Magazine Case Study 1: Top Of The Pops

This is the cover from a music magazine; TOP OF THE POPS.

MAIN COLOUR SCHEME: The main colours used are pink and purple, the combination of the use of bright pink and purple is fit to the target audience of the magazine (girls) because the colours represent a youthful, vibrant, sense of confidence and creativity in the magazine. The white background is successfully used to create focus on the main model image and the masthead. A bit of black is used to emphasise on certain titles and words used on the cover, for example the name of the main model "Cher" is in bold to show the name of the artist.


MASTHEAD: This is large and bold in the centre, in a youthful font and bright pink. The use of the colour pink is effective for the masthead because it draws attention to the audience immediately. From the masthead the reader is able to identify what type of genre the magazine is. Top Of The Pops masthead is usually in bright pink colour therefore it is nationally recongnised.

 TEASERS: They also draw attention to the reader to find out more about the article inside the magazine. With the teaser rhetorical question are used to engage the reader and encourage them to read and purchase the magazine to explore what is about.

MAIN MODEL IMAGE: The artist is located in the centre and takes up most of the space of the front cover. The reader automatically knows what the main article would be based on and is directly attracted to purchase the magazine. The artist: Cher Lloyd, is wearing a pin and white dress, which coordinates with the main colour scheme of the magazine. Her choice of clothing for the shoot also portrays the target audience for this magazine. DIRECT MODE OF ADDRESS: Connotes the artist as being youtful and friendlu which additional links back to the target audience. Cher has one arm down by her side and one arm up by her face, this is a very common model look and from her facial expressions it could suggest invitation to the young girls to read the magazine.

PULL QUOTES AND WORDS: Makes the reader interested in purchasing and reading the magazine. For example "THE SHOCKING STORY YOU MUST READ." And "WHY I'LL NEVER GET USED TO FAME." The use of this makes the reader ponder on what it could be about. Additionally the magazine uses the word exclusive to describe the interview done with Cher Lloyd making the magazine seem like tthe only one offering the story.

The magazine applied to the legal requirement of showing the barcode, price and issue number in the bottom left of the front cover.

This is the contents page for TOP OF THE POPS.

In this contents page the included a print screen of the front cover of the magazine to recall the audience what the front page contains, the colour theme in the contents page is the exact the same colour theme on the front cover. This maintains a common house theme throughout the magazine and also portrays the target audience of this magazine.

The use of yellow is effective because it highlights certain interviews with celebrities that the magazine thinks will appeal to the target audience, so the target audience would automatically flick to the highlighted pages to find out more.

The magazine uses 4 images on the contents to keep simplicity so that it is easier to read and understand what has been placed onto the contents page but show what some articles wills be base on and young fans are able to see their favourite artist for example one direction.

The title used is completely different to other magazines beacause this magazine calls the contents page; "inside the mag" and the font used is very girlish. The adds youthfulness into the magazine which again represents the target audience this is aimed at.

The contents page is clearly split into 6 different sections each with individual subheadings, this improves the presentation of the magazine and enables clearer understanding to what is on the page. Each page is numbered and bolded so that the page number is clear and the target audience are able to locate it. Some of the subheadings like "We <3 Boys" and "We <3 Shopping" suggests the age range of this magazine which I believe it to be 8-14 year old girls.

This is the double page spread of Top Of The Pops.

This dps is about Cher Lloyd, she is also the main image on this page so this tells the audience this article is about her.

The common house theme is continued into this page, with the artist herself wearing pink and white. The main image uses up most of the space of this page. This is to illustrate to the people who arent familiar with Cher Lloyd who she is. Additionally the use of the quote "MAKE IT BIG!" Anchors to the image because the image is so big it takes up two thirds of this page.

The story on this dps is clearly a short interview because of the amount of space used on the write up. At the bottom of this dps it shows what Cher has been on television wise and what she has accomplished, this allows fans as well as the rest of the target audience to see if Cher has the "fame factor".

The top right corner fon of " celeb secrets" is in the girly font to maintain a common theme. The fotn on this page is kept simple, this is so the writing is easy to read. The colours used are bright and eye catching, these colours are also quite girly which indicates the target audience.

This article is written in a question aswer format, to suit the target audiecne that this magazine is aiming at. The pull quote "MAKE IT BIG" is in a larger font for the reader to see before the commence to read the aritcle. The pull quote is successfully used because the reader reads the qoute first then has the eager to read the rest of the article.