This front cover analysis is of the UK magazine Top of the Pops launched in February 1995. It is called this because it is a supplementary magazine for the Top of the Pops TV show. Also 'top' and 'pop' rhymes which is very effective and it makes the magazine more recognisable. It straight away lets the potential reader know of the pop genre by the word 'pop'. The word 'Top' can also connote that this best magazine.
The publisher of the magazine is BBC Worldwide and they publish many other magazines such as BBC Country file, Girl Talk and Olive. This hybrid magazine does not only focus on music; but also beauty, star gossip and real-life stories. This will also widen their target audience. A conventional thing about this magazine is having the bar code on the front cover. This monthly magazine is priced at £2.20 which is quite cheap (compared to magazines like Kerrang and NME) because it does not come with any free gifts and only consists of 88 pages. This price also reflects their target audience of young girls as it is so cheap they would be able to afford it with their pocket money. Also having a smaller target audience will mean they cannot charge high prices as they will need to get customers easier.
This magazine has a website, however it is not very interactive as it only has a few pages which do not actually give much information. This relates to its target audience because young children would rather see more images and read less. Just a picture of the latest issue, a short paragraph detailing why you should purchase this magazine, and how to contact them.
The main target audience for this magazine are young girls from the ages of 10-13. I know this because firstly, the colours used are very feminine and bright. Also one of the main colours in this particular issue is pink which is always associated with girls. In addition a lot of small hearts are on the cover, this would not encourage a male to read this magazine and also relates to the kind of things girls would doodle on their paper. The main feature of this magazine is Justin Bieber who is globally recognised and his main fan base is females. The type of features in this magazine every month are beauty tips and fashion tips, which when I looked through the magazine, I noticed only female models were used and the clothes were only female clothes. Another way this magazine interacts with its target audience is through its features. For example, the feature about Justin Bieber getting bullied. A lot of the younger generation can relate to this article and eve more so girls as they are known to be more 'bitchy'.
On the cover there is a total of 8 pictures and every single one of the is a medium close-up or just a shot of the celebrities heads. In addition every image is employing a direct mode of address. Their facial expressions are all very happy as they are all smiling or pulling a funny face, however the main image of Justin Bieber; his facial expression is a little less happy and more calm. This could be relating to his feature about him getting bullied. You can not really see the clothing in any of the smaller images except the Disney channel star Miranda Cosgove, and she is wearing a blazer, which is school uniform like, linking to the age of the target audience. Also the top she is wearing is pink, making her more feminine.
The masthead of this magazine is pink and more of an image than a typeface as the 'of the' is inside a circle in the middle of the title and then the 'S' and the end is very decorative. This could be because children like to look at the images the majority of the time. By having more images on the front cover, it means less text because the image says a lot as recognisable artist are used, unlike RWD magazine which I previously analysed. Also the main image is behind the masthead, making the masthead more clear and stand out more. I noticed this is not common in TOTP magazines and usually the artist is in front of the masthead making them the main focus.
Another conventional thing I noticed, that all the TOTP magazines have is a banner at the top making something that is not usually in the issue stand out. This is February's issue and the background is white, with the use of only a few colours, unlike other TOTP magazines. In this issue the only colours used are red, pink black and white; I think this relates to valentines day and they tried to focus this issue on that. Also in the top left hand corner the is the BBC logo, not only does this show it is published by BBC which is a major British multi-media institution meaning parents may feel the magazine can be trusted and will be happy with their child reading it.
The presentation of this magazine is very chaotic and a range of typefaces are situated everywhere. However this is the same for all TOTP magazines. This magazine contains shapes and images like swirls and hearts which is the typical doodle for young girls. Moreover, colloquial language is used like “Cringe!” and also short sentences like “So cute!” and “Love it!”. This use of exclamation marks also emphasises the feature and entices the reader more.
In conclusion,The magazine does look quite cheap, which it is, but also look exciting by its uses of bright colours. I think the artist choice makes the magazine better as if they were unknown artists the magazine may not be as popular.
No comments:
Post a Comment