VIBE MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

By Sohail Rouyan

For this section I have been requested to complete a comprehensive analysis of a music magazine from its front cover to content page and double page spread, I have chosen to analysis VIBE magazine for this piece of work. The reason for choosing VIBE magazine is due to the fact that I have taken a lot of inspirations and ideas from their magazine to make my own unique music magazine.

Institutional informationAnd history

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 Inter Media 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.

GenreVibe magazine mainly consists of the genre RnB and some aspects of hip hop. This is because Vibe magazine attempts to target and attract the wider and larger audience to increase their amount of consumers worldwide as the are competing with or major institutions and music magazine companies.

I can tell that it is mainly focused on RnB and some aspects of Hip Hop due to the fact that it contains textual information in relation to modern music such as RnB and Hip Hop. Moreover it contains images of rappers and artists that compose RnB or Hip Hop music, which reinforces the fact that the audience and consumer can tell and recognize that VIBE magazine is classified as a RnB and HIP Hop music magazine.

Moreover to expand on the textual side of the information that also reinforces the fact that it is a RnB and Hip Hop genre music magazine as it mainly consists of information or text such as ‘’Top 10 rap blogs’’ or something similar which immediately connotes that it is classified under the RnB and Hip Hop genre.

Audience The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. I can tell this due to the fact that the topics and information stated and explained in the music magazine all links in to the youths of our generation, for example it states topics such as rap artists new music tracks, their lifestyle and personal life stories so that their target audience can link in to the artists situations.

Moreover the use of fashion and clothing are specifically targeted at young target audience as it mostly consists of major designer wear which most of our youth has inspiration of owning which mainly consists of Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Furthermore the use of language in the context has a correlation to the target audience as it contains slang language. Slang language is a form of informal language used when youths are communicating socially.

RepresentationsIn Vibe magazine the main group that it consists of is black race due to the fact that black people are most well known in our generation for producing rap lyrics and music videos which immediately grabs their target audiences attention. Black people are represented in a wealthy and YOLO way (you only live once) this is because most of them come from an ethnicity and background which at that time did not life to the fullest and experience unpleasant issues. So therefore the representations of the black group in VIBE magazine consists of famous artists, number one music video hits, wealthy, fashion, drugs and party. This is appealing to the target audience due to the fact that the target audience consists of youths and youths mainly enjoy hearing rap artists new lyrics and the fact that they got S.W.A.G (a slang term used by youths to reinforce the word ‘Cool’) from things like their house or car to there clothing and choice of women. Therefore the target audience admires the artist and is a huge fan and wishes to accept him/her as there role model.

However VIBE magazine do represent some aspects of other groups such as white artists and white rappers however they do not tend to succeed more in there career than black artists due to the fact that they express their experience and their emotions through their song or rap.

Analysis the stories The stories mentioned and explained throughout the magazine consists of the artist mainly which in this edition of VIBE magazine is Kanye West. The front cover consists of a large medium close up of him and the content page consists of a large medium close up as well as the double page spread. This edition is mainly about Kanye West so during the double page spread there is an interview with him which he mainly expresses him self in a more social way and not how he is in front of his fans, moreover he speaks about his personal life story which again links back to VIBE magazines target audience.