Top of the Pops Front Cover Analysis

Analysis of Top of the Pops magazine

TITLE OF MAGAZINE
“Top of the Pops”
The title of the magazine immediately alerts the reader that the magazine is for a pop music genre because of the word “pop.”
The use of the word “top” suggests the magazine is one of the best.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience is clearly a younger age group perhaps young girls between 10-13 years old. This is suggested by the bright colours. Heart and swirly patterns; which you would find doodled on a young girl’s diary and the artists featured on the magazine.
The top boy bands are featured on the front cover are the current heart throbs of girls aged between 10-13 hence their images are littered across the front page. The price of the magazine also reflects that the magazine is for a younger audience. It is only £2.25 which is cheap enough for a young audience to buy with their own pocket money. This price is cheaper in comparison to magazines aimed at older audiences such as Kerrang.
Pop music covers quite a vast genre of music as it many music categories such as R&B fall under the pop category hence artists like Rihanna are shown on the front cover. This suggests a variety of artists are featured in the magazine ranging from pop bands like Mcfly to hip hop artists like Chris Brown. This suggests the magazine has a broad target audience of young girls who listen to different genres of music.



COVER OF THE MAGAZINE
Magazine cover shows a variety of music artists.
The main image shows the Jonas Brothers. This is the main image suggesting that the Jonas Brothers are currently the most popular band. The magazine features a lot of icons and shapes that you might see on a typical young girls diary or notebook such as love hearts and slang terms like “omg.”
The bright pink and blue feminine colours further emphasise that the magazine is targeted at a female audience.

The coverlines are accompanied with pictures to make them stand out and it also means there is less text as the images say a lot. This means the magazine cover is mainly covered in images which are ideal for a younger target audience as they do not like to read too much text.
There is a BBC logo at the top left corner of the magazine which associates the magazine with the BBC television channel and reveals the publisher of the magazine. This may persuade some parents that the magazine is ideal for their kids as it is from a trusted publisher which is BBC magazines.

STYLE OF PRESENTATION OF THE MAGAZINE
The magazine cover is not glossy and looks quite cheap. It is made from standard magazine paper however this is probably because the m I believe that if the magazine was on a shop shelf, the bright colours are the only factor making it stand out.
The cover is quite similar to the other covers of music magazines like Kerrang as it features popular pin up artists as the main image. However Top of the Pops features mainly gossip on celebrities whereas other music magazines like NME and RWD don’t so much base their articles on star gossip. For example RWD has articles focused mainly on social issues and biographical information on celebrities and not gossip or cringe moments

PUBLISHER OF MAGAZINE
The magazine is published by BBC magazines. BBC magazines publish other magazines for preschool, adults, teens and children. Examples are Cbeebies weekly for preschool children, Top Gear for adults and Girl Talk for children.

Cost
The magazine costs £2.25 in Sainsburys’ but the price does change depending where it’s sold as the BBC website states the magazine should cost £2.20. The magazine is published monthly and even has its own website www.totpmag.com.

MODE OF ADDRESS
The magazine addresses the reader informally. The language is simple and ideal for young girls between the ages of 9 and 14.
The magazine features various gossip sections with star gossip and celebrity embarrassing moments. The magazine is heavily based on celebrity’s lives and everyday has a familiar celebrity face. The only other article where the reader actually gets involved is the “Your OOPS” section which reveals some of the readers embarrassing moments. This section is quite humorous and relates well to the reader as they may have been in the same situation.