Magazine Textual Analysis La Roux

For this textual analysis, I will look at the double page advertisement for the debut album by La Roux self named La Roux. The album is a dance/elctro-genre, meaning it fits perfectly well within the research from my own album advertisement. I will look at how the album has been adverted within the magazine and also at how the conventions of the genre are translated within the advert.

The main element that stand out predominately to the audience when they look at the advert is the use of the artists image. This is due to the effect of the artist’s face taking up a whole page of the two. This conventionally shows that the artist is selling their image to the audience, commonly used in the music industry. Furthermore the image used is the same as the album image, this acts as a self-reflexive device for the audience to automatically recognize the artist image. Furthermore the image of the artist reinforces the genre if the music. For example the main element with La Roux’s music is the influence of 80’s electro, this image of the artist carries a element of 80’s fashion with the aid of the quiff. The advert itself pastiches elements of the 80’s.

The use of the plain black background with the white text acts as a contrasting element in which the use of comments (which themselves act as advertisements for the album as critics are giving positive reviews of the album to the audience)of the album are used this stands directly out to the audience. On the other hand the use of the font type can be seen as 80’s inspired, especially the use of the Artist name on the left hand page. The same text is also used in the right hand page within such elements as the date of which the album is released. Also looking at the colour of the album we get a melo sense with the use of the burn orange behind the lead singer (Elly Jackson). This may symbolism the use of ‘a hot new music act’. It may also be a reference to the use of the singers hair. The orange and auburn contrast, to get again the meaning of hot new music act. Another element of the advert is the use of the conventional aspect of the record label in the bottom area of the right page. This is a conventional element as it shows who is responsible and funded the album.