Analysis of Magazine advertisement

This magazine advert is promoting the artist Jay-Z.

The picture shows Jay-Z dressed all in black which is clearly defined against the white and light grey background of high rise buildings. This shows his importance as he is large and towering above the buildings. The question asks – is Jay-Z bigger than hip-hop - so the enormous size of the character emphasises this question. This is an interesting and controversial question which immediately grabs the reader’s attention. The fact that he is so prominent in the picture will promote him as an artist to his fans and to the readers of the magazine.

The only other colour used is red which is a colour of danger and intrigue which we would associate with the hip-hop style of music and with the artist Jay-Z.

His clothes are designer cut showing he is an affluent artist.

The use of blacks and greys is very common in a lot of Jay-Z’s music videos where he uses the black and white filter, so his fans would be able to relate to this.  

Next to the magazine advert of Jay-Z is a poster of his 11^th studio album, the third in The Blueprint trilogy. The cover shows a vast pile of instruments and recording tools, all piled high in the corner and all coloured in white. There are three thick red lines across the pile. This cover is unusual for Jay-Z as it would normally heavily feature the artist himself. However his name is written at the top of the album in heavy black font, so we are in no doubt who the album was recorded by. It also has large, black numbers to show the date of release. This is an intriguing design which would draw his audience in and make them want to find out more about the album.

The greys, blacks, whites and reds of the first page are carried over into this cover giving a sense of unity to the advert.

Magazine adverts are crucial to an artist as they are one of the most common types of advertising, which are accessed by a very large audience, so if an artist and record label advertise in a magazine they would potentially be advertising to an extremely large audience.