one genre of music and puts great emphasis on American artists. The only artist who is not American is Amy Whinehouse who was English. All of the cover-lines are focused around music for example “Music world turns 20” and “Hot on the charts” presenting it as a specialist magazine. All of the cover-lines use a sans-serif font connoting modern. This suggests that this magazine is in the “now” and reader’s up to date also showing American society as it is.

Taking into consideration the points made, the target audience will most likely be people of the ages of 16 to 35 both male and female. They would have a good understanding a musician’s history and be familiar with American culture. They most probably will have an interest in general music and in the modern culture of music.