Textual Analysis (3)

The magazine ‘Blender’ doesn’t really specialize in a specific genre it gives information about music in general, and the current issues in the music industry. From the front cover we can see that their target audience is female this is because they have used pink colour for some of the fonts, the colour pink is stereotypically appealing to the female gender. They have also used black has their font colour along with pink, this is because they want to add the stylish effect so that the magazine would bear no resemblance to other magazines around it on the shelf. Another reason why they have used these colours is so that the sell lines can stand apart from the background.

The sell lines show that the magazine doesn’t specialise in any particular genre because they have mentioned Katy Perry’s name on the top left, and on the bottom left it says “Keeping it wheel RAP’s Greatest rides” this indicates that the magazine is aiming at a mainstream audience because Katy Perry does her music work in the Pop genre whereas rap itself is a complete different genre than Pop. The font style they have used is something different than the common font styles such as Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana, this is because most magazine (editors) use these font styles and in this magazine they have decided to utilize something different so that this magazine can standout from the other magazine on the shelf, and if it stands out then there is a chance that it will be sold.

They have used an image of the artist Katy Perry, and from the image we can see that she is making an eye contact with the audience, therefore the audience is being directly addressed, the reason that they have used this mode of address is because the audience will engage with the magazine if the artist is making an eye contact with them. The main image is used to attract people who like Pop music and/or are fans of Katy Perry, moreover it suggests that the magazine is also attracting the male gender as their audience this is because Katy Perry (a female artist) is revealing most of her body due to the costume, she is wearing, in addition they have used some make up on her to enhance her looks they have used this type of mise-en-scene to captivate the male audience. However the female gender in the audience would see her as a role model, so they would imitate her way of dressing up, her way of posing and if they know a lot about the artist they would also replicate their lifestyle with artist’s lifestyle.

Katy Perry is being addressed as a “Pop’s Bi-curious babe” as it says on one of the sell lines the phrase curious means eagerness to learn, so this sell line highlights that Katy Perry is eager about the Pop genre. On the top right it says “186 more must have songs” they have emphasised the words “must have” with making the text in bold, they have done this so that the audience knows that those 186 songs are commonly popular amongst the people in England and/or America. On the front cover it also says “David Cook gets his fans wasted”, this sell line would catch the eyes of those who are interested in finding out why David Cook has let his fans down. There is another sell line which says “Guitars gone wild Metallica! Hinder! Weezer!” people who are fans of these artists would be keen to buy this magazine issue just to read about them, and people who are fans of rock music. With the variety of sell lines used could imply that the range of the target audience is very wide as the magazine is talking about more than one genre. Followed by a sell line which says at the beginning “Marriage advice from T-pain:” this sell line on particular talks about an artist’s personal life, and how he lives his life after being married. This sell line would only appeal who really need a “marriage advice” and/or would appeal to people who are fans of T-pain and are interested in his personal life.

On this magazine front cover it has a special offer for its readers; at the very top it says “Free downloads! 10 Hot New tracks” this again is used to attract the audience as majority of the people in the audience would find it pleasing to get music for free.