Analysis of music magazine contents page

Analysis of music magazine contents page.

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.

Top of the pops magazine..

I have already analysed the top of the pops magazines front cover so I'm now going to move on and analyse the contents page, obviously the price, circulation and anything else about this magazine has stayed the same, and from what I seen about the magazine when I analysed the cover is that this magazine has a target audience from about 11 - 15 year old, because when you look at this magazine straight away you can see that its not going to be based for anyone from the age of 30+.

Masthead - the mast head that has been used for the contents page is very girly, just by looking at it you can tell that this magazine is aimed at girls, they have also used a typeface that looks as though someone has written it themselves giving the magazine a bit more personal touch to make it look like some extra effort has been given. The masthead fills it purpose of being eye catching as you can see it pretty much straight away when you look at the page as the white writing stands out against the pink background. They have also used the words 'mag' which is short for magazine they have done this to connote to the target audience, because younger people are stereotypically known to shorten words.

Layout - The layout of the top of the pops magazine is split into 3 sections to make the magazine more easier for the potential customer just to flick through. They have put 4 boxes on the page to show what falls under what category, there is - we love shopping, wins and offers, all about you, Celebs and gossip, and we love boys. Each of these categories have the contents in them with the page numbers so that if the reader was in a rush and wanted to look at something under the category of fashion they could easily look under the we love fashion section and find what they are looking for. The magazine has also stuck to having one main image and using little images around it.

Colour - the colour that mostly appears on this page is pink its used for the page numbers and there's a lighter shade of pink used at the top of the boxes to make them look bolder and stand out more on the page. They have also used a white background and yellow highlighted to highlight the important bits. I like the way that they have used pink as it ties the magazine together and makes it all fit in with all the parts. This is suggests to me that its aimed at girls as pink is quite a girly colour.

Images - The images have stuck to the common convention of having a main image and little images scattered around the page. For this contents page the main image that has been used is a picture of the front cover. This captures the readers eye as they recognise it, the image has arrows pointing to each subheading with the page number to make it easy for readers to see where that page is and so they don't have to keep flicking through the magazine to find that page, and as the target audience is rated at such a young age it would be easier for them to look at and get information from it. 

Typography - the use of typography in this magazine is different to magazines like billboard or heat magazine, as this is much more childlike as I said earlier the mast head looks like it has been handwritten giving it a much more personal effect because it seems as though someone has taken the time out to write in every single magazine. They have also used the same font throughout the contents which makes it look more professional as having a different font would be to hard to look at and it would also make the magazine look really messy.

Conclusion - In conclusion I think that the top of the pops contents page serves it purpose and fits to its target audiences needs, by having things such as 'inside the mag' instead of having 'contents' this makes the magazine appeal more to the target audience of 11-15 as they would probably think the contents is 'boring' or 'uncool'. It doesn't really stick to the normal magazines common conventions because then it wouldn't fit in with its target audience and probably wouldn't sell as much as its selling now. 

I have previously analysed the front cover of we love pop magazine, I talked then about the circulation price, and publishing company etc. Obviously everything has stayed the same as every is the same. I came to the conclusion that this magazines target audience is 12 - 15 year olds because of the colours, layout and the type of content the magazine has. 

Masthead - The masthead serves its purpose of being bold as it stands out on the page. The letter 'o' is blocked out which gives it a more edgier look, and keeps the house style that its started. It also keeps to the normally common convention of taking up 1/8 of the page. The font style which has been used is informal which shows that its aimed at a younger audiences than someone who's 30+. We love pop have carried out there identity by having there logo in the top right hand corner of the page.

Layout - The layout of this page doesn't really stick to the common convention of typical contents pages as it has more images than normal ones with less writing. It has a border going round the outside and this makes our eyes get drawn to the content on the page even more. It has one main image, 5 medium images, ad 9 smaller images. To the left of the main image in the centre they have a 'letter' that the editor has written about that particular issue, they have worded it so its quite easy going like its 'friendly chat' this gives the reader a sense of comfort as thy feel like the editor has written them a letter just for them. They have also put the contents in a box on the left hand side of the page, they done this because this is the content that doesn't go with any of the images and they had no where else to put it. When I create my pop magazine contents page I will do something like this because its easy for 12-15 year olds to read. You can clearly state that by just looking at this contents page that its not aimed for a mature audience as for an older audience there would be less pictures and less 'friendly' talk.

Colour - The colour scheme would still continue from the front cover of the magazine, in this case its mainly blues, oranges, whites and blacks. They have used Orange and Blue for all the subheadings which are bright colours and very eye catching. For the general text they have used black as its simple and if they used another bright colour then the contents page would look to busy an disturbing. 

Images - The images have stuck to the common convention of a teen pop magazine using one large image and the rest smaller. The main image that has been used on the contents page of this magazine is of one direction which would have something to do with what in the magazine. They have used one direction on the contents as they are in the age range for the target audiences, One direction have a huge fan base and once they see that One direction have done an interview with we love pop then it is sure to sell out fast. The text next to the images says 'I'd pose for about a hundred quid!' they have used this quotation from the interview which shows there cheeky, love-able rogue side which will keep the target audience wanting to purchase this magazine. The page number linking the boys to the interview has been placed on the image making it easy for the reader to quickly flip through to that page. The other images that have been used are also in the interest of the target audience as it has an image of Taylor Lautner who starred in the movie hit 'Twilight'. He also has a huge fan base which many teenage girls will happily follow, they have put a quotation under his image saying 'I can't believe I just said that...Taylor Lautner reveals all' this will immediately pull his fans in and wanting to purchase the magazine to see what he has said. The Saturdays Una and Vanessa also appear on the magazine this attracts girls from the target audience because they're girl band are in the target audience, the selling line for the image is 'We look like condoms Una and Vanessa take on our dreaded carrier bag' this will attract the target audience as they would want to find out what its about.

Typography - The typography that has been used is a bit more grown up than the one that has been used on the top of the pops magazine as it doesn't have the horrid curly writing used and they have just stuck to the plain and simple text. They have used 'For your eyes only' in the left hand corner of the magazine making it appeal more to the audience it also makes it seem more personal. 

Conclusion - I think this magazine has done very well in hitting the target audience as they have everything that would appeal to them, it also look very professional, and easy to read as its not over crowded with colour, information and text, They have kept the layout simple and not tried to over complicate things.