XXL magazine

A) Textual analysis.
Image:
3 colour scheme (white, blue and black). However, the mast head is red which breaks the colour scheme, this may be because they want to make sure the name of the magazine stands out.
It's a long shot and high angle shot, it includes ten artists. It connote unity, all the artists look comfortable around each other. The fact that they are all freshman and they are all in the same shot implies that if they stick together they might develop better as artists.
The image has high key lighting, everything looks clean, the background is also white.
They are wearing matching outfits (all white with gold accessories) and their attitude is relaxed and cool.
Mise en scene, they are styled as rappers.They are all wearing gold jewellery which reinforces their start status. It represents their wealth.

Page layout:
The masthead is behind the cover star which implies that the artists are more important than the magazine title.
The anchorage is ''2016 freshman class'' because it is the biggest text.
The cover lines are aligned right, they have a similar font which is not the simple and traditional font. They use a font that looks trendy and cool. The same font is used for all the texts in the front cover.
There is a barcode at the bottom on the right, also the price is there and the date is not really specific but it says summer 2016.

Language and genre:
The language they use on the cover is simple, they just use the artists names to tell the audience what kind of articles are included.
We can recognise the genre of the magazine by the image and the cover lines, in the image we see rappers and the cover lines tell us their names. Therefore the magazine genre is represented by the artists.

Contents page.
Two pages are used although they are not consecutive. There is one content page on page 6, an advert on page 7 and the other content page is on page 8 followed by another advertisement on page 9.
All editorial items are listed. There are twelve sections.

Seven of them are on the first contents page, this first page also has an image. That image is another picture similar to the one on the front cover, all the artists are on the shot, it's a long shot and a high angle shot as well. This page keeps a similar colour scheme to the one on front cover (white, black and red).
'The A-side is the first page's title, all the sections have the page number and those numbers are in chronological order. On the first page there are three columns, the language is informal and simple so that everyone understands what each article is going to be about.
The five next sections are on the second contents page, there is just one column aligned right.
The title on this page is 'The B-side'.
The colour scheme of this page is white, red and black. However, the colour brown predominates as well.
The image on this page is a picture of the yoga instructor Jess Taras. One of the sections is about her therefore they used her for the image on the page. Her skin is light brown and the background looks like a rock (brownish), maybe what the photographer wants to transmit is that she's inside a volcano or something similar. There is a red light which matches the page numbers and might represent lava. This connotes that the article may be spicy and hot like lava. Each section has the page number and they are also in chronological order.
The same font and the language that they used on the first content page is used on this one as well. The language used connotes that the magazine is for young people, also that is is trendy and cool.

Double spread article.

Image:
The image in this article is a picture of the artist DJ Drama. It is a mid-shot, it has low key lighting, the background in dark and also he is dressed in black clothes which makes the set up darker. He is wearing a black hat which is something we relate to rappers, also the chains link to the rapper style. DJ Drama is looking to the camera which creates a connection between the artist and the audience.
The article is about DJ Drama, therefore he is occupying the entire page.

Page layout:
On the other page it's the actual article. The heading is 'WHO U WIT' because is the biggest text. Once again the colour scheme is black, white and red. The subheading is 'DJ Drama's back again to host the XXL Freshman Class and reflect on this year's selects.' The whole sentence is written in black but the artist name is red. This connotes that the artist is the star of the article.  Also it makes it clear that the artist's name is DJ Drama.
The article is the artist's comments about this year's Freshman class. First, on the introduction he talks about the Freshman Class in the past, then about this year's artists who made it into the magazine. On the conclusion he talks about how he has been on the Freshman class for four years now and how he understands the star's positions.
The article has a pull quote which is a section taken from the article, they used this sentence to intrigue the audience and to make them want to read the whole article. This pull quote is also in read so that it stand out from the rest of the article.
They used two fonts to keep it simple, the heading and the pull quote have the same font. For the article they used a different font that is traditional and looks professional and clean.
There are three columns used for the article.

Language and genre:
The language used is informal because the artist talks in a urban style and even uses bad words such as 'shit'. This connotes that the magazine is urban as well and that it wants to represent the artist's personality. We can tell the genre of the magazine is hip-hop/RnB because the artists are rappers and hip-hop singers, the language is colloquial and they use slang. (for example, in the heading 'who u wit')


B) Audience and institution.

The target audience of XXL magazine are rap music and hip-hop fanatics. The magazine talks about urban music, urban artists and more. Therefore the audience they want to reach are the people interested in those kind of topics. The xxl magazine readers are mostly men (78%) in their late twenties, that is why many articles portray the female gender in a manly way which is sexualising women. In the article of this issue for example, the yoga instructor is used to attract men's attention. That article is mostly pictures of her half-naked.
The African-American community is the magazine's biggest audience (67%). Therefore, the magazine use black artists and culture to engage its readers.

Publisher information:
The xxl magazine publisher is Townsquare Media. This publisher was funded in 1994, is an american company based in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Townsquare is a media, entertainment and digital marketing solutions company. It owns and operates many radio stations, live events and digital, mobile, video and social media properties. This company specializes in creating and delivering content that its audience like such as artists and products.