Deconstructing two similar magazines

In this issue of 'The Source' the colour scheme is green, black and white, which are the colours of money. This emphasises the genre Hip Hop, because the rappers talk about money and wealth. Bustah Rhymes is shown setting the money on fire with his cigar, which suggests his wealth and this highlights the conventions of Hip Hop magazines.

The masthead, cover lines, the top of the bar code, Bustah Rhymes' jacket and scarf is green, and also the dollar bills; whilst the plug, website and other text is black and the background is white.

The masthead, 'The Source' stands out more compared to the other text as it is outlined with white and has a thick black drop shadow.

This magazine highlights the Hip-Hop music, politics and culture of rappers, and therefore is targeted at anyone who is interested in Hip Hop/Rap music. The target audience may be Young adults and even middle-ages adults; aged 20-40. Issues raised in 'The Source' include whether marijuana is legal, and stereotypically in a Hip Hop culture, marijuana frequently is used by Rapper's.

The colour scheme in this cover of 'XXL' is red, black and grey. Black is a bold colour, whereas red is a strong bright colour, and so they complement each other. The red implies danger and violence, and this creates a powerful effect. The Masthead consists of white text ('XXL') in front of a Thick red box; the white does not over power the red, and so the viewer’s eye immediately focuses on the masthead.

Similar to 'The Source', this image also portrays wealth, due to the thick chain worn by Nas; therefore this would be a convention in the genre Hip-Hop.

In the medium shot, we can see that Nas is the main attraction and this is emphasised in the text 'NAS' which is grey. From the cover lines on the right hand side, it states keywords such as 'Hip-Hop' and 'Rap' which is self explanatory in terms of genre. Therefore, XXL targets audiences who focus narrowly on Rap/Hip-Hop music.