Macklemore Front Cover Analysis

This is a music magazine. From the front cover, we can tell that issues related to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, as well as other artists are going to be inside.

The target audience for this magazine are music fans. It might be mostly aimed for teenagers and the interest of the audience is most likely hip hop, due to the fact that the artists in the central image, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, are hip hop artists.

The central image reveals to us that the mode of address used by the mag is direct. We know this as the two men are staring directly at the camera.

The purpose of this is to try and engage with the reader. This tells us that it wants more of a personal relationship with the reader.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are on the front cover. This is because they are arguably the most talked about people in the music business at this point in time.

The anchorage text states ‘the independent sensation that’s ruling the hip-hop nation’. This gives us the impression that the artist on the front cover, Macklemore, is one who is extremely popular and ‘in’ at this moment in time, seeing as the magazine is rating him as someone who is ‘ruling the hip-hop nation’.

The overall message that the artist may be giving is that he is someone who deserves to be respected, in relation to the title ‘respect’.

Hip-hop artists, especially Macklemore, are being represented. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are being presented as quite serious through their facial expressions. Additionally, they are seen as quite cool through the way in which they are dressed and posed in the image. Ryan Lewis has his arm on Macklemore, indicating that they are synched and comfortable with each other. In relation to their dress code, Macklemore is wearing a leather jacket and also a chain around his neck.

There are a couple of ‘buzz’ words in the front cover. Examples of this are ‘RESPECT’ and ‘MACKLEMORE’. The effect that this has on the reader is that it is the words which we notice the most as they are bold and big and so stands out to everything else. It also assures us that the main focus of the magazine is in fact Macklemore.

The design of the title block is white and bold, which reflects the genre of music as being hip-hop and it is the piece of writing which stands out the most due to its boldness.

The title of the magazine, RESPECT, may infer that it is a simple magazine as the title is not hard to read or understand for anyone. Also, it tells us that the image of the magazine is one that is of an appreciative note, as it is literally showing us praise towards Macklemore. I don’t think it gives much away about the style of the magazine.

The puffs suggest that a tribute to Kanye West and an article on Big K.R.I.T will be held within the article. This tells us that the audience the magazine wishes to get is one which involves Kanye West and Big K.R.I.T fans.

The slogan in this particular magazine, I believe, is ‘respect our culture’. This tells us that this magazine is purely based on what happens to be ‘their culture’ which is this day and ages’ hip-hop, including the work of Macklemore. This helps to attract readers who are into hip-hop, music in general, or even people who are part of the newer generation. The colour used for the title is white, whereas for the finishing part of the slogan the colour used is black. This proves for a nice contrast between the colours as not only do they complement each other well, but they also help each other stand out. Additionally, the font for ‘respect’ is much larger than the font used for ‘our culture’. This might be to emphasise the word and title of the magazine ‘respect’.

The magazine uses strategies such as puffs, skylines and graphic features in order to attract the audience. Puffs lead the reader to thinking that there is a lot of extra valuable information withheld in the magazine. The skyline used involves names of very popular artists, which could attract an even bigger audience that involves fans of those artists. The graphic feature adds to the magazine’s attempts to stand out from the other magazines on the shelf.