Analysis of a music magazine cover: Top of the pops

Puff

Skyline
Masthead

Main Image

Puff
Anchorage Text

Barcode, Price, Date and Issue Number

Masthead: The mast head is put on top of a pink background with white text to make it stand out of
the page. The denotation is the use of pink which has the connotations of being a famine colour, and
the niche market of this magazine is young females. The large sans serif font is used to make the
mast head stand out the page, this is a convention of a music magazine.
Main cover line: The main cover line uses a band popular with the target audience as their unique
sell point. It also directly addresses their target audience by calling the magazine a Fangirl special.
The use of the slang term OMG is used as its a term the target audience will relate to and often
use. This is as lots of girls between 11-15 years old will often use this word. Words like OMG also

show the target audience of this magazine as middle/lower classes, as anyone in the upper class
wouldnt be attuned to using the type of vocabulary.
Puff: This puff is used on top of an image of two boys, the puff contains the words hot. This draws the
attention of the audience to the image. As the target audience is young girls/teens they are likely to
want to look at the people in the image as they are famous in the genre of music this magazine is
targeted at.
Another puff is used in the top right corner of the magazine, in order to promote another section of
their magazine. The blue background is used to make it stand out as there is very little use of the
colour blue on the front page. The word #trending is then used to show whats popular. However, as
many of the reader of the audience will use a range of social networking sights, they are very likely to
understand what the hashtag represents. As well as this, the imagery in the puff of a coat, a shoe
and a makeup accessory show who they are attempting to aim this magazine at. Which is likely to be
young girls who have a strong interest in fashion and like buying clothes and make-up.
Barcode, Price, Date and Issue Number: The barcode is located at the bottom of the page. This is
used as its a legal requirement and this follows codes and conventions. As well as this, the issue
number and date are also located alongside the barcode. These help people find a magazine as its
easier to search for an issue number than a magazine name; these therefore follow codes and
contentions. The price is at 3.99, this is quite price cost for this magazine and therefore could show
is aimed more at working class people, where their parents will buy it. This is as I feel it will cost too
much for the average lower class person.
Skyline: The skyline describes some of the topics covered in the magazine. All these topics are
targeted to interest the niche market of this magazine. By including these topics, as well as their
genre of music they create a magazine that will appeal to the largest target audience possible. By
including these specific topics they are appropriate to the target audience of this magazine likely to
be teen girls between 11-15 years old. Therefore at this age, all these topics are of interest to them,
and therefore, give them more of a reason to pay for the magazine.
Images: All the images on the page are of mostly famous male pop stars. These people are used as
the target audience like them therefore they use these famous people in order to brand the
magazine. This could be as all the people are likely to be of the same ethnicity of white people. As
well as this, they use a pop band that are very popular with the audience at the as there unique
selling point of this magazine.
Anchorage text: The text used in the puff this image is located in says who the image is about, and
why that particular photograph; where he has his tongue hanging out his mouth, has been used. The
word tale suggests that there is a story and this interests the target audience. The words then
Georges tongue help the audience understand why the image with his tongue out has therefore
been chosen. The background of this puff detonates pink. The connotations of the colour pink are
that is a girly colour that represents love and kisses. This relates to the topic of the article being
talked about in the puff about someones mouth.

Analysis of a music magazine contents page: Top of the pops

Page title

Main Images

Page Title: The page title is big and stands out on the top of the page, this let the audience know
what this page is about, as well as whats in the magazine. The use of the colour pink is used to
appeal to the target audience, likely to be young girls. The use of the serif font makes the page feel
more casual and enjoyable for the reader of the magazine.
Layout: Rule of thirds is clearly used to lay out this magazine in order to make parts stand out. This
use of the three rows and columns is clear and easy to recognise to the audience. They use simple
boxes to separate things, however, they angle these boxes slightly to make the page look more
intriguing, as the audience likely to be young girls are going to easily loose interest in the magazine.
Images: All the images used are off famous people that the target audience are likely to recognise,
and will therefore want to see why they are in the magazine. They are all young people, like the

target audience so therefore the target audience of young girls between 11-15 years old are likely to
feel they can relate and understand these people.
Direct address: Direct address is used in the title to make the magazine feel like its been written
directly for the reader. This is something that would make a young female feel special and would
therefore be more likely to wish to buy this magazine. This therefore makes the niche market of
young females in a middle class feel more inclined to buy the magazine.
Colour Scheme: The colours mainly used on this magazine are green, pink and light blue. These all
have happy good connotations. The green mostly connotes life and optimum, the blue shows
naturalism and purity, while the pink represents love and happiness. This are all colours the target
audience are likely going to like.

Analysis of a music magazine double page: Top of the pops

Page title

Main Image

Main image: The main image on this page is of the person that is being interviewed. She is wearing
white which represents her as happy. The mise-en-scene of the main image is very flower orientated.
This is used as the magazine is aimed at females who flowers are most likely to be interested by
them. Flowers are then used to add detail to the other page, by putting flowers in different colours
round the page. Flowers are often used to connote love and happiness, which relate to the pink
hearts used on the page. This helps present the genre of music the artist sings about, which could be
pop music from the vibrant colours, but the music could be based around love. This is something the
target audience might like reading about.
Colour Scheme: The main colour used on this page is pink. This is used both in order to represent the
artist, but also as one of the connotations of pink is that females like it and therefore are likely to like
the colour.
Page title: The page title used is based on the artists new song and therefore is used to make
awareness to the song. But the magazine also use this as a selling point of their magazine as people
may buy it to read about the artists new song.
Page numbers: Page numbers are used so the page can be easily found by the target audience. Page
are numbers are a code and convention of the magazine, and are an essential part of a magazine.