Front Cover Analysation: Word Up!

Analysing ‘Word Up’ Front Cover Magazine

The genre of this magazine is hip-hop and R&B. This magazine targets young teens that have started to explore what kind of music there is, this means 'Word Up' target audience has started to identify what kind of music they like and what kind of artists they prefer. You could tell this because they introduce a newcomer, it uses bright lettering of colours to appeal to their target audience. ‘Word Up’ magazine focuses on teen entertainment and music, you can tell this because it covers rap, hip-hop and R&B music and celebrities such as newcomers which enable the magazine to focus on African teen singers or newcomers, rappers, models, actors/actresses.

The main image is Nicki Minaj who is a female rapper. This image relates to the music genre of hip-hop; this is because Nicki Minaj has recently been signed up with Young Money Entertainment – she is a newcomer under this label, before she was signed with Dirty Money record label and did a lot of mixtapes until she got recognised by Lil Wayne and has now finally made an album ‘Pink Friday’. This enables popularity for Nicki Minaj and allows readers to find out more information about her as she is the most talked about celebrity at the moment, because of her crazy, Barbie, rapping and it emphasises about her being a female rapper. As a result teens would purchase this magazine because they had used Nicki Minaj as the main image - she is the most talked about and she would appeal to Word Up’s target audience.

The image is framed out on the left hand side of the magazine with three other pictures on the right hand side in petite shapes including Waka Flocka who features in the magazine. The shot which has been used is a close-up as you can see her face, so you can recognise her in other magazines, posters, music videos and see her top half of her clothes – this shows her personality, her fashion style, her wigs/weaves and basically how she is like. They did this and this is included because it enables the reader to ‘get to know’ her more in terms of her appearance, her fashion sense and the way she is introduced. The main image bottom half is not included, this may be because it emphasis how she is a newcomer and the readers are probably not interested about her body shape because it shows her face will engage the target audience. As it shows her face her facial expression is that she is pouting looking like she is going to kiss someone, she may had done this so she can relate to their target audience. This is because Word Up’s target audience may do poses like this which then attract young teens. Furthermore, it shows how Young Money entertainment has changed her appearance but kept her real self; in order she to appeal to the modern society which is totally fresh and inspired by old artists therefore this will then attract young teens to purchase this magazine.

The mise en scene is very fresh and is suited for the target audience – very friendly as it is not intimidating like other Hip Hop magazines e.g. Vibe , XXL, Rap-Up however everything is very bold, colourful, in trend, and it gives off an impression of a retro style because of the use of the fonts. The main model is wearing a black studded jacket, similar in the small rectangular shapes shots however it is white- beige colour, in the other frames (in the close-up shots) she is wearing a white dress with a yellow hat and a bold, pearls, and accessories. The clothes she is wearing is all in trend, very current and suggests it relates to her 'Barbie' name. This show how it relates to the young teen target audience because at that age you would discover your fashion taste, follow the latest trends, wanting to know how to make other people envy you because you have all the attention - its all current! The make-up she is wearing is the same as the other shots and is quite simple. This again helps target ‘Word Up’ audience as the readers would be starting to experiment with make-up and start to find their identity or o through a faze. The setting of the magazine is at a setting where a white background is used. This is used because if they had used a bright colour setting or something with overdone textile designs it would have disturbed the subject area, so using a white background and other bold colours would have made the subject area stand out from the straplines, masthead, and the kicker. This then enables the magazine to sell out. The lighting of the main image is quite light on the model’s face which enables readers or buyers to focus on the model, they did this by using a silver card where the light hits the silver card and it reflects on her face which makes her stand out even more. Also, it would have made a difference because if you were going to your local newsagent and you had other magazines which were dark e.g. XXL and Vibe next to this one, ‘Word Up’ would have stand out even more and catch the target audience’s eye. As a consequence this would have made the target audience to purchase it and not give a glance. Furthermore, because she is giving eye contact this would help this effect even more.

The colours which have been used are yellow for the masthead, dark green for the kicker and the other colours which have been used were pink, purple and red. The connotations for yellow is cheerful and positive, this links to the magazine and why they had used this colour as it is welcoming the reader to read this magazine as they are not using dangerous, intimidating colours for the masthead e.g. black. This would have contrasted what the magazine is really about and would have made the magazine target maybe an older audience. The connotations for green are associated with the growth of spring. The magazine had cleverly used this. This is because the magazine is trying to attract a new, fresh, young teens who are discovering new things. This would have attracted their audience because they had linked two colours together yellow and green which has similar connotations and relate somehow, as using them together would meant they are trying to really engage their audience that this magazine is friendly, welcoming and is always fresh.

The magazine looks quite cheap but the magazine is approximately £3.45 which is quite expensive however they may did this because so they can make a profit and it makes the target audience want the magazine and have the urge to purchase every issue because it looks quite addictive as they sell out entertainment and gossip.

The subjects who are covered on the magazine are about Nicki Minaj, Waka Flocka, and fashion trends, the Karate Kid, Sean Kingston and Lil Twist which are all relevant and modern people. They may have chosen this so they can attract their audience introducing the latest gossip and news.

The women are represented like if they are down to earth, bubbly and look like they want to have fun. However the men-Waka Flocka is represented the same but he is actually quite aggressive, big, looks quite scary and a gangster kind of man. They had made him look friendly because it relates what the magazine and what it is trying to sell and it suits this kind of magazine and just shows that this magazine can be read by young, male teens too.

The magazine is called ‘Word up!’. The masthead could mean that they have all the latest gossip, have exclusive interviews, and is basically suggesting to their audience that they are exclusive and have all the information on any entertainment news which relates to what they are really about- focusing on rappers, models and newcomers. This shows this reflects the content and the target audience of this magazine.  They are called this because it relates to what the magazine is and how they are selling out gossip.  The significant words are the masthead – Word Up! by using an exclamation mark emphasises how they target newcomers and fresh music and put it in the magazine stating this magazine is fresh. The typeface of the masthead is quite retro and funky and at the same time it is friendly. They had used this so they can attract their target audience implying they are friendly, easy going and that this magazine is not intimidating at all – it is almost like a friend to an extent- like gossiping with your friend but this time you are doing it with a magazine. The effect of this will allow readers to be interested and purchase their other issues until they had grown out of it.

The masthead is at the top and it is not covered. This implies that this magazine may not be popular but it still sells however it shows that they are still trying to engage the new generation to read the magazine, enabling them to show what this magazine is all about. The size of the masthead is medium; they may have done this so it does not look overcrowded as it is a little bit. This is important because it allows people to purchase the same magazine over and over again and get this magazine more popular. The values this magazine portrays and suggests that all hip-hop rappers and anything to do with this kind of entertainment that they are fresh, have swagger and are sharp. They are trying to say to their target audience that they have all the information and gossip about music celebrities stating that this is important information if you are up to date about the current news about entertainment and if Nicki Minaj was your rode model you should purchase this magazine.