Textual Analysis- XXL Magazine

Textual Analysis

For my Music Magazine I’m using an R&B/Hip-hop genre. I am using ‘XXL’ magazine as my case study for my own magazine. ‘XXL’ uses a very bold, clear masthead. This is to appeal to customers when it’s orderly stacked on the shelf in store, also the colour red is bright and eye-catching which gives it that feel of fun and evokes interest in a possible reader. The fact that the cover image is in front of the masthead is risky, but it means the magazine is already popular and will easily be recognised. The cover image is a group picture of a few of female and male hip-hop artists that are new and exceedingly popular for e.g. ‘Fetty Wap’, ‘Bobby Shmurda’ and ‘Tink’. Having artists like these on ‘XXL’ magazine increases not only popularity for the artists but the magazine that features these extremely successful artists. The Cover picture takes over the whole page and the names are squashed around the picture in ‘graffiti’ font to suit the genre of the magazine. The entire front cover uses a consistent colour scheme of ‘red’, ‘blue’, ‘black’ and ‘white’ which are complimentary to each other as they are mostly primary colours, also it looks professional and stands out as a hip-hop/R&B magazine. The use of this colour scheme makes the magazine look like it is going to be a fun and interesting read, therefore increasing the amount of views ‘XXL’ gets.

 The contents is split into different sub-topics such as, ‘features’ and ’departments’, this makes it easier for the reader to find pages they are really interested in reading. The contents page consists of the same image shot as the front cover but of the artists doing different poses. This makes it clear that the main article(s) will be about them. The pictures used throughout the contents page(s) are in a consistent theme which means they are all from the same photoshoot. Each single shot portrays the artists’ character and style. The contents page is simple and clear which will help the reader find their pages of interest.

 ‘XXL’ magazine feature a lot of adverts. This is one way the magazine makes its money, it’s also a great marketing scheme to sell products used or recommended by famous artists. A lot of the promo done by these artists make them more popular and perfect to feature in the magazine.

 Each article has a font consistency which is suiting to its genre/field. This makes it look professional and appealing to the reader’s eyes. The articles are in columns and in a ‘Q & A’ format making the article easier to read. Any of the font that is in bold is either pointing out its importance or pointing out what the publisher wants you to read the most, usually anything in bold, brightly coloured print is read first by the reader because it is eye catching. Specifically in this issue of ‘XXL’ magazine the use of bright colours like green, blue, reds, pink etc. is continuous, this may sound really tacky but the editor uses these colours really subtly but is still playful.