A CASE STUDY

Background Details• The magazine was first launched in February 1995.• Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly publication which was published by BBC Magazines. It features chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. • It is a supplementary magazine for the TV show Top of the Pops.• It was originally marketed as the missing link between Smash Hits and NME, but its format was gradually changed, with less music content and a demographic shift to young girls. It is still in publication despite the cancellation of the TV show.• The title has had several editors over the years, including Peter Lorraine, Corinna Schaffer and Rosalie Snaith, and contributing editors including Adam Tanswell. Its current editor is Peter Hart.

Top of the Pop in 1995-1997

Spice Girls January 1997

Kylie Minogue & Jarvis Cocker May 1995

Michael Jackson July 19th 1995

Top of the pops 1997! Unlike today’s top of the pops ; the masthead has changed a lot the font is now predominantly pink as in this magazine front cover it is white. The font its self has also changed its font style and appearance is now more bold. Whereas here is it not as bold and looks a bit like its from outer space, now its all about the girly colour and the glitz and glam.

The main image has also changed as the main image is usually not spread across the whole of the page as it is usually more to the right hand side in the middle with feature sell lines taking up the left hand side. Whereas the spice girls are stretched across the whole of the page.

As you can see the artists featured in this magazine mainly consist of male artists; whereas there are a huge mixture of genres featured in pop magazines now. Now it seems to be more predominantly female artists rather than male artists.

Top of the Pops 1997! Here we can see that a lot of information is featured and there are a lot of sell lines above the masthead. But now we would not expect to see so much above the sell line except for maybe one line advertising a prize to be won inside, the sell lines are usually focused on the left hand side.

When the magazine first started out they did not have many sell lines on the page, and if they did they didn’t stand out very well because they just seemed to be bits of writing all over the place. Today the sell lines stand out more as they are much bolder, they fit the page and don’t look like they are out of place.

There seems to be only one poster throughout the whole magazine. This may not grab the readers attention, as too now where we are told that there are many posters that will feature though the magazine.

• The magazine is a supplementary magazine for the T.V show top of the pops.• This magazine is aimed at pop crazy teen girls who enjoy gossip, music, gigs and

much more.• As well as just pop music though, this mag has plenty of other teen requirements

covered - fashion tips, superstar boys of the moment and other lifestyle tips are all included.

• Top of the Pops magazine is published every month, and it generally has a poster or free gift attached - much to the dismay of our postal department.

• According to the BBC it is the UK’s best selling teen gossip mag.• The magazine has achieved numerous success’ and also some unsuccessful

points, but this has only made the magazine stronger and more successful in what they do.

• As time passes the magazine tends to adapt to the surrounding changes of the public, and each time changes the whole look and feel to their magazine. Going from a tom boyish look in the 90’s to this really girly and glittery edge in the 21st century.

• But in doing so has made the magazine flourish and strive and made it come out on top, to become one of the UK’s best selling music magazines.

Background Details

Top of the Pops today!• It is issued monthly• Costs around £2.99 each issue• Generally has around 70 pages in each issue of A4 format and in full

colour on glossed paper.• Top of the pops follows a standard magazine layout; - Full colour images with snippets of text on some pages - Full colour articles that combine image and text others. - Bold sell lines and headings. - Main images and feature images of celebrities• Top of the pops also has its own T.V channel that started airing weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. • They also have their own website, giving us all the latest on the magazine.

Inside top of the pops!

Inside top of the pops there are full colour feature articles images. Always typically a celeb image to draw the target audience to buy the magazine. The image usually matches the article and writing, it links to what the article is about.

The articles combine images with text, for a more visually appealing look. It is not unusual to see different types of shots of the artists, such as close ups, long shots and them in different poses...

Target Audience• Predominantly female • 12 – 16 years old.• 85%female, 15% male.• A very out going girly girl • Has a passion for music loves to be up to date with all the latest songs and artists out there and love to gossip. • Interested in fashion, always on trend with the celeb styles• She is very much a film frantic who loves all of the “chick flick” and “rom coms”.• Love hers reality T.V programmes such as Eastenders and new girl and my super sweet 16.• Extremely Loyal to her BFF’s and favourite bands and artists, she is an individual who refuses to follow the crowd and likes to have their own quirky style, very youthful and fun.• She See’s Top of the Pops, as an authority on pop music and an educator to all.

Content• The Content is entirely devoted to music and fashion. • With pages full of new up and coming artists; new music, gigs, reviews, interviews and much much more. • Quizzes and Letter pages are also presented in the magazine and would usually feature at the back pages of the magazine as you come to an end of reading it, to give the reader more fun things to do.• Bands and artists that commonly feature are: Jessie J, Little Mix, Katy Perry,Cheryl Cole, One Direction, Justin Beiber, Cher Lloyd and so many more.• The magazine offers free posters, reflecting the largely youth readership.

Style• Top of the pops features a lot of iconography associated with pop and the scene that surrounds it, e.g. bright colours, clothes, glitter, very vibrant make-up, guitars and quirky shoes.• The magazine is very visual, and is quite image-heavy, but is also balanced out with short snappy sell lines to achieve this pop imagery.• The magazine features a lot of uppercase text, very rarely seeing lowercase letters or words on the front of the magazine.• The font is usually very bold and bubbly suiting not only the magazine’s genre of pop but also the personality of the target audience. • Pink is usually the predominant colour on a pop magazine as it is very bright and girly this way it attracts the target audiences attention when first seeing the magazine; other colours such as baby blues, white, lilac’s and yellows are usued to show this vey feminine and girly look but also this bubbly upbeat genre. • Images are primarily placed on a white background, this gives this sort of pure and innocent representation, as pop is a very upbeat and happy genre also highlighting this with the main images and feature images. This creates this illusion that they are very happy and lively people, which the target audience aspire to be like and this helps to sell the magazine also.

Mode of address• The magazine will be very Casual, this could just be that they feature informal words and phrases that the target audience might use. • The tone of expression used by a young fan of Pop may be established.• They will use friendly and down-to-earth language and imaging, suggesting a friend-to-friend relationship between reader and the magazine.• The language suggests that they ‘understand’ and ‘get’ Pop, the magazine take’s music very seriously and that they understand all about Pop music and the scene that surrounds the genre.• The main image will have direct eye contact with the reader, showing that the magazine is directly for them and no one else, like hey have is type of bond.• The feature article photographs always tend to have the celebrity or person in the image smiling or slightly shocked but in a happy expression; this also gives of this friendly vibe about the magazine.

Mode of address;

Punctuation marks help to make the articles more shocking, this sense of excitement that the reader gets, draws the target audience in to buying the magazine they want to keep reading and find out more.

The use of abbreviated words and changing the font style, can cause a more relaxed ad friendly tone for the reader making them feel connected to the magazine; like the magazine understands them.

Friendly and informal modes of address...

Mode of AddressExamples of mode’s of address• ‘ Are you ready for summer love?’

• ‘ Who’s the fittest? Harry and Justin battle it out.

• ‘I’ve got major CONFIDENCE issues’

• ‘ YOU can be Cheryl’

• ‘ Lush six packs to stare at’

• ‘ your most embarrassing body stories solved’

• ‘ Can you be cheryl’ ‘ her top to toe guide to real star style’

• ‘ OMG TULISA’ ‘ betrayed and broken-hearted but stronger than ever.

Ownership• Owned by the BBC. • The institution that makes this magazine is the BBC media which is one of the UK’s leading broadcasters or not only TV programmers, and music channels but films and magazines too and other media, such as radio stations like BBC 1 extra, BBC radio 1, 2, 3 etc. • Within the magazine there are articles which direct the readers to many children’s BBC productions such as Tracy beaker etc. • Top of the pops, Girl Talk are all owned and distributed by the BBC media.• The company also owns and distributes a number of magazines aimed at audiences with niche interests, e.g for young children, car fanatics etc. BBC History, BBC Knowledge, Learning is Fun!, The Magic Key Adventures, Cbeebies Weekly, Toybox, Tweenies; are all owned and distributed by the BBC media.• The BBC’s radio and TV channels are consistently successful, with their TV channels attracting a larger audience than MTV.• The BBC media promises to deliver magazines that are authentic, fresh, informative, entertaining and that promote action.

Ownership• Being owned by BBC media is a good thing for top of the pops for the following

reasons:• The company is extremely successful and experienced it also knows which strategies to employ to increase sales and draw in their target audiences.• BBC owns a number of niche magazines, so it therefore understands certain audiences with specific tastes and interests.• With top of the pops and girl talk amongst its repertoire, it knows how to successfully manage music magazines. • BBC media also knows how to appeal to male audiences and also a wide age range, having successfully launched titles like BBC History, BBC Knowledge, top-sellers in their respective fields.• BBC media is the father of cross-media synergy, owning a number of magazines that have numerous radio stations, TV and web platforms.