Front Cover Overview

All of these front covers are from We Love Pop and is therefore designed with the intention of attracting fans of pop music. By comparing them to one

another I am able to establish and identify shared features and repeated patterns of pop magazines.

The six front covers all feature typical magazine front cover conventions. Obvious features are to do with the general layout of the front cover such as the main image dominating most of the front cover, with sell lines surrounding it, as well as feature article photo’s that are associated with the content inside the magazine and the masthead is in an appropriate, noticeable and identifiable font.

Other repeated patterns are also shown. Not only are pop artists presented on the front, but solo female’s, solo male’s, female groups and male groups, showing the variety within the pop genre. This helps each individual stand out more - each artist is always linked back to a song an outfit in particular that marks their trademark within the genre! A prime example of this would be Cheryl Cole and her soldier costume for “Fight for this Love”.

On each of the front covers you can see that the artists are placed more towards the right hand side of the frame. This is so they can help to fill the space on the front cover - which is a conventional. Aswell as to avoid the masthead, which is placed in a “text bubble” in the top left hand corner. In regard to the pop bands, not one of the members stands out particularly highlighting that they are all equal and no one is more or less important than the rest, and there is not really an obvious main singer like in other genres such as rock. In general the main image takes up the majority of the frame and is the most noticeable photo on the front cover, this is a device used in itself to attract the audience in and for them to purchase the magazine.

On each of the front covers you are able to identify that they are not gender specific - there is always feature article photo’s that also feature on the front cover that are of the opposite genre to the one on the main image. This highlights that the pop genre is not in fact dominated by males and neither is We Love Pop’s front covers - which is usually considered a convention, but in this case is not always correct.

There are many similarities in mise-en-scene elements such as costume. Female artists are always wearing something that is very much considered fashionable so that young girls can mimic their outfits in order to be like them and keep up with the latest fashion trends. Also, you cannot see much of ‘The Saturdays’ but from what you can see the girls are wearing outfits that are similar and compliment one another’s such as the orange colour we see on Frankie, Mollie and Vanessa wearing, this helps to represent union and the fact that they are ‘one’ as a band. This is the same with One Direction, who are all wearing casual clothing such as t-shirts and polos, all of which seem to feature the colours of blue, white and red which also represent the fact that they are a British boy band, which is further highlighted by the heart on We Love Pop designed/colour with the Union Jack. Olly Murs and Justin

Bieber, also wearing casual ‘cool clothing’ highlighting what is in within boy fashion - girls may not take as much notice on this but costume choice is still important. The colours the boys are wearing help to reflect the pop genre with Olly also wearing blue and red and with Justin wearing a jean jacket which has recently been brought back and considered popular. This has a hoodie underneath which is popular with boys within the pop genre, such as the 1D boys and Ed Sheeran!

Another shared feature across the front covers is that they all include feature article photographs. These can be relating to articles inside the magazine or posters that are presented inside the magazine. In pop magazines it is expected that the front cover includes lots of photo’s, as it is for a younger generation – they prefer visuals rather than verbal’s. In three of the front covers I selected the photo’s featuring on the front are posters and on two of the front covers it says “10 posters”. This shows that We Love Pop are dedicated and enthusiastic in fulfilling their readers wants and needs – which as young girls, they would love posters of their favourite artists so they can put them on their walls in their bedrooms. On the other three front covers, they have pictures that relate to the articles inside, such as “Three Words: Harry’s. Six. Pack.” With a topless photograph of Harry placed next to it. It is not only the main article and one feature photo, there is always loads of photo’s that the audience can see – including fashion photos of pieces of clothing or shoes.

On each front cover, the signature We Love Pop masthead appears in the same way and the same format – with it written in a speech bubble with the text in a display font with the W looking like it is in italics. The heart is changed throughout the editions, varying in colour and style, as you can see by the six front covers. The colour of the heart makes up the theme colour of the front cover. For example, within the One Direction front cover, the heart is styled with a Great Britain flag inside it, and throughout the rest of the front cover the colours used are blue and red. Despite changing all the time, the colours used are always those associated with the pop genre and are all bright and quirky colours, therefore they all still appeal to the target audience and are effect when it comes to catching the audience’s attention. Similarly with the rest of the front covers whereby the colour or style of the heart is related and linked to the rest of the colours that appear on the front cover! The masthead is always placed in the top left hand corner on a slant. There is a rectangular box which the speech bubble is placed in. The speech bubble always has a white background and a thick black bored line. “We” and “Pop” are always written in black in the same font across all front covers. Another less noticeable feature of the front cover that never changes is the placing of the pug, it is always placed in the bottom right hand corner, containing the barcode (and I’m assuming the price and date of the magazine). Sell-lines are not always presented in the same place on every edition of the magazine, the only sell lines the stays similar is the main headlines sell-line which is always placed beneath or alongside of the headline – such as “Katy Perry: he hadn’t

told me” as the main sell line with the sell-line placed beneath it saying “you’ll never believe what she says inside”. The sell-line is more enticing and helps to convince the audience to buy the magazine to find out what Katy Perry “says inside” of it. Other than this, the main sells lines either feature on the left hand side or the right hand side of the magazine, with some of them being placed along the bottom stretch of the magazine. They are usually presented in a list feature despite being individual sell-lines.

Colour-wise We Love Pop sticks the bright and vibrant colours that the pop genre is renowned for such as pink, orange, yellow, red and blue. Other conventions that We Love Pop also follow is the background of the magazine being white and the main body copy across the magazine being written in black so it is clear for the audience to read.

The layout is fairly consistent across the six front covers. The only placed which it varies is the placing of the main headline, the placing of the sell-lines and whether there articles placed at the bottom of the screen. Despite this, in some of the front covers they layout can be pretty similar, such as the one of Olly Murs and the one of the Saturdays – everything is similar, the only difference being the placing of the sell-lines.

Having carried out this overview, it is obvious that We Love Pop has its own brand identity and signature look and can be easily recognised by its target audience. This is maintained through the repetition of stylistic and layout features from issue to issue and is a wonderful way of helping the magazine to succeed and sell.