Magazine Cover Analysis

This music magazine “top of the pops” is usually targeted at young teenage girls this is portrayed by its colour scheme pink and purple, which are quite girlie colours and come across as innocent. The masthead of the magazine that says “top of the pops” is in the same font that it always is, making it easily recognisable for its readers and the public. The house style colours of pink, purple and white continue throughout the magazine.

The magazine front cover includes a main image, a medium close up of popular teenage heart throb Justin Bieber, using direct mode of address and an eyelevel shot. This makes readers feel personally close with the subject and as this being Justin Bieber and the readers being teenage girls I am sure that this image made a big impact on attracting the magazine to them. The main image is slightly covering the masthead but that doesn’t matter as most people will still be able to recognise the brand. The front cover has five further secondary images which relate to features within the magazine and will attract the readers as they will recognise the celebrities. I think that this magazine has included so many images as many teenage girls may want to just look at the images rather than read a lot of text.

There is a pull quote on the front from Justin Bieber, “Wanna see my bedroom?” this uses colloquial language. Some may say this is quite an innuendo and inappropriate for the viewing of young girls as it does sound quite seductive, even though at a just a quick glance of the magazine this is the complete opposite of what you would expect as you do see it as quite a childlike magazine with the bright colours and busy front cover. What is different about this magazine cover is that they have stated some of the featured articles on the front cover and they have quoted the page number also, which is unusual as most magazines just save that for the contents page, I think that the reason why they have done this is to do with their readers, so the teens can just skip to the page that they wish to read immediately.

There is also a pug on this magazine front cover, an offer to meet JLS, this text has been done in bright yellow to make it really stand out on the page and contrast from the purple and pink. The cover also contains all the conventions that you would imagine it too such as the price, barcode and issue number in the bottom right hand corner. The text uses a lot of exclamation marks that aren’t really needed but they combine with the teenage feel of the magazine and also on the front cover of the magazine are a lot of rhetorical questions, this engages you in the magazine and makes you want to read further, encouraging you to purchase.