'WE LOVE POP' Analysis - Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread..

 

In this post I will be analyzing the front covers, contents pages, and double page spreads of two music magazines. The first magazine I will be focusing on is 'We Love Pop'.







MASTHEAD/LOGO

From the magazines masthead/logo alone, it is quite easy to recognize its target audience which appears to be aimed at teenage girls between the ages of 12-15. The same can also be said concerning the genre as the word 'pop' is included in the magazine name allowing the target audience to recognize the musical genre straight away without having to read the contents.  

The title of the magazine is very plain and simple as it only contains two words 'we' and 'pop' and the word which should have been 'love' is replaced with an actual love heart highlighting the magazines informal nature which again is appealing to the younger audience as the majority of teenagers are associated with slang and informality. 

MAGAZINE COVER

Then studying the colour scheme, I found that there were many bold, bright, stand-out colours that ran through out the magazine. From the front cover alone, you can see bright hot pink and contrasting electric green text all around the page. This technique helps the magazine to stand out from the others and catch the eye of potential buyers.

The layout of the front cover is very busy but still sticks to some typical conventions of a magazine e.g. the main image which is placed directly in the centre, the other images and texts which fall around it and the smaller images located around the edges. 

The main font used is 'Sans Serif' which is bold and simple to read, again catering to the target audience of typical teenagers.

The front cover of the magazine contains a medium long shot of pop singer Cher Lloyd posing with a camera. This image links in with the text and the use of semiotics is obvious as the caption underneath her says 'Little Miss Swagger Finally Snaps!' the word 'snap' referring to the motion of taking a picture (with a camera).

Underneath the Main image of Cher, there are a number of smaller images which have also been put there to attract potential buyers attention and give the target audience a glimpse of what else they will be receiving if they decide to purchase. Plugs (information about the contents of a magazine given on the front cover) are also used e.g. 'THE WANTED SPECIAL POSTER... LIVE AND IN YOUR BEDROOM' helping to attract positive attention. 

Cher's clothing is kept very basic in order to let the readers main focus be on the prop (camera) more than anything else. Cher also has a shocked and excited facial expression which is a technique used in the hope of drawing in readers. Her expression also represents fun and youthfulness again making it suitable for its teenage target audience.

CONTENTS PAGE

When analyzing the contents page, I found that the magazine continues on with its informal nature by using typical teen phrases and also through the continuation of bright and bold text. Even though the language is informal it is obvious that it is aimed at mature teenagers by looking at some of the different topics and play-on-words used which can be found on the contents page. 

There is also a puff on the left hand corner of the contents page which says ' FOR YOUR EYES ONLY' which is a technique used to boost up the magazines status and makes the reader curious as to what might be inside. There are many different size images all around the page and large numbers to help readers find the pages the want to read quickly and effectively.

They also have an editors letter which follows the conventions of a typical magazine and allows the audience to get to know a bit about the 'we love pop' team.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Lastly the double page spread shows a large dominant image of Cher on the right, quite similar to the one on the front cover. The fact that Cher is posing with her hand over her mouth conveys to the reader that Cher is giving out exclusive information about herself that they didn't already know.

There is an imperative used to draw in the audience which says 'forget everything you think you know about Cher LLoyd and ready this interview now!' making the audience feel as if they have to read the interview otherwise they will be missing out on interesting information.

They also use the contrasting colours technique again using pink, yellow and black to make the interview stand out and be eye catching. Also, in many of the 'we love pop' interviews they like like to highlight important parts of the interview (this time in yellow) to help quickly guide the reader to the most interesting areas.