The artist chosen for this article is Cheryl Cole, the thing that is signified is that she seems to be wearing a black and very much dark costume, which suggests that the genre she’s from ma y be a dark genre, or something that is not soft. The magazine is Q, traditionally Q is a rock magazine, and as we look deeper into the article and read much more we realise that she is a rock artist. So she is arguably a rock artist who ventures into other genres, as she is in a pop band. I believe the target audience will be rock listeners, and since she is wearing what seems to be a promiscuous outfit, the target audience will consist mainly of the male gender. The target audience may also consist of the female gender because; she may be seen as a role model for them.The language this magazine uses Standard English, and is starved of colloquial language; this may indicate to us that the target audience are educated, and understand high vocabulary to a standard, and example of this is when the words “credibility”, “infidelities” and “turbulence”, which are words that would need prior knowledge to understand. It shows that they understand that their target audience are intelligent. The language appeals to the audience because it adds a sense of excitement to it, while it uses words such as “turbulence”. This magazine and other rock magazines seem to break stereotypes that people associated, and/or who listen to the rock genre are less educated, by using many different forms of formal language. You would expect the magazine to use informal and colloquial language, but it chooses informal to highlight the intelligence that lies beneath the average rock listener. The ideology of rock artists and listeners are not portrayed when it comes to the language that is used within this article and magazine.
The type of tone that the magazine chooses to address the reader as is an intelligent and informed fan, the reason for this is that it rarely uses colloquial language, unless it is a quote from Cheryl Cole. They have constructed this article in a way that they communicate with a wider range of audience. We see evidence that the reader is seen as an intelligent and informed fan because the author scripts “At one point she had the UK’S top single, album and TV show”, which signifies that the audience were key in the growth of Cheryl Coles’s success and popularity. It shows us that the audience is not like a friend, because they are not speaking directly to the audience, they are making statements about the career and life of the artist.
The style of text used within this article is Serif throughout it all. Serif fonts have flickers on the en d of the letters. All the sizes and colours of the letters are the same, apart from a select few. They have used illuminated lettering at the beginning of the two paragraphs, and coincidently they were both the letter ‘C’. The illuminated lettering was done to attract the attention of the reader. Illuminated letters are constructed to give us a powerful and exciting introduction to the paragraph. They also highlight a phrase, and the main illuminated letter in red. The reason why the colours are in red is because it is trying to signify the importance of the lettering. Red is one of the colours the eyes are most attracted to, so it attracts the reader’s attention to the quote which is interesting, thus making them want to read more. Red is a colour that signifies passion, love & evil, so the audience may unintentionally begin making connotations for the lettering, which makes them want to read on more.
The way the page is laid out is quite unique, because the page consists mainly of writing, and roughly 20% of the page is the image of Cheryl Cole. The image is actually a medium shot of Cheryl Cole. It is evident that the main focus of this article was mainly the text, which makes us believe that target audience are an intellectual one. This reflects to the target audience in a positive light because it signifies their intelligence, and it shows that the magazine values the literature side more than the images.
Cheryl Cole is being presented as a seductive, dark and mysterious due to her posture and the composition of the image. The image of Cheryl Cole bares resemblance to the Sin City movie and posters, which could possibly be indicating to us that she has been sinning or being very seductive. The colours black often signify many things such as darkness, rock and sin, which could be referring to the magazine, as Q is a rock magazine. Cheryl is also wearing what seems to be revealing and tight clothes, which could possibly be referring to the risks that rock artists usually, take. The meaning is anchored through the heading “I don’t know what I look like any more, do you know what I mean.” which is telling us that she is becoming something that she wasn’t. The image shows someone different to the original Cheryl Cole, it shows a different side to her possibly her dark side.
The front cover aswell as the magazine and this article are very similar to eachother. The front cover uses black, red and white which highlight the theme of the magazine which is dark and rock. They use a majority of black to highlight the darkness of the magazine. The whole of the magazine seems to use the colours of red, red, black and white which seems to be a housing effect, throughout the whole of the magazine. White and black are two contrasting colours which highlight the light and darkness of the artist and the magazine. The red used highlights the passion that is put into rock, aswell as the passion and love that Cheryl Cole has.
I believe that this article is very good because it does not require prior knowledge, because within the article it gives you facts and information about Cheryl Cole. We see examples of these when the writer scripts “At one point she had the UK’S top single, album and TV show”, this alone gives us general information about the success of this figure, telling us that she is quite triumphant in the British television and music industry. So it is evident no prior knowledge is needed about this artist.
