Smash Hits Magazine Cover (December 2010, The Bauer Publishing Group)The cover of this magazine has a very striking bold red title to grab the audiences attention and the uses of capital letters in a huge font across the page draws the readers attention to the star in the image on the front cover. The colour scheme uses is red, black and yellow which have most likely been used for their attention grabbing quality as they are the colours often used on warning type signs and therefore catches peoples attention, the magazine also appeals to both genders with using a colour such as red, rather than the obvious pink vs. the greens and blues and therefore appeals to a wider audience.

The photography used in the centre image is obviously a studio image which has been set up by the magazine for the main front cover, and the image has a very strong contrast emphasizing the light and darkness of her costume and her hair, the angle is in straight alignment in the magazine, but her pose makes the information on the front cover easier to fit around the image, her posture is very suggestive and could grab the attention of a male audience along with the amount of flesh shown within the image makes this magazine much more targeted towards an adult audience. The images around the bottom are images which have been taken live and are displayed as a film reel of images on a diagonal axis, to create a scrapbook like image.

The text on the cover is very bold and alternating colours to grab the audiences attention and the size of the font is the right size to fit around the large photograph of Lady Gaga which is featured in the centre of the image. The front cover is quite informal with the list of text explaining what is featured in the magazine and is generally quite brief to give the reader a hint into what is in the magazine and what they are buying.

The cover of this magazine has an overall quite simple but effective look with the large image and large text with their simple colour scheme, and the majority of the page is focused on the image in the middle, weighted out with the size of the title of the magazine and her name in huge letters. The smaller text outweighs the image reel around the bottom of the magazine and the text is aligned with the reel which is placed on an angle which also contributes to the more informal look of the magazine.

The font of the title ‘Smash Hits’ has a quirky vintage appearance to the image with its traditional gothic style bold font, and represent the traditional style magazine, but the image appears more dominant over the text as the image is overlapping the title of the magazine along with the yellow circle in the top corner which is also covering the title. And as the music magazine is a one off special and has return to the shelves just for this copy, they have kept aspects to the magazine which was featured on the cover of the magazine when originally published, the magazine was at its peak during the 1980’s so they have kept aspects, such as the font the same to grab the audience of previous fans of the magazine, by trying to make the audience remember the original series of the magazine. The publisher ‘Bauer Publishing’ also published magazines such as Take A Break & That's Life, and TV books such as TV Choice, which are often aimed towards a female audience.

The contents page of the magazine continues with the colour scheme on the front cover with the use of black, white and red although there is no use of yellow in the contents page like there was on the front colour as the contents page isn't trying as hard to grab the audiences attention because the front cover is what people see straight away. The bright red star with ‘Welcome Back!’ written in suggests their return and emphasizes the Editor-in-chief’s message to the reader.

The photography once again shows live images of Gaga performing and winning awards, but their is also an image of Christina Aguilera on the contents page trying to link in other famous celebrities to gather the fans of several other artists who are similar to Lady Gaga in terms of their look and their music abilities. The images are arranged in a collage-like structure with the images all being different shapes and sizes and the images being cropped in a unique way cropping out some of the image of Lady Gaga, and the way in which the image has been cut around her head at the top over the contents underlining give the handmade look to the magazine and the font of the writing matches that of the writing on the front cover and the way in which the alternating between the black and white text of different sizes over the images displaying their page number gives a quirky odd look to the magazine.

The overall appearance is quirky but yet simple, and in the Editorial on the contents page he refers to her as an “icon” which is the reason the entire magazine is dedicated to the star but he also states “From her insane outfits....”, the word insane could reflect the layout of the images and the random use of different sized images and text. Although in the contents page, the images dominate over the text due to their size and the way in which they are all grouped together at the top of the page to make them seem more important and grab the audiences attention with images of her extravagant appearance.

This double spread featured in the magazine once again follows that of the front cover but this time the article has a much darker feel to it than the contents page, with the striking black title the colour black is often associated with isolation and a lack of love.

The photography on the double spread are also in black and white, which follow the same theme as before, but also the main photograph is not one of her performing and having fun, or of her having a posed image in a studio it is an image of her looking remotely unhappy followed by a miserable looking security man. The image is also continuing to show her quirkiness with her choice of outrageous outfit, but the image is also displaying her tattoo’s on her arm which are often represented as a symbol of rebellion and violence, whereas her other in colour images show her having fun and not having her tattoo’s on display.

The bold titles of each section ending with a exclamation mark gives each of the rumours listed give a ‘bang’ and indicates strong feelings with the audience after each statement, at the end of the text before giving the truth underneath in a smaller print. The rumours are what we would associate as bad rumours but this is largely influenced by the way in which they are written, the use of the exclamation mark and the use of a dark ominous colour scheme through the text and the images and with the colour red representing danger, the whole article has a very serious feel to it.

Once again, the photograph in the centre is dominant of the whole article followed by the large title next to the image, and draws the attention into more detail that we, the audience, wouldn't know just from listening to her music; Or if we had heard the rumours the article sets the rumours straight. The use of text in this article is much more formal which also contributes to the seriousness of the article.

The font used for the main title follows the style of text which has been used throughout the magazine, although the titles of each section has been used in a more bold text to emphasize the colour black and the stronger sense of isolation within the article.

Billboard Magazine Cover (July 2010, Crown Publishing Group)The cover of this magazine has a very striking bold black title to grab the audiences attention and the huge font across the page draws the readers attention along with the use of colours within the letters. The large black font in the middle of page reading Katy Perry’s name in only a slightly smaller font to the title, therefore drawing the audiences attention to the star on the cover but still making us aware of which magazine it is. The hugely popular American magazine, will appeal to a female audience and of a younger age group than the cover of Smash Hits due to the very striking background in a bright pink draws female attention to the magazine, and the use of colours within the letters draw the younger generation into the magazine . And the picture of Katy Perry overlapping the title draws everyone's attention straight to the star in the image on the front cover. The use of a variety of colours shows they are trying to make their magazine appeal to a large range of people and have a wider audience, but this particular issue with the vast amount of pink, draws this issue towards a female audience.

The photography used in the centre image is obviously a studio image which has been set up by the magazine for the main front cover, and the image has a very strong contrast between her black hair and black dress and with the bright colours with the flowers, making the flowers much more striking and fit with the femininity of the background. The angle is in straight alignment in the magazine, but once again, similar to Lady Gaga, her pose makes the information on the front cover easier to fit around the image, her posture is slightly curled up with her hands against her and her head resting on her shoulder in a fetal posture makes her seem vulnerable, small and innocent which once again is what are often stereotypically associated with females

and contribute toward the femininity of the cover.

In a similar way, the cover of this magazine has an overall quite simple but effective look with the large image and large text with their vibrant colour scheme, and the main centre of attention is on the image in the centre due to its size and the way in which it overlaps the title and the vast use of pink.

The font of the title ‘Billboard’ has a very modern appearance and uses a bland plain style font, which represents the quirkiness of the magazine and its appeal to the younger generation, but the image appears more dominant over the text as the image is overlapping the title of the magazine. But the traditional style font is used for the writing ‘Katy Perry’ and the smaller text at the top of the page ‘Sheryl Crow’ shows that the magazine is aimed towards a young female audience but the links with the traditional style writing and listing someone like Sheryl Crow in bold font also shows that the magazine are trying to appeal the magazine to older females as well. The publisher ‘Crown Publishing’ also publish a variety of books, many based around music and many around Billboard Magazine itself.

The contents page of the magazine has a completely different feel than to the front cover, the contents page has a more masculine look, with the use of colours such as grey, black and blue. And the use of the stencil style font links with the army, and the army is often linked with men. Therefore this could show their originality or their approach to both sexes and grabbing their attention.

The photography once again shows la few different performers including an image of a man during an interview, a couple of studio staged images and an image of the front cover star Katy Perry performing. The images are arranged in horizontal lines with the image at the bottom being the main centre of attention as being a much larger size than the others, and having a box around the page number of the article, as the other 3 smaller images have plain white numbers all the same size and the same font shown in the bottom corner to make the audience aware of where they are, With the actual descriptions of what are on each page under the 4 images as the images are used as headings and the articles are split into the sections in which they fit the best.

The overall appearance is simple in its layout, being split into a grid-like structure and to the left of the page featuring the weeks top music for the Billboard official chart and is the most famous chart in the US. And using the bold lettering and the Billboard logo featured on the chart list acts as an attention grabber and draws their attention to the list and especially the fact that it is featured on the contents page shows just how important the information is.

This double spread featured in a copy of the magazine follows the femininity of the magazine with part of the text written in a bright pink font and having a large image of Rihanna performing live but with a large tint added to the image to make the image unrealistically pink to fit with the theme of the colour scheme. Although the article had a much darker feel to it with the striking image of Rihanna with a black background and a large amount of text outweighing that of the imagery in the article giving the article a much more serious look, and the title is very small compared to that of the usual titles and rather than the audiences attention being dragged towards the title, instead the audiences attention is dragged towards the image of Rihanna live. The colour scheme used with the use of pink represents love and the image of her enjoying herself whilst performing is a symbol of her love for music and therefore shows us that this article will be around her love for music and the smaller images at the bottom in the centre of the 2 nd page of the text shows an image of Rihanna with her music manager and Rihanna meeting fans.

The font used for the article is quite thin, grabbing our attention as the reader but yet it is a way of taking up less space and therefore leaving more space for the image in the article and therefore this seems much more striking and the image is used as an alternation for a ‘in your face’ title.

Top Of The Pops Magazine Cover (November 2011, BBC Publishing)The cover of this magazine has a very striking bold pink title to grab the attention of an audience of young girls and the uses of capital letters in a huge font across the page draws the readers attention to the star in the image on the front cover. The colour scheme uses is a very vibrant pink and yellow which have most likely been used to grab the attention of a young girl audience with the vast use of the colour pink, and the yellow is a very bright and noticeable but also has a striking contrast against the darker shade of pink and stands out from the page. The magazine is obviously aimed towards young girls with its colour scheme and the choice of stars on the cover (e.g. JLS and Taylor Lautner have a large young girls fan base).

The photography used in the centre image is a studio image which has been set up by the magazine for the main front cover, and the image has a very strong contrast emphasizing the light of the background and the dark shade of purple in her outfit. The angle is in straight alignment in the magazine, and similar to the other magazines her pose makes it easier for the editor to fit the other front cover information around the image as the image is the largest and the most noticeable. The images around the main image are a mixture of studio images and posed paparazzi style images which have had the reality of the background withdrawn from them to create more of a studio style image, some of the surrounding images are on a diagonal, to create a scrapbook style look to the magazine.

The text on the cover is very bold and is a mixture of black, white and pink to grab the audiences attention, and to fit with the colour scheme of pink in the magazine and the size of the font for the title is in a large swirly style font to stand out from the cover and is overlapping the image of the star. The front cover features a little bit of information of some of the articles and uses quotes instead of titles for the pink section at the bottom of the page. The cover of this magazine has an very striking pink look with the vast use of the

colour, and the majority of the page is focused on the image in the middle, but the image isn’t as striking as some both the other magazines with the text overlapping the image and the title overlapping the main image also.

The font of the title ‘Top of the Pops’ has a unique girly appearance with its modern girly pink logo in a bold font, but the title appears more dominant over the main image as the text is extra vibrant and is overlapping the image of the star along with the yellow and white boxes overlapping the image and drawing the readers attention into the text. The publisher ‘BBC Publishing’ are most famous for their TV channel in the UK which used to feature the show ‘Top of the Pops’ based on the weeks charts, but brought out a magazine alongside the show although the show ended in 2006 the magazine has continued being published but through the years has transformed from Smash Hits, NME style magazine into a young girls magazine with them contributing to the charts list the most.

The contents page of the magazine continues with the colour scheme on the front cover with the use of pink and yellow to continue the theme from the front cover of the magazine, the yellow highlighted sections represent that of the front cover making it easier for the reader to find the articles featured on the front cover. The use of the girly swirly style font continues with the titles of the different sections of the contents page grab the audiences attention with their link with the front cover although on the contents page their is the use of the colour red which wasn't used on the front cover drawing our attention to detail with the little red love hearts in the title, which are another girly symbol.

The contents page is mostly text over images, there is a large image of the front cover of the magazine giving the page numbers information there is a couple of small images of what can be won and the latest in fashion in the appropriate sections and a large image of McFly drummer, Harry, who is once again another piece of eye candy for young girls but is also in another BBC show, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, and therefore advertises other shows that are linking in with the Publishers and their other projects linked with the company. Unlike the contents page of ‘Smash Hits’, this magazine doesn't feature an editorial message as it wouldn't appeal to the audience as the audience of ‘Top of the Pops’ are mainly young girls, they have a much lesser attention span than that of the older audience which is who magazines like ‘Billboard’ and ‘Smash Hits’ are aimed towards.

The overall appearance is simple to help the audience in finding what they are after, Although in the contents page, the very few images are still dominant over the text, but the image of the front cover dominates over the page and the vast use of pink for the background of the title also carry’s on the theme of the front cover and the text reading “Inside the mag...” is in a hand written style font to continue the idea of the handmade scrapbook style look and the use of the shortened abbreviation of the word magazine shows their informality and their relationship with their audience.

This double spread featured in the magazine doesn't involve any of the colour pink but instead uses a vast amount of the colour purple which is another very feminine colour and therefore still links in with the main theme and the audience their magazine is aimed towards, which is young girls.

The photography on the double spread are all in colour giving a vibrancy to the article and along with the text featured over the purple coloured background which follow the same theme as before and has a much more attention grabbing appearance with the use of colour. The smaller featured images are all posed images but are not studio images showing her having fun doing what she's doing. The main photograph is the same image as that on the front cover

creating an obvious link with the cover but this time the image is much larger and is the most dominant over the whole article taking over nearly a whole page. The bold titles with the 3D shadowing effect creates a striking look and is attention grabbing due to that quality and doesn't continue the swirly style writing which was used on the front cover and on the contents page. The use of bold quotess and the use of the black and white alternating coloured fonts automatically show us, the audience, that this article is an interview with the cover star, and helps us to know who is speaking each time.

Once again, the photograph in on the right is dominant of the whole article followed by the large title next to the image, and draws the attention. And the smaller images give us an insight into who she is, and what she does into more detail that we, the audience, wouldn't know straight away if you weren't familiar with her. The use of text in this article is much more formal as it is an interview but fitting the style of the magazine, we will know that the interview will be that of a friendly chat.