Textual analysis - T.I.

Vibe magazine is a music and entertainment magazine which was launched in 1993 by founder and music producer Quincy Jones. Vibe is a famous music magazine and is know world wide for featuring famous musicians such as Chris Brown, Kanye west, Usher and Beyonce.

The front cover of this issue of Vibe shows T.I, a rapper who has recently made it big in the music industry, this suggest that the magazine is up to date with the music industry. T.I is dressed as a successful business man. The use of a suit, hat and glasses take the audience away from the stereotype of how rappers usually dress. The suit also sets out the colour scheme of the cover which is white, black and red. I think the text highlighted in red suggest these are the main topics of this issue of the magazine. E.g " Ain't no such thing as a secret snitch" as well as the sell lines on the right of the magazine, " 50cent, Prince, Lauryn Hill, DR.Dre, Jay Z and Biggie" in addition the fact that "Vibe" is also highlighted in red suggest that I'm right. This front cover shows typical conventions of a music magazine front cover, the fact that the colours are limited, the use of many sell lines along the side of the main image, the lead story on the right of the main image. However the fact that the masthead is in front of the main image is a surprise as in other issues of vibe it is usually behind the main image also the fact that their is no bar code on the cover is surprising.

The sell lines as well as having T.I on the front cover tells me that this magazine targets Hip hop and R&B lovers, aged 16 - 30.

The audience are being addressed through T.I as many of his lyrics are about his struggle in life and how he lived on the ruff streets of Atlanta, which targets people who might be in he same situation he was in, also most of his songs target people aged 16 - 30, which is also the target audience for the magazine, so the use of T.I allows them to target a mainstream audience. Also the fact that the image of T.I looking straight at the camera, suggest that he is looking at the audience.