Pop
music magazine cover page analyses.
After
looking at a range of music genre magazines, that are available for consumers, I have
decided to choose pop as I feel I want to learn more about making a magazine
for the primary target audience of this genre and if it would be a
commercially viable venture due to its high profit margins.
My research shows so far that three of the best selling magazines for this
genre are:
We Love Pop
Top
of the Pops
Billboard
I
will now analyse each of these in terms of institution, genre, media
language, audience, layout, colour and representation.
We Love Pop
We
Love Pop is a monthly magazine for pop loving teenagers. We Love Pop was
published by Egmont when they saw a gap in the market aiming at a 13-15 year
old audience. After the first 6 months, the £2.99 magazine racked up a print
circulation of 47,620 until December 2011, just over 12,000 less than market
leaders. The website has had traffic of 55,000 unique
users and 298,862 page views since launch which is combined with over 14,000
Facebook fans and over 2,000 twitter followers. I will be pitching at a similar
audience demographic, so my challenge will be finding ways of using media
language more successfully/creatively to take business away from this magazine.
We Love Pop appeals to the mainstream audiences so people in the C1 down to E
social class are the main demographic and consequently production of text must pitch to this target audience.
In terms of gender, females are the main target audiences however there is a secondary target audience of gay men. Men typically do not like pop music however they sometimes style themselves on popular stars in order to be attractive to women . A classic example of this is Justine Bieber, males say they hate him but lots of males still copy his hairstyle, this means they could also be a third target audience of straight men who would consume the text for identity (Blumer and Katz, 1979). Additionally the Dyer theory 1993 suggests that how we are seen determines how we are treated. So males dress and style themselves like Justin Beiber so they get treated like him. I will keep these points in mind when constructed my product.
The
"We Love Pop" magazine layout is very similar to a soap genre magazine so far
as it is very busy (lots of font styles, text boxes, images etc) including lots
of trashy stories that represent the working class target audience who want
good value for money. Even though it looks chaotic, I do like elements of the
layout because I think it all works and draws you eye into the main story and
then the minor ones. However,
The colour pallet is based around the stereotypical tastes of young working class female readers because it looks colourful and bright. They have used the colour pink, which stereotypically is a favourite colour for females, this means the content will be trashy, about romance and girly things. I will include pink on my cover as it is a colour that clearly represents my target audience. In terms of colour pallet, the cover has only used 3 main colours pink, white and black however because of the background colour behind the masthead “We Love Pop” it has gone over the standard colour amount of 5 and has red, blue, pink, white, yellow, black, purple, light blue, and dark blue which is a total of 9. This background behind the masthead looks very cheap and unprofessional and unappealing to me, however as I am male and the primary target audience is female it is not meant to appeal to me. I think having Olly Murs in red is a good idea as it gives the idea of ‘red hot’ news. Although the colours like blue behind the heading "We Love Pop" gives the impression of cold and dull and really is a perceived weakness of this magazine.
In terms of imagery, the producers of the text have used a range of media shots and close ups of famous pop stars the target audience will like and recognise. The main image is a medium close up shot of Olly Murs, this centre image will appeal to young girls because he is classically attractive to this group. The accompanying text adds to this idea of sex selling because it reads; “Merry X-Murs Olly’s secret romance revealed,” making them think of romance and interesting love life secrets of someone they find attractive. The magazine has used Olly Murs as the star vehicle to promote the magazine as he has in just three years created three albums which have produced four number one singles (including a platinum Dance with Me Tonight) and because of this he is highly liked by the female audience. In all the images the lighting is satisfactory as it is clear and crisp unlike my preliminary magazine where some of the image was to dark and would put of some of my target audience. However if I was to be picky the main image of Olly Murs is a little too bright. The uses of mise-en-scene in the images is very good as are all of the clothing in the images and is what the age range of the target audiences normally wear. The mise-en-scene is good because the clothing worn by the people in the images is smart and parent friendly,this is important as parents are the main buyers of the magazine, and parents may not buy rock magazines as parents maybe displeased with noise piercings, red hair and as such parents may not buy rock magazines but will buy the "We Love Pop" magazine due to the positive clothing and accessories.
The minor images on the magazine show the magazine will also have stories about Ziall the other 1D bromance, Get some catwalk cool this Christmas and Festive Fitness, this is a good selling point because not everyone in the target group will like Olly Murs and using other images shows their favourite star will also be written about.
The uses of typography along with images are the magazines strongest part as the text is bold and very teen friendly, one key part I like is the “CUTENESS OVERLORD INSIDE” text which written in a crayon style text which relates to the younger ages of there target audiences. I am glad they have not used the crayon style text all though there work as this would of looked very unprofessional and would of put of the older ages of there target audiences. The lexis works in a similar way to the typography styles, words like “cuteness" are girly and will appeal to younger readers, while words like “Fit” is slightly more grown up appealing to slightly older girls. Both words connote the magazine is using ‘hot’ boys to sell the magazine following Gamman and Marshments theory 1988 that: "Men can be seen as objects of sexual desire in the same way that a women is," this is a good selling point because young girls are interested in boys.
The masthead is very good because they have used a heart instead of love, which links well with the target audiences of females. I also think the masthead is good because it is in a text box which links with the target audiences as female teens are stereotypically obsessed with texting and this design simulates a mobile screen.
Unlike
some magazines, the producers have not used a strapline, instead
they let the magazine features sell it.
TOP of the POPS
Top
of the Pops is a magazine made by the BBC a English company. Top of the Pops was launched February 1995. It is priced at £2.99 and a new magazine is out every week. Last year the circulation figures where 84,782 which is a 10% dip from the year before. As well as the same price as We Love Pop, Top of the Pops has the same target audiences of 13 to 15 year olds. As like We Love Pop the social class that Top of the Pop appeals to is C1 to E.
The parents are the prime buyer of the magazine as the generic age group is averagely low therefore the parents buy the magazine for them.Dyer's theory is portrayed very well on the Top of the Pops magazine this is because his theory states: "How we are seen determines how we are treated." For example the main image is of two males dressed in a sensible and smart way which may allow the parents buying the magazine to think that the magazine is sensible for there children. Men normally do not like pop music however like "We Love Pop" gay men are appealed to pop magazines like Top of the Pops.
The layout of "Top of the Pops" is a lot more structured than the "We Love Pop" magazine and I think it is a more user friendly magazine. I also believe that the layout does not look like a soap magazine in comparison to the "We Love Soap" magazine, this is a good thing as it helps give the reader the idea that its genre has its own identity. Unlike "We Love Pop" there is not much I have found wrong with this magazine apart from the placing of the barcode which is normally on the bottom of the magazine,I would of placed it however in the centre of the left hand side of the page which I think looks out of place.
The colour pallet as like the "We Love Pop" magazine follows the stereotypical view that females like the colour pink and because of this the Top of the Pops magazine has used it as their main colour scheme. So my magazine appeals to the target audiences of 13 to 15 year old females and I will need to think about having pink as one of my main colours.Although the Top of the Pop magazine has also used yellow as a other key colour which I think is a awful idea as it makes the sub heading Battle of the Fittest look like a soap magazine. When it comes to making my own pop magazine I will have to check that I don't make my magazine into something that looks like a soap magazine as I want the public to now that its a soap magazine not a soap.
As like "We Love Pop" "Top of the Pop's" images are mainly close up and medium close up which means when making my own magazine I should use medium close up and close up image. As like the other magazine "Top of the Pops" has put two males as the centre image to sell the magazine because of sexual desire, this follows the Gamman and Marshment 1988-Female gazer theory that says: "Men can be seen as objects of sexual desire in the way that a female is." The uses of mise-en-scene is also very good because all of the people in the images are wearing clothing that is smart and appealing to the adults however it is still relate-able for the female target audiences. They have also not over done it on make up for example, the female in the red coat has red lipstick on, which some times can be very dark and can be seen as a very sexual colour. As the young audiences reading the magazine see these people as roll models this can set the wrong example and because of this could lose them readers, however they have used a very light red which doesn't come over as sexual.
Although the main image is the main story they have smaller stories illustrated with smaller images.The use of typography and lexis in the Top of the Pop magazine is very strong and bold as like the "We Love Pop" magazine which also had big bold text although the Top of the Pops magazine has a lot more big text: "like Blushing boys confess everything." I like the text more on the "Top of the Pops" as magazine in comparison to the "We Love Pop" magazine as its more or less the same which makes it easier to read and more structure than the other magazine, however, having all this text does make it look like they are just trying to fill up space. I also think that "Top of the Pops" have really linked to there target audiences by using words like: "Fittest" which is a bit of a slang word from fit and fitness. This type of wording also helps them sell the magazine as they are selling the males in figurative way as females of the 13 to 15 age are assumed to be interested in males.
Billboard
Parents who buy this magazine however are a higher class and because of this its more likely the parents will read the magazine instead of the children. Although the majority of children who buy Billboard will be of that age where they buy there own magazines and don't get their parents to buy it.
The layout of the magazine is a lot more crisp and professional than the other two magazine covers. Unlike the other magazines there is a lot more spaces than on the other two cramped magazines. The layout of magazine is a lot more easy for the read to comprehend than the over two magazines this is because its very simple and with analysis may be to simple. One key part of the layout I like is how the text goes around the image of Taylor Swift apart from the Masthead. One object that is normally on the magazine cover is the barcode which is missing which is unlike most magazines as its normally on the front cover.
The colour pallet is a lot simpler than the other two magazines as it only uses the colours black, white. blue and yellow which I think is good as it is not to much for the reader unlike the "We Love Pop" magazine which is overpowering with colour. Also what I like about the Billboard magazine is that the colours used don't make it look like a soap magazine and gives the pop genre its own design which is appealing and doesn't look like any other genre.
Both of the other two magazines "We Love Pop" and "Top of the Pops" mainly used medium close up and close up shots however the Billboard magazine has only used one image which is a medium shot of Taylor Swift. The image used by the magazine is very good because it appeals to both genders males in a sexually way which follows Wolfs theory which suggests: "that images of females used by media present females as sex objects." Taylor Swift is a very well know pop singer for songs like Love Story which or so appeals to men in a sexual way because the song is about a love story of a female and male. The song can be taken in a sexual way because of the way Taylor Swift receptively says the words: "take me" which can be interpreted in a sexual way. However females are appealed to Taylor Swift because they see her as a role model. females sometimes want to be like Taylor Swift because she dated Harry Styles a popular pop singer from the group One Direction this idea follows John Berger's theory that said: "man act, women appear." Which is pretty much what Taylor Swift does as she appears as a roll model for people.
The use of typography on the Billboard magazine is very good however one many problem is that Taylor Swifts head is covering part of the Mast head so people will not be able to tell what brand the magazine is unless you now the brands logo/ masthead from past experiences. Apart from that the text is very bold and clear especially the main story : "Taylor Swift Grows up in public." If I was to pick an over problem it would be that the rest of the text in some of the stories like Cee Lo not just one two hit-wonder, Tallest Dwarf Dept. New sales low for NO.1 album debut and get smart windows phone 7 joins the app wars all of this stories just look to little for this A4 magazine page.
Conclusion.
In conclusion by doing this analyses I have been able to learn key parts that I need to put into my pop magazine which I will go into more detail below. I hope by following this key parts needed to make my magazine better or as good to the other three magazines I will be able to take some of Top of the Pops, Billboard and We Love Pop target audience.With reflection when making my pop magazine I will need to use the colour pink as one of the main colours as two of the magazines out of three used it as one of the main colours I may not be keen on using the colour pink however if it means my magazine will appeal to the female audiences I will do it.I will also need to use yellow which has been used on all of the magazines however on the We Love Pop magazine it is not the main colour unlike the Top of the Pops magazine which uses it as its second main colour.Billboard used yellow for all its story titles which I think is a good idea as its very eye appealing. Although when I use the colours yellow and pink on my cover page I must be careful that I don't make it look like a Soap magazine. As much as I like to have one main image on the page like Billboard, the other two magazines We Love Pop and Top of the Pops used more than one image so I will have to do so myself however this does not mean I cannot have one main image. For the main image I will need to have a medium close up of one or more people as all of the magazines have used a medium close up shot.The image I will need is of a male as We Love Pop and Top of the Pops will appeal to the female audiences as like Olly Murs did on the We Love Pop magazine. I will also need to make the people in the picture look smart and respectable as like in all the magazines especially as the first two magazines We Love Pop and Top of the Pops are bought by the parents however as teenagers and other age groups buy the magazines I will need to make the clothing relate to them this follows Dyers theory 1993 that argues: "how we are seen determines how we are treated."So if I have my people with hoodies with the hoods up which is stereotyped as trouble and danger it would put of people buy the magazine or people could think the magazine is a different genre like rap, although if I have the hoods down it gives the calm laid back look I'm looking for. The uses of language on the magazine cover will need to be clear and bold I will also need to put the masthead above everything else unlike the Billboard magazine as my magazine will not be a now brand like Billboard so this means people need to be able to read it.
Great work Ryan, you are demonstrating proficient/excellent analytical skills of existing covers. There are however, a few grammar/wrong word errors. Check through this carefully again and let me know when you have made the corrections.
ReplyDelete