front cover xxl

 

On the front cover of XXL there are 10 rap artists in a group long shot in a plain white background in order to set the tone of the magazine as being positive. It appears that the artists are all matching, clothes wise by wearing the same colour, white. The magazine choosing the artists to wear white could suggest they go against the negative stereotypes of being ‘thugs’ and to portray them as angels with pure and innocence. Despite wearing the same colour, it is easily recognised that their style is different to one another which links with the type of songs each artists make. In addition the accessories they are wearing for example gold chains relates to the outcome of their success of being able to afford expensive jewellery and to be able to wear the designer outfits as well. Behind the image you can nearly see all of the masthead because this magazine has been around for some time, the readers can easily tell that it says ‘XXL’ due to the iconic colours and font. This is the first thing the readers will notice as its placed in the left side corner of the magazine, and people tend to read starting from the left rather than the right. They also follow the expected codes and conventions by having a barcode, dates of the issue and pricing on the magazine.

Furthermore, all of the artists are looking straight at the camera which shows their confidence and comfortable they are within themselves and in their careers. Not only that but a connection for the readers so that they can engage in the magazine. Not to mention the lighting this showed off each and every one of the artist in their best element. In the image, its noticeable that the artists are using their body language as its shown them using hand gestures which shows that they are expressing their happiness through their hands which shows off their personality as well as established music artists. Moreover the way the artists were placed in the magazine, in rows shows that the magazine is very professional and organised.

The issue of the magazine was the 9^th annual freshman issue which shows that XXL brings out this specific type of magazine on occasions of celebrating new rappers who are dominating the charts because it gives the readers information about the artists that are making the songs that they are constantly singing which means more exposure for the magazine as it provides word of mouth by others and of course exposure to the artist. The font XXL used works very well with the ‘freshman’ as it comes off as teenage/child vibe which relates perfectly within the context of ‘freshman’ of being in a school environment. Due to this issue being an annually one, ‘THE NEW WAVE’ takes up most of the space within the bottom of the magazine to intensify the readers of this new up and coming ‘wave’.