Magazine Adverts

         
 What is the purpose of a magazine advert

The purpose of a magazine advert for an artist is to receive wider recognition of the artist and the
song/songs that they are trying to promote to the public. By fabricating an advert a wider audience
will be able to access it as magazines still remain popular despite technology advancing. With a 
successful magazine advert promoting an album or a single, they are more likely to boost sales as
a result of the wider recognition therefore an advert can lead to an increase in sales, a wider
recognition of the artist and this therefore can lead to a top artist that is successful on a worldwide
scale. 

 From The XX magazine advert they have not included themselves, this relates to Dyers two key paradoxes, 'a star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer'. The concept of them being absent leaves an air of mystery regarding the artist and poses a question in the audiences mind and should leave them intrigued to what their music might withhold, this representation of the artist makes the XX more exciting as performers. This idea of the XX not being involved in the advert is not uncommon with dance artists, as artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Klangkarussell and other dance artists are often not involved in their music videos.

The advert contains a series of graffiti on the wall in what looks like a derelict alleyway, graffiti connotes youthfulness and rebellion, which relates to the target audience of the dance genre which are generally teenagers. The graffiti included gives the artist a sense of accessibility as the audience will be able to relate to this, this feature of the advert gives the artist a relatability advantage as the target audience will be attracted to these sort of features. Again the advert does not have an artist which is a generic convention of the dance genre, so the artist is not represented in terms of themselves being in the advert, but through devices such as graffiti and the dark alley way portrays the target audience it is set for and gives the audience a type of idea of what sort of music they will be presenting.

The colour that is most noticeable in the advert is the graffiti, the green graffiti symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. This relates to the artist as they are a fresh artist in the industry, relating back to the advert text 'This is a great piece of music by the up and coming band the XX'. This green represents them as artists as they are also growing artists. This utilisation of vibrant colours are juxtaposed by dark shadowing colours that make the graffiti stand out more, the green graffiti could of been used as a metaphor for the XX, this could be to highlight that the XX are the main focus and they are the ones to watch out for.

·               Design/layout

·               Choice of images

·               Typography

·               Style of language

·               How does the advert promote the music genre?

·               How does the advert promote the artist?

·               How does the advert attract an audience?