Analysing music magazines from pop genre

Analysing music magazines from pop genre

After looking at all the possible genres I could work in, I have decided I want to make a pop magazine because this is a genre I find interesting and want to find out more about.

I’m going to analyse 3 music magazine covers from the leading magazines, Billboard, Top of The Pops and We Love Pop, which all follow the same genre I want to work in to see what common conventions they all have in common so I can include these in my work to make it professional and easily recognisable as a pop magazine because as Bentley said; ‘The making of the new and the rearranging of the old’ (Bentley, 1997).  

The target audience for pop magazines is the same as pop music, which means all of the magazines I look at, and the magazine I make, needs to appeal and represent young women 12-24 years who are into mainstream pop music.

Billboard magazine is published by Prometheus Global Media, it has circulation of 16,327. Its an international music news magazine, And one of the eldest and most popular music magazine in the world. Its main audience is for people who listen to popular (pop) music that is in the charts. The target audience for billboard magazine varies from teens from the ages of 16 to young adults from the age of 28. As it gives readers the latest music information and music updates from the charts. The second audience would be gay males because if you went into any gay nightclub in the 80s you would be bombarded with pop music. Billboard will be one of my main competitors so I will take stuff from this magazine and put it into my own and make it better.

Masthead – the masthead for billboard magazine fits its purpose and stands out on the page. Even though lady gaga is in front of the masthead you can quite clearly tell that it says billboard and also fits with the conventions of other magazines of having a mast head that’s fits 1/8 of the front cover. The mast head fits it target audience of 16 and above as it looks mature and professional however it has yellow in the circle of the D and blue in the circle of the A, this shows that its aimed at a younger audience as well, because without the colour it would look really mature and almost as if its too good for teenagers to pick it up and read. If you associate pop music with a colour you wouldn’t think of dull and boring colours like black and brown, you would think of bright colours such as yellow, blue etc.

Layout – the layout fits the common convention of having a main image in the center. This cover has lady gaga standing there wearing black clothes however you are drawn to her as she has purple hair which stands out on the magazine as everything else is grey or black. They have used a high quality image and by doing this it instantly makes the magazine look more professional. There is writing all around the main image showing preview of stories that are inside the magazine. The image that they have use would fit to the target audience as she is probably one of the main figures in there life, and would want to know what kind of wacky thing she does next.

Colour – The colour pallet would fit to mostly girls as its mainly purple that jumps out to you and purple is quite a girly colour, it also fits to the target audience of 16 – 28 as it fits that age range because if they had to much colours on It then it would appeal more to younger age ranges, and if they didn’t have that colour on it then it would appeal to a much more mature audience as the cover would appeal more to elder readers.

Images – The Image that has been used is of lady gaga, who has a massive fan base who will all buy the magazine to get some more gossip on there favourite celebrity. When I create my magazine I would put someone famous on it that has a huge fan base so I can sell more magazines, I’d put someone like one direction, Justin Bieber or Beyoncé as they have massive fanbases who would definitely buy the magazine. In the picture Lady gaga is revelling a bit of skin, which would instantly grab males’ attention, this follows Laura mulveys ‘as erotic objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator within the auditorium. (1975).’ There is no other images on the page however if they did have more images then I think it would over crowd the page and they would lose the professional look that it gives off as it would look over crowded and messy. As they have used lady gaga on the cover it appeals to the target audience of 16 – 28 as she is based in and around that age range so they would most likely pick up the magazine.

Typography – The Typography has used teasers and quotes so this connotes what the story is going to be about. The text used doesn’t connote to a specific gender, however the colour that is used (lilac) indicates that its aimed at mostly females than males. The texts keeps to the same kind of format, as all the text that is in gray has kept to a certain font, all the black writing is in the same kind of font, and all the white writing is in the same kind of font. Making it all fit together perfectly to keep that professional look.

Conclusion – In conclusion, I think the magazine looks professional and sticks to the target audience, it also includes information that both genders would find interesting and would like to read. The only thing that I would improve with this magazine cover is the amount of writing on the front page as there is a lot, and if you quickly glance at it, it looks to in your face.

We love pop magazine is published by egmont publishing group who wants to kick start the teen media magazine with we love pop a pop magazine aimed at teenage girl five years after smash hits released there last magazine. We love pop magazine was launched in September 2011, each magazine has 68 pages and its target audience is aimed at 12-15 year old girls who are in to pop music. egmont (we love pop's publishers) seen a gap in the market after smash hits released there last magazine 5 years ago so egmont took the risk and it has been very successful. We love pop has a circulation figure of around 115,000
mast head - the mast head for we love pop magazine stands out the most on the page as it has very bold colours (black, yellow and white) the mast head fits with the common conventions of other magazines by having it the same style of every magazine this makes the magazine recognisable to the reader when they see it on the shelves, the mast head fits to the target audience to 12-15 year olds as it is quite immature looking - as you wouldn't see it on a magazine aimed at 20+ year olds they have used bright colours (in this case yellow) as if you think about pop music you think of bright colours like pink and yellow and in this magazine they have quite bold and bright colours.

Layout - The layout fits the common conventions of most magazines by having a main image and using other little images to preview other stories inside the magazine, all the images that they have used are high quality and make the magazine look professional they have all clearly thought about the placement of everything on the front cover so it doesn't look to in your face and harsh to look at, they have shown previews of what's inside the magazine either by text or by showing images. Also the main image is of cher Lloyd and she stands out on the page as the background is white and she is wearing a blue top which makes her stand out against the white background she would also fit to the target audience as her music is aimed at young teens and her music comes under the pop genre.

Colour - the colour pallet of this magazine fits to the target audience as they are quite bright and happy that jumps out at you and if I was to create a pop magazine then I would definitely use bright colours as it works perfectly with it. Also if they used colours like brown, grey and boring colours then it wouldn't suit the target audience because your mainly attracted to bright things and colours like brown wouldn't catch your attention 

Images - the image the has been used is of cher Lloyd who has took America and the UK by storm, she has a massive fan base so by using her on the cover connotes to all her fans going out and buying the magazine as they want to know all about her at the bottom of the magazine they also have sneak previews of 'the wanted poster special' by using this they would also attract there fans as they would want to have the posters, I could also use this in my magazine to attract a wider age range. They also have a image with Matt cardle showing something that he said in a quote next to it saying ''words were said between me and zayn'' which would attract 1D fans aswell and make them buy the magazine as they would want to know what it was about. They have a lot of information on the page however it hasn't over crowded the magazine and still looks professional.

Typography - The typography that has been used doesn't connote to a specific gender as it just in a simple text however the colour of it would suggest that its mainly aimed at girls and the images used would connote that this magazine is aimed at girls. The same typography is used throughout this cover and if it has changed its only changed slightly.

Conclusion - In conclusion I think the magazine looks professional and fits its target audience however it only mainly sticks to one gender, maybe something that they could improve on is making it more for both gender and by doing that it would expand there audiences and it would benefit everyone. There is not a large amount of writing on the page which makes it look professional and makes it look like an easy going magazine, however by just glancing at this magazine cover you can instantly tell that this magazine is aimed at young teens by how the whole magazine looks, because you don't see cher Lloyd on any young adults magazines or ones that are aimed at 16 year olds and above as she just wouldn't fit in with that age range. 

Top of the pops magazine is a monthly publication published by Immediate Media Company, it has chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, and posters of various celebrities. Top of the Pops has a circulation of 105,025. It started of trying to link inbetween smash hits magazine and NME but gradually changed having less music content and more gossip fitting in with young girls. I would say the target audience for this magazine would be 11-15 as it contains quite preteen contents such as on the cover 'ashton wants to date you' and I don't think that anyone above the age of 15 would want to read this magazine because of that. The price for this magazine is £2.99 which is cheaper than billboard (which is £5.50) so younger people will be able to afford it if they ask there parents nicely. It would also attract a young audience as the celebrities they have used on it would appeal more to them than someone who is 16+

Masthead - The mast head for billboard magazine successfully fills its purpose of standing out on the page and letting everyone know that its top of the pops magazine. It also fits the common convention of having it fit 2/4 of the page, the mast head fits the target audience of females ages 11-15 as the writing is quite curly and I don't think that if males had a choice between this font and a font such as Arial they would choose this one as its quite girly and curly, the colour of the mast head shows that its aimed at 11 - 15 year olds as its very bright and vibrant, and doesn't look like it would be aimed at someone who's 50+. Even though there's a bit of the main image laying over the mast head you can still tell that it says 'top of the pops' 

Layout - the layout fits to the typical layout of magazine cover. The cover features the popular boy band one direction who have an army of fans based in this age range who would willingly buy this magazine to catch up on the latest gossip of there favourite band member. They have decided to use boxes and circles to get the information across instead of just writing it on the cover, and they also decided to put a banner across the top with a story on it. By having boxes and circles of information on the cover it keeps the information in sections so its easier to look at all the celebrities that they have used on the cover would fit to the target audience of 11 - 15 year olds as they all follow the pop genre of music. If they had a picture of snoop dog on the cover then it wouldn't look right and it wouldn't make sense as this is a pop magazine and he's a rapper. This magazine also looks very busy as there isn't a blank space on the cover at all and which makes it look even more that its aimed at 11 - 15.
Colour - the colour pallet would defiantly suite more to girls then to boys as they use light blues and yellows. It defiantly stands out at you, because if it was next to kerrang magazine on the shelf then this magazine would be the one that catches your eye so your more likely to pick it up. If I was going to make a magazine based for 11 - 15 year olds I would without a doubt use bright colours like; blue, yellow, pink, white, orange etc. 

Images - the images that have been used is one main one in the centre of the magazine a smaller images around the outskirts, this sticks to the common conventions of a magazine, all the images that have been used are high quality and look professional, they have used One direction as the main image, this is because one direction have a huge fan base who will go out and buy the magazine to find out what happening in there life and to see if there's any gossip about them.  They have also used celebrities such as rihanna, Frankie Sandford (from the Saturdays) and JLS star Ashton, all these celebrities have massive fan bases which by having them on the magazine there fans would all go crazy and buy it. All these images are fairly spread out and not crowded together which would have made it look to in your face and too overpowering. 

Typography - the typography that has been used for the masthead is very girly as I have discussed earlier. But however most of the subheadings for the magazine cover look quite girly as they are curly. It also tells you the main stories that are going to be inside the magazine, which they hope will sell the magazine more as they want it to relate to 11 - 15 year olds. Because these aren't the type of stories that would attract anyone above the age of 20+. There's different font being used throughout this magazine cover and my personal opinion is that it looks to messy and hard to look at as thy haven't kept it plain and simple.

Conclusion - in conclusion I think this magazine looks professional and would suit the target audience of 11 - 15 year olds as it very bright and child like. Something it could improve on is making it expand the gender and making it a bit more boy like this would not only increase sales but increase its reputation. There is a large amount of information on the page and it looks to messy to look at. However it suites the target audience of 11 - 15 year olds as they would probably like it.