Analysis Of Magazine Adverts

Magazine Advert one:

The Calvin Harris magazine advert includes all the vital information that is required in order for the advert to be successful including tour dates and album releases. This will promote the artist and present their image to the audience, creating awareness and increasing sales. It is crucial for the advert to give the right impression to its audience and present the correct artist image in order to attract the correct target market. Avicii's magazine advert follows the conventions of the dance genre by hiding his identity. This is achieved by his back facing the camera in the main image. This helps to create a mystery to his identity as dance artists like the audience to focus on their music rather than the image that is created of them as an artist. Pop artists for example focus largely on creating an image for themselves and sell this to its target audience. Although his identity is hidden it allows the audience to focus on the crowd behind him, displaying his work (DJing) and giving the impression that he has a large fan base as there is a vast amount of people in the image enjoying his music. His body language, with one hand in the air, suggests that he is enjoying what he is doing and continues the impression that everyone is having a good time, and so will the listeners of the album. It also suggests that he is a popular artist with a large fan base, giving the idea that he is successful due to creating good music, which will further entice potential customers to buy his album. This supports Dyers theory as he believes that the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. Avicii in this advert is absent through his masked identity but present through his large following and body language. This means that the audience is given enough information to be persuaded into buying the album but enough information is hidden to create a sense of mystery. 

Avicii is also in casual clothing, making his audience able to relate to him more easily as he is wearing normal clothes. This supports Dyers theory that artists must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. The checked shirt that Avicii is wearing would be considered as being ordinary as it is clothing that his target audience are familiar with and would perhaps wear themselves. This will enable Avicii to build a relationship with his audience and therefore lead to creating loyal customers. However the artists extraordinary side is shown through the huge crowd that has gathered to hear his music. The image as a whole presents Avicii as being fun and carefree which are often traits found in artists belonging to the dance genre and therefore appeal to the specific audience of dance music. This will therefore achieve the main purpose of the magazine advert which is to sell tour tickets and increase the awareness of Avicii as an artist as these aspects would all persuade the intended target market to purchase Avicci's products etc. that are being promoted by the advert. 

Soft blue tones are used throughout the advert in the form of the banners held by onlookers, the checked shirt that Avicii is wearing, fading into the colour of the sky. This allows the main headline of 'Avicii - Part of the At Night Family' to stand out in a bright white colour - grabbing the attention of anyone who comes across it. The type of font, as well as the logo, that has been used also helps to achieve this as it bolder and differs to the other, more simplistic, fonts that have been used elsewhere in the advert. The dark colours used for the DJ decks and the bottom of the advert allows the dates and venues along with other useless information to be more visable for onlookers. There is little information present on the advert which allows it to remain uncomplicated and easier to read, meaning that readers are not overwhelmed by useless information and can instead get the messages of the advert by one single glance - crucial for a magazine advert. The light and dark contrasting colours are conventional to the dance genre as this specific kind of music is usually playing in nightclubs and concerts etc where the setting would usually be dark with bright lighting. The light blues and blacks could therefore be mimicking this idea to display the different genre conventions.

Magazine Advert two:

The layout of the magazine advert is fairly simple with only crucial information displayed, such as: the artists name, the date of release, the record label logo, where to buy it and two reviews. These are the only aspects that are needed in order for the advert to be successful, as this is the only information that the target audience would need to know in order for it to create a hype and increase in sales. The little information on the advert is also conventional to the dance genre as it leaves an element of mystery for both the artist and the song as well as keeping it as simple as possible for the teenage target market. This relates to Dyers theory as one of his key paradoxes states that 'a star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer'. This leaves the audience intrigued and creates more of a hype around the album as people are unsure of what to expect. Other dance artists also do not feature themselves in their adverts or music videos such as: Swedish House Mafia and Klangkrussell etc.

Due to the simplistic layout the image of a brick wall with graffiti writing in an isolated building or street is the main focus, placed in the centre of the advert with the writing scattered both above and underneath it. The writing is also in a simple font in the colour white, which further emphasises the image in the middle as the writing is not bold enough to detract from the brighter colours present in the picture. The graffiti holds the connotations of being rebellious and breaking the law. This would most likely attract a younger audience as the youth are the most likely to be taking part in activities such as this and would therefore be able to relate to it. This therefore reflects the target audience of the artist/album and would therefore attract them to buy the album that the advert is promoting. This is conventional of the dance/house genre as the target audience is usually teenagers as it is a genre that has only become popular fairly recently with the younger generations. The graffiti also gives an idea to the audience about which type of music they are likely to expect from the 'The XX' without revealing too much about the artist etc and is therefore another devide that has been used to create a sense of mystery.