Top of Pops front cover analysis

LIIAR analysis of Pop music magazine

This magazine front cover is featured by Justin Beiber and this will apeal a lot of young girls becaus he has a lot of teen girl fans. The brightness of the cover is quite bright in colours, this connote that the magazine is fun and positive. The use of pink reflects on the audience as because the target audience are young girls and pink represents girls. However if there were different colours like green and brown, the cover wouldn't be so appealing as the colours are dull and boring and will give a different connotation about the magazine. This will also appeal to the audience because of the featured pictures of other young male celebrities and young popular female celebrities as because they've got a new show/songs or even gossip and advice.
The institutional logo is at the top left corner sponsored by BBC, this is conventional as so the audience know where it belongs and what type of magazine it is. the logo is always the same font so that the audience can recognise BBC. The target audience are young teenage girls from 14-19 but the statistics show that the younger audience from the age of 11 like to read Pop, this could be because as they're hitting puberty they feel quite insecure and different so they'd like advice from young female celebrities on how to style and to live a healthy lifestyle so that they can appeal to people. They could use young male celebrities to feature on the cover because young girls go through that phase of fancying good looking boys. The representation of the front cover is very clear as anyone would know who the magazine is targeted at because of the use of pink and pictures of girl clothes. without these pictures it would've been difficult to recognise the target audience.

Conventionally the front cover has a masthead, barcode, date, price, pull quote, sell lines, main image and feature images. Top of Pops also uses page numbers on the cover next to the topic to persuade the audience to buy the magazine and to to read more. The masthead is very bubbly and bold in pink with a white border to make it catchy, the masthead connotes fun and innocent. The main image of Justin... he's stood making direct address connoting confidence his smile is wide this will make the audience happy. The sell lines are in caps to make the magazine look busy and appealing also the font colours are pink and white this is keeping the theme consistant if it was multi coloured font it would give a different connotation and reflect on a much younger audience. I think if there wasn't a barcode the cover would look like a poster. The price and date is very important because the audience will know if it the magazine's old or new. Without these conventions the front cover wouldn't look so exciting and appealing.

Drafts and planning for my chosen genre Music magazine

This is sktecth of my models clothing, this is what i'd like to see and what other would like to see . They are skinny and healthy becuause it;s attractive in themedia and also a good inspiriation to younger kids. All of them are wearing white and elegant or sophisticated dress/skirts. Also hair down and smiling looking confident.

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This is my draft for the magazine front cover. I have included all the conventions such as masthead, USP, sky line, banner, main image, house of style, sell lines, bar code and date, price, page numbers, website, institutional logo and feature pictures. I decided to do pink because stereotypically it's a girls colour and it's also conventional. White also a conventional colour and blue because it's a nice contrast to the pink. In my main image I have planned for the model to wear a crop top and a skirt to connote confidence and summer/nice weather. She'll making dierctr address and smiling to connote happy.

For my contents I have followed the conventional layout of the magazine which has three columns and is categorised to make it easier for the readers to get around the magazine. The colours will be the same as the font cover.  

Sample frame shots

This is a long shot and bad lighting, there's too much shadow. However this isn't a conventional frame shot for a front cover.

This is a medium close up. What a conventioanl photo looks like for a front cover, this frame allows the audience to see the face clearly and clothes. This also has good lighting.

This is a medium close up however teh light is in the wrong place creating shadows on her face which isn't professional.

This is also a medium close up but there's props in the frame which I should have been more aware of also the lighting doesn't look right.

For a group photo it's neccessary to position the people right within the frame, to get a equeal and clear view of everyone of them. This shot also allows us to apply a masthead above their heads because there's space. The lighting is also good no one has harsh shadows on their faces.

This shot is also a good photo however it would have been better if they were more closer or two of them at the back.

This shot could have been more closer but everything else is okay.

Draft and analysis

The mock up of the music magazine I had created has convetnional features of a pop magazine. I included main image, masthead, website address, sell lines, bar code, price and a plug/USP. Doing this gave me some practice and ideas of how a magazine front cover should look like. 3 main colours were, orange and white, these colours are stereotypically girl colours because a pop magzine is generally targeted at young teen girls so it has to appeal to their interest. I chose purple for the masthead and the spash because stereotypically it's a girls colour and this colour connotes fun.The colour orange is to connote autunm because of what Cher Lloyd was wearing her costume connotes comfort as she isn't wearing anything revealing or short she's instead wearing a hoodie. What I have learnt about the magzine is that page numbers are shown on the front cover for speacial features and institutional logo is always on the left side top corner. The price of the magazine is kept the same because it's conevtnional. This main image is digital image form google. Cher Lloyd is a pop singer admired by a lot of young girls as she is fashionable and young.

This magazine cover is now improved and looks more appealing as I have stroked the masthead to stand out more to connote excitment and also stroked the name, pull quote and the USP becasue it looks plain and cheap with out strokes it also doesn't stand out due to the darkness of the costume. Black strokes match her eyeliner and connotes strong and evil however the connotaion of black stroke doesn't match the audience as the audience should be gullable, fun and sweet. I could add an institutional logo more feature pictures and more sell lines so it looks full and exciting.                                                         

Mock up of music magazine front cover

Conventional drafts of pop magazine (hand drawn)

Contents draft for college magazine