Music Magazine - Cover Analysis

For my music magazine I have chosen the genre "Pop" so I decided to analyse the front cover of the very famous "Top of the pops". This is one of the most famous pop magazines in the UK and has been around for many years and the company is still growing strong. As soon as this magazine cover catches your eyes you know that the target audience is aimed at teenage girls you can tell this by the colours which they use such as the pinks and purples they uses these colours in most of their magazine making these colours the house style throughout the magazine. This makes the reader know without even having to pick it up as these colours will stand out on the shelf in a store. The mast head is in front of the large main image as it is more recognizable then if the image was in front, meaning the mast head will stand out more also making it easier to read. The font style which "Top of the pops" use is serif font because the edges are very curly making it look girly and add to the magazine on ways in which to attract the target audience, this makes the magazine look more effective than just using the hot pink colour which they have used.

The main image is the large image in the center of the page which is also the back ground in this case. They have used the newest hot celebrity which people around the UK loved at the time this magazine came out, this attracts the reader and target audience because they want to learn more about what they are doing and look at them like they are the role model. The celebrity which they have used is a young pretty teenage girl which is a idol to the young teenagers. In the image they have used a white background this is a good idea as it makes the text and image around it stand out more. The celebrity is in a dark blue dress which is a different colour from the text, mast head and back ground because the dress is bright and does not class with any of the colours making you focus at the image when you look at the front of the magazine. By using white and blue as the main image it makes the rest of the cover more clear as nothing blends in so you can see all the text making the cover clearer and easier to see what’s going to be inside the magazine.

The at the bottom of the cover has a purple back ground making it stand out from the image and the back ground colour. This would be the main selling point of the magazine as most girls will see this and buy the magazine just for the posters of celebrity’s which they are interested in. You can see the seven different posters which you will get in the magazine meaning you don’t even have to flick through the magazine to check you can just pick it up have a look at the cover and then decide whether you want the magazine or not. By advertising this on the front the magazine is giving off more information which they find in it other than just extra cover lines giving the magazine a wider range of target audience as people who just buy magazines for posters can now buy this one.

The main cover line which links in with the main image is on top of the image in a hot pink circle that matches the mast head. By using these colours it stands out on top of the blue which is on the main image, making the text stand out from the rest. I think that this is not one of the best main cover lines that I have seen before because it is not very big and only small therefore, it’s not very clear and you have to look at the magazine properly to clearly read what it says. This could be improved by using a bigger font or using a different shape to put the text into.

This main cover does not contain a lot of plugs it has four to both sides of the main image. They have put these on the white back grounds in hot pink writing with an image to show what they are on about and give the reader more ideas on which will be on that page of information in the magazine. This gives the reader a brief bit of information for a double page spread in the magazine; these plugs are usually the top stories that are in the magazine to persuade the reader more to buy the magazine.  Also they on the front of this magazine they have used a few puff which are words that are more likely to attract the reader to buy and read the magazine in this magazine they have used words such as “sizzling” “exclusive” .  The writer has choose to use words such as this because it makes the reader think that its new news and that they need to know about it, meaning they buy the magazine. By using puffs on the front of the magazine it’s a good way in which persuading and telling them they need this magazine to know all the hot new news. This using many persuading techniques which entices the reader to buy the magazine such as lists of three, onomatopoeia and rhetorical questions.