A CASE STUDY

TOP OF THE POPS

Background Details

The magazine was first published in February 1995

The focus of the magazine is on pop artists, music and culture

It costs £3.99 and is released monthly

It is published by BBC magazines

It’s current editor is Peter Hart

It used to have a television series, and continue after the series ended

Older editions of the magazine included artists such as the Spice Girls.

Top Of The Pops- March 2001

This edition of TOTP’s was released six years after the first edition of the magazine was published. The conventions are very similar to the modern version of he magazine, for example the main pop artist is featured on the cover filling most of the frame, and other popular pop artists are on the cover as well but in a smaller scale. The colour scheme is similar to the scheme today as pink is featured heavily. Pink is a feminine, girly colour which shows how the magazine is mainly appealing to girls. The masthead is still placed in the let hand corner which is where the eye first looks according to the left hand third rule.

Top Of The Pops Today:

Top of the Pops is issued monthly and costs £2.99. It has a reading audience of approximately 330,000, and 87% of these people are female. Despite the fact boys do read it, the magazine is aimed at females. It has 67 A4 pages filled with girly gossip about music, boys and fashion. Over the years the magazine cover has changed but still contains the same content and remains brightly coloured with many images. TOTP’S has its own website and music channel as well.

Inside Top of the Pops:

The articles are full of fun feminine colours, and it is not unusual to see large images of the artists smiling in bright coloured stylish clothes throughout the magazine.

Target Audience:

The target audience for Top of the Pops is young teenage girls who are fun, have a good sense of humour and are youthful. They are girls who value their friends at school and enjoy gossiping about their favourite pop artists and experimenting with makeup and style. They love to read the magazine to find out more about their favourite pop artists.

Content:

The content is entirely devoted to pop music with music/band news and articles, celebrity gossip and fashion tips are also a crucial part of the magazine. Quizzes and competitions are also added. A few examples of bands and artists which frequently feature in this magazine are One Direction, Little Mix, The Saturdays, Cheryl Cole and Justin Bieber. The magazine offers free posters which reflect the age of readers largely.

Style:

The magazine uses visuals very heavily and features a lot of iconography associated with pop/chart music and everything that surrounds it for example boys, fashion, make-up and more. It features a lot of uppercase text in fun, quirky font as this appeals to the target audience more. Feminine colours appear the most as this is what would be more likely to catch the attention of the target audience it appeals to as the colours represent care-free youthfulness.

Pink features strongly on the cover.

Content is related to pop bands/ singers.

The magazine is image and visual heavy.

Mode of Address:

Casual, features words that the target audience may use to appeal to them more.

The magazine is expressed from the point of view of a fan themselves, especially during the interviews with artists.

The magazine uses a friend to friend tone with the reader which makes them feel more connected to the magazine.

The magazine gives a lot of information about the pop genre which shows that they understand what the TA want to know.

The mode of address is used especially for the young readership and is displayed through the design and layout. Captions are added around the celebrity’s faces using youth orientated language with comical, informal comments that sometimes border on being sarcastic.

Mode of Address: Informal, casual mode of address creates a more relaxed tone

Using exclamation points create a sense of excitement with the target audience and also add emphasis to certain points.

Using abbreviated words adds to the casual tone and also shows that the magazine is down to earth.

Mode of Address:

Examples of mode of address:

‘Amazeballs posters’

‘Lush six-packs to stare at’

‘Cringey kissing confessions’

‘Ariana cracks up! Her most bonkers interview ever?’

‘OMG! JLS confess everything!’

‘Robsessed!’ (referring to being obsessed over Robert Pattinson)

Ownership:

The institution which makes this magazine is the BBC Media Institution. This is shown in the magazine as the reader’s attention is directed to many CBBC programmes which are spoken about throughout the magazine, and the BBC’s logo is also placed on the cover of the magazine in the left hand corner. It helped make the magazine the biggest selling teen lifestyle magazine on the market.

“We bring our readers closest to their idols, because we’re the magazine that knows celebs the best. Every issue is packed with exclusive interviews and photos, as well as brilliant star advice and affordable fashion and beauty. We’re the friend our readers can rely on to give them confidence, make them laugh, and share all the juiciest gossip. And that’s why BBC Top Of The Pops Magazine is the UK’s biggest-selling teen title. ” -Peter Hart, Editor - BBC Top Of The Pops Magazine