Main Task: Front Cover Textual Analysis

Denotation

The magazine cover consists of a Wiz Khalifa winking directly at the camera. The shot is a close up showing his head and shoulders, the backgroud of the photograph is white, and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. The image is also layered over the Rolling Stone Masthead, connoting the importance of the artist. There are also 3 seperate cover-lines infront of him in red, black and white on the right hand side of the cover. Wiz Khalifa's name is in white and there's a grey strip beneath each cover line seperating them.

Connotation
The meanings of this are implying that the rapper is a modern reprsentation of Jimi Hendrix, as he's got a big an afro, similar look and Wiz Khalifa is becoming a fashion icon/trendsetter.

Masthead
Rolling stone's Masthead is very distinctive:Red with a white outline and black drop shadow. The font used is a serif font, and after the first letter of each word, the lower case letters join up to each other. The font used is similar to the famous 'Coco Cola' writing and connotes America culture. The words 'rolling stone'comes from a proverb, 'A rolling stone gathers no moss', giving a suggestion that this magazine has all of the connotations associated with the usage of the phrase in the past. All of the musicians who have used this phrase in their music had reputations of having very rock and roll lifestyles-making the magazine seem dangerous and risqué. The name 'Rolling stone' tells the audience this magazine is music based.

Character
The cover photograph is of a succesful American hip hop/pop rapper 'Wiz Khlaifa'.

-Composition
He is posed with a wink, and his body language and clothing are very quirky.
-Costume
His clothing is a brown leather jacket with a white shirt underneath, with the top buttons' on his shirt undone, showing his tattoos on his chest and gold chain. This costume has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be women as the image comes across as a tease. The clothing worn is similar to the iconic Jimi Hendrix a 1960's Psychedelich/blues rock artist.
-NVC
His non verbal commuication is very flirty, as one of his eyes are winked, his mouth is open displayig his white teeth and he's looking directly at the camera also he's shirt unbuttoned showing of his chest.
-Lighting
The lighting is coming from the left side, and its high key.
-Setting
The setting is a studio set up with just a plain white background.

Cover-lines
The main cover-line says:"NEW FACES 2011", this is implying that he's one of the biggest new faces of 2011. The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says:"Hip-Hop's rookie of the year" as he won the BET Hip Hop Rookie of the Year Award, and this relates to his song "The Race". All of the cover-lines use a serif font,connoting tradition. It suggests that the Rolling Stone magazine has existed for a long period of time, and has almost become an America instiution. This can tell its readers they will recieve accurate and challenging journalism.

Target Audience
Cosidering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people (male and female, though more female audience members than male) aged 20-30. They would have a good knowledge of hip hop, pop and a definite interest in a wide range of musical styles, and the music inustry generally as the artist is a unique rapper. They are likely to be well educated/well read, and have an interest in American rap/pop culture.

Colour scheme The white, red and black colour scheme really go well as the red really stands out against a white background. The colours tie in with image and masthead as it contrasts.