Pop artists are mostly fashionably dressed in a stylish, mainstream culture attire.

Both male and female artists are conveyed happy, positive and most of the time blissful (maybe due to their pop music being a success to their teenage audience).

Female artists are principally portrayed stereotypically attractive, especially in the media; TV, interviews and magazines etc.

As a female teenage audience are more likely to buy a pop music magazine than male teens, girl teenagers like to aspire to be more like their favourite celebrities (who are typically represented in an attractive way).

Within pop songs, the lyrics are mostly about love, relationships and partying; ideologies being sent that ‘it’s all about enjoying life and having a good time, with maybe meeting a few problems along the way’.

Pop bands, like The Vamps, often express the message of ‘unity’ through their lyrics, which associates with other teenagers (who are part of the primary target audience).

Most pop songs last approximately between 3-5 minutes. These songs would have a consistent beat and a fixed structure. Pop songs follow a particular form, similarly to a verse-chorus-versestructure.

Adorno, a Marxist theorist, would argue that it is the repetitive structure which appeals to teenagers, as it distracts them from true creativity. It also lulls them into reproducing the ideologies of pop, as part of a homogenous group.

The promotion of pop music is done via

radio stations and magazines. In the UK

(even in the USA), pop songs are certainly

heard everyday on popular radio stations.

The pop music industry are not usually

independent in creating something new,

unique and different to the teenagers’

ears, and mostly follow current trends.

The music pop genre is usually conveyed

through the lyrics or the setting and

dressing in a music pop video.

Pop is mainly themed with bold and eye-

catching colours, which connote a positive

vibe from a type of media (e.g. pop

magazines).

Pop music videos are known for their vibrant colours, which makes the video increasingly attractive and appealing to watch - this is because they promote a binary opposition to the drudgery of reality.

Technologies have recently been used as a major part of music videos; animation is used to create an exciting and lively atmosphere – technologies are also a postmodern feature designed to appeal to a media literate teenage audience, who enjoy intertextual references to other media forms.

Hair and make up are part of the importance of appearance in constructing the star, and are commonly being used as a way to commutate the artists feelings, views and express a message. This also plays a major role in pop music videos.

TEXT

COVER LINES

SKYLINE

SUB HEADINGS

COVER LINES:

- cover lines about particular artists or events on the front cover, should feature within the magazine.

- I believe my magazine successfully correlates between the cover lines and the content on the contents page. I made sure there was a link, however, I did not follow this through before I made the last minute changes to my production.

The main background image should feature a (female or male) band or artist, who is relevant to their target audience and music genre. The featured artist must also be of interest to the target audience, supported by the main cover line. The main focal image on the front cover should relate to the major gossip inside the magazine, and must be part of the main focus from the readers’ eye.

The majority of pop magazines generally use the bottom third of the front cover, to present a range of topics that are found inside; such as gossip columns and interviews.

Pull quotes are a feature of pop magazines, often in the splash, and their appeal is the connotation of gaining an insight into the star’s personal feelings.

The front cover must consist of various different images of bands/artists, placed strategically to catch the audience members’ attention. Some of the images often contain a pop star in a studio shoot, and the artist makes eye contact with the reader. I have conformed to this convention in my magazine by showing four separate artists (out of five) directly addressing the audience by looking at the camera.

The masthead is the name of the magazine and is conventional; it is commonly placed

on the left side of front page. I have conformed to this by placing my masthead exactly

on the left side of my magazine front cover, therefore, I am not drastically changing the

position of this convention in any way that will make it look individual from the rest of

common magazines (following the same trend of layout).

The masthead should stand out against the background of the magazine front cover, and

needs to be eye-catching. This is so it easily appeals the teenage audience, especially

from a stand when its on sale in a shop. However, the reader should still see a relation

to its genre, meaning the masthead should be bold in contrast to the rest of the

conventions seen on the front cover, although, it should not look too odd or random. I

have associated pop with a bold masthead on my front cover, as it creates ideologies of

being confident (which could be seen as ironic when the genre promotes the values of

following a trend / Maslow’s love and belonging as opposed to trend-setting and

individuality).

I recognised that most of the pop music magazines have the word ‘pop’ within their

masthead, which is indicative of its genre. I wanted to conform to popular pop magazine

conventions that have the word ‘pop’ inside the masthead, due to the popular trend of

this specific convention in most existing magazines. I believe this would also help the

reader to immediately recognise the magazine’s genre, and the kind of music content

and gossip the magazine contains. Therefore, I called my pop music magazine

‘POPWORLD’ due to it easily illustrating what my magazine is about to its female

teenage audience (especially since they aren’t the sophisticated type of audience).

An example of a popular existing pop magazine that has an appealing masthead, suitable to its audience, is ‘WElovePOP.’ magazine.

The font of the masthead is simple in black text, however, the touch of the pink love heart placed inside a speech bubble design, connotes its youth and gossip type nature of the magazine (in relation to pop music).

It also promotes the traditional ideology of the importance of love, even though this is seemingly unrelated to music in any real sense – this is a hegemonic process enacted on girls from a young age, which seems to promote a positive and common sense of journey to finding true love (when it actually just promotes the progression and the continuity of the state, through producing children).

A young female teenager would recognise that this convention relates to the pop genre, due to the feminine creativity.

This would grab that particular audiences’ attention, and the idea of the masthead being placed on a pink setting doesn’t make it blend in with the background.

The use of fonts within music magazines is representative of genre.

Fonts that are bold in sub headings (contents page) or cover lines (front cover),

indicate what the story/music gossip is about throughout the whole magazine. I

have used bold fonts on every page to highlight the importance of particular text

that the reader can scan over.

The colour of the text is important as it must relate to the nature of the genre of

the magazine, e.g. black/dark colours commonly used for rock, and

bright/colourful colours for pop. My use of light and attention-grabbing colours is

an intentional way of attracting the teenage readers’ eye in sale news stands. The

colours of light blue, red and yellow are colours which I decided to use for the

main colour scheme, and is briefly used throughout the pages of my production.

The blues and reds also have a connotation of passion and rebellion more than the

‘girly’ pink colours (however, this is again hegemonic; making the audience THINK

they are in control, when actually the ideologies of the magazine keep them

passive).

I have had thoughts on whether I have used a suitable colour scheme, because I

sometimes think the colours aren’t ‘girly’ enough to appeal a female reader.

However, I decided to stick with it because they are ‘tomboyish’ colours as well,

which still relates to my teenage audience. These specific colours have also been

used by existing magazines, like ‘WElovePOP.’ for example, therefore, my

decision on the colour scheme isn’t uncommon. This shows that I want to attract

female teenage readers and because of this, I’ve used a teenage associated colour

scheme. The feminine touches to the magazine pages along with the text, such as

the red heart design, associates to specifically females as well.

The text must engage the audience, and entice them to continually look further through the magazine in a buying environment. Tag lines must also be inviting.

I have attempted to achieve this throughout the front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have used a mix of different size and style fonts, showing diversity along with a variety of images. I think this is important when wanting to appeal a young teenage audience, as they are fox thinkers, therefore, they will get bored if the pages are consumed by too much text.

Depending on the type of genre of the magazine and its audience, the language of text must be chosen correctly. As my magazine production is focused on pop and aimed to appeal a young female teenager, I have mainly used colloquial language. This is because it suits my type of audience, and the influence of ‘text-speak’ is due to the audience being digital natives, making their speech more colloquial. I have used this throughout my production of the magazine as it appeals to the younger audience, and requires less sophisticated vocabulary.

The text within the interview of my double page spread is mixed with informal and slightly formal language as the interview is aimed to be casual, however, the reader would still want to know true information about their favourite celebrity artist – also receive information and surveillance (uses and gratifications).

An approximate of 4-6 images should be found on the contents page. However, one main image must stand out against the other images on the page.

The name of the magazine is often repeated throughout the type of media.

Sub headings next to the page numbers aim to give a clear idea to its reader of what (music) gossip is inside the magazine. It also makes it easier for the reader to navigate throughout the magazine. The page numbers next to the sub headings are used, in which they are highlighted in a different colour and a bold font to show their significance, followed by a few words to say what is on every page.

Every image mostly have a caption box to draw the reader to the particular story. On my own contents page, every one of my images has related text somewhere around it.

The contents page should have an equal balance of text (information) and images, as this specific page aims to provide the reader information and a taster of what the magazine contains. It also provides an easier navigation for whereabouts their favourite gossip is inside the magazine.

The artist/band illustrated on the front cover of the

magazine must be relevant to its cover line, including the

type of context inside the magazine, and attract its

audience. When the artist directly looks at the camera,

they address their audience which is a way of grabbing

their attention and connotes honesty (which is important in

an age of manufactured celebrity).

Choosing the most suitable model is important because

they are representing the specific genre. It cannot look like

they’ve been randomly chosen and placed on the page

meaning since the image is usually a studio shoot, it

therefore has an element of construction.

My choice of models had to be quite specific because I

wanted to make sure that all my 7 models had the

potential to work in pop culture, because they are all

stereotypically attractive. I made sure that my models were

suitable to be seen on my magazine pages. I chose a

diversity of male and female models, aged between 16-27

years old, to be found on my pages. They represent young,

aspiring artists who a female reader would look up to, plus

they are all smiling which connotes their positivity about

being in the music business. This sends an encouraging

message (ideology) that ‘you can have great success by

doing something you love’.

• I especially chose Charley Flowers to

represent a young, 16 year old growing

pop artist (as the main image) because

I think my target audience can relate

more to someone their own similar

age. They easily receive personal

identity and they are inspired to be

like Chaz Flora, due to her positive

attitude about everything (in her

interview)

Richard Dyer’s star theory, which I have looked at in my theoretical research, is

applicable here in my production.

When applying this particular theory, my models on my magazine pages are made up of

three separate features - some more noticeable than others to be spotted with all these

features;

Star as Construction:

- The main focal image of Chaz Flora, on the front cover, can be ‘constructed’ by its

management and marketing, to meet the needs of my female teenage audience. The

image comprises separate elements of the ‘construction’ such as:

- CHAZ FLORA:

Empowered

Female

(Teenager)

...due to part of her hobbies

being tennis which she loves

playing, along with her busy

music career.

...David Gauntlett’s

empowered females,

and she is not portrayed

in any kind of sexual

manner.

...a young reader would look up

to her as she is a young teen

herself, who is successfully

producing music.

...you don’t need a boyfriend in your

life to be happy (it’s not always about

relationships).

Star as Commodity:

- The young 16 year old pop singer, known as Chaz

Flora, becomes a selling tool and something my 13-

16 year old audience can ‘buy’.

- My teenager readers buy my pop music magazine

product, and then ‘buy’ into Chaz Flora’s lifestyle as

they are aspired to also be successful with their

talents, even at such a young age.

Star as Ideology:- Chaz Flora, within the double page spread

especially, sells a positive ideology towards

my female fox thinkers that ‘you can be

happy and successful with your talents,

which can also encouragingly aspire others’.

- On the front cover, ‘The Gallades’ send a set of

‘ideas’ that ‘working together as a group by doing

something you love can follow with a happy

celebration of succession that you all deserve’.

Pop songs are stereotypically associated with teenage people as they include a beat which is dance orientated.

Most of the imagery is focused on ‘partying’ or ‘sex’ as this is what the majority of teens enjoy. However, I did not want my pop music magazine to be based around these things, as mine aims to appeal a younger teenage audience of 13-16 year olds. Therefore, my pages do not present anything related to ‘sex’, but my artists are portrayed being positive and successful in what they do. My magazine contains exciting new gossip, in relation to their music, in which most female teenagers would enjoy reading about.

Today, there are a mix of pop artists who use their success in separate ways. There are artists, such as Miley Cyrus or Nicki Minaj, who express a seductive and sexual image with their pop music. They try to lure the audience in a show like manner, in which Janice Winship’s notion of complicity is mostly applied. This is because they are placing themselves in the male gaze, meaning they are complicit in creating the ideal version of themselves for a male audience (due of the gratification they will receive).

On the other hand, there are artists who dress in a provocative way which conforms to David Gauntlett’s theory of empowered females. This mostly applies to my production as I want my artists to be set as good role models for my teenager audience, and want to send an ideology about ‘success but also having fun by doing the things you love’, instead of something like ‘wearing loads of make up would gain your popularity’.

Whilst working through my

production, I wanted to make sure

that there were positive

representations of my female/male

artists presented on every page of

my magazine. This is so my target

audience of female teenagers can

aspire and look up to their

favourite celebrities on a positive

note. They are also easily

influenced as they are not as

sophisticated, and are seen more

as a mass and passive.

I did not want to sexualize any of my female models, as my magazine is

primarily aimed at a young teen audience. Therefore, I did not use any

camera shots that would present them in a sexual manner (not applying

Laura Mulvey’s male gaze or Janice Winship’s notion of complicity). I am not

aiming to attract men and when the parents buy the magazine, they would

most likely not want to see anything that is presented in a sexual way. Again,

I want to apply David Gauntlett’s empowered females, and illustrate strong

females who are in control of their sexuality. This is what the females’

parents would like to see as they would like their daughters to succeed in

life.

I have done this by presenting Chaz Flora, on the front cover, smiling in a positive manner directly towards the camera, wearing a trending looking top that is not revealing in any way. She is simply represented as a normal teenager with a big future ahead of her, nothing that appealing to boys who aren’t the prime target audience.

Also, Chaz is showing a funny gesture on the

right page of my double page spread when

holding the items. The pose connotes a certain

innocence and freedom which isn’t complicated

by the demands of a relationship or sex.

The long medium shot of Nicole, on

the bottom right side of the contents

page, presents her in a more revealing

way, however, the aim of this

particular shot is for the female artist

to show off her fashion sense which

the majority of female teens are

appealed to. This is so there is

something more for the female

‘gossipers’ to talk about with their

friends (increase of social

interaction), alongside the celebrity’s

music.

• The form convention - pop magazines

often cross over into gossip and fashion

magazines, which I had to be careful

about to keep focus on the music.

I wanted to evaluate different aspects of my

production, and I may have also pointed out some

criticisms (and how I could have improved on them)

FRONT COVER-• The skyline is focused on

a separate artist (before I

made the changes, it was

focused on Maddy Core,

however, she is already

featured on the front cover).

This increases social

interaction between my

teenage audience, due to

the increase variety of

artists talked about on my

pages. The rhetorical

question also causes my

female readers to wonder

and look further through

my magazine. • I particularly used this

convention on my pop

magazine to combine

music, gossip and fashion.

• My magazine still hugely

focuses on pop music, but I

decided to also talk about

fashion and make up so

there is a little more

entertainment for my

audience to read upon.

However, I have related the

fashion items to the artists

in a way that my female

teenagers can relate to.

• I think I have met

the conventions of

my pop genre when

relating to the vivid

and engaging

colours that I’ve

used as my main

colour scheme.

• I’d placed the main focal

image of Chaz Flora over

the masthead logo, to

create more effective (and

is another common trend

which most magazines do).

• The overlapping of the

masthead could also

increase as the brand’s

popularity and

recognisable aesthetic

does.

FRONT COVER-

• A red love heart

design to add a little

more femininity, and

correlates to my young

teenage audience.

• I also wanted to

create interest to the

fact that the red love

heart is included on

my front cover,

despite wanting to

promote young women

as not governed by sex

- It just proves how

strong dominant

ideologies are!

CONTENTS PAGE-• The masthead has an attached

connotation of pop. I got this idea

from the existing pop magazine

‘WElovePOP.’, in which there is

evidence of the brand logo on the

contents page (next to the small copy

of logo). This shows a clear

correlation throughout the magazine.

If I had extra time, I would have

probably done a little more research

about the different tools of

‘Photoshop’. This is so I can attempt

to remove the shadow on the female

model’s legs.

• The vibrancy of colours and the

contrasting variety of images are

conventional of the younger audience.

• I have used different fonts for most of the

text, however, they are all quite similar in style.

Therefore, it does not affect the continuity of

conventions, but still connotes a little diversity

(so every section of the page grabs the readers’

attention)

On my contents page, I wanted to make sure that there was an equal balance

of gossip (text), images and music content.

I wanted this particular page to still be appealing (with its images and fonts),

however, I also wanted to focus on providing my readers with the information

they need, which is usually found on a contents page, so they know what

features inside my pop magazine.

When comparing my front cover and the contents page, the contents page has

a slight increase dominance of gossip/music content (text). This is because

the purpose of my contents page is to inform the reader about the type of

content that features within my magazine, whereas, the front page aims to

grab my target audiences’ attention with its appealing and bold style of fonts,

and its variety of images.

Most of the content on this page is focused on the music, which is what my pop

magazine is all about – I may have added extras that are slightly unrelated to

music (e.g. make up), however, the majority of text is centred on music pop

entertainment.

I have also maintained sticking to the main colour scheme of light blue, red and

white on the contents page and throughout, which is known as the house style.

(During my research and planning, I had looked through a couple of pop

existing magazine, such as ‘WElovePOP.’, and found that there is some content

about fashion and boys (etc), other than just music – therefore, the extras that

I have added in my own magazine production does not hugely affect anything).

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD-

I’ve used a font that is readable, but also since my teenage audience are fox

thinkers (therefore, they will most likely scan through the text rather than read

every single word), I changed the colour of font to red from black. This

highlights the important key parts of the whole text in every response. I’ve also

kept to the main colour scheme of light blue, red and white (the house style)

which is why I chose these colours.

• I would have actually preferred to highlight the key text in a yellow highlighter,

which I was planning on doing instead of changing the colour of font, however, I

struggled with this as I did not know how to highlight text specifically on

‘Photoshop’. I attempted to research a little on how I could do this, but I could not

get the answer I was looking for. Therefore, I just changed the colour of font which

still works in my opinion.

- I believe if I had a little extra time that I would be able to find out where this

particular tool was. In general, it did not really affect anything too much in a way.

Light blue bold text

(highlight questions

asked)

Red text (highlight

key text in Chaz’s

response)

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD- I’ve used the same background

design for both pages within the

double page spread. The

continuity of designs and fonts is

created, including the same with

the consistency of colours

(yellow and light blue). This kind

of design appeals to a younger

teen audience as the bold bright

colours creates more excitement

to the pages.

• I’ve used pull quotes, which are found in

one of Chaz’s responses, for more appeal

and to highlight the artist’s key quotes.

• I’ve done this also because my audience

are young teenagers and will most likely get

bored if there was just plain text presented.

• Therefore, I made the pull quotes stand

out by placing them on a yellow design, and

placed randomly on the interview page (I

only created two as I didn’t want the page

to look too over the top).

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD-• The response stating that she

“feel(s) cheery knowing that

(she’s) put a smile on their

faces”, connotes Chaz Flora’s

light-hearted personality which

appeals to the young readers as

they feel acknowledged and

important in the eyes of this 16

year old artist.

• The other response stating that

she “hardly remember(s) what the

garden looks like”, connotes her

busy lifestyle and portrays how

much her music means to her,

aspiring her young fans to also

have that success in something

they love doing.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD-

This is something which I might have changed, by continuing the text onto the

next page (right page), somewhere next to the image of Chaz Flora. I think this

would have worked better, plus there would have been more to see on the right

page as I also think there is not enough text on that particular page – I believe I

should have filled the space a little more, so there is an equal balance of

information on either page.

I believe there is too much

text on the left page as it

might seem too

overwhelming for my

teenage readers. They are

not exactly the sophisticated

type of audience, therefore,

they would most likely

prefer to scan over simple

gossip and images, rather

than just small text (and the

majority black).

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD-

I am glad that I had taken this

photo of Chaz Flora holding a

microphone, a tennis racquet

and balancing a book on her

head. This is because it relates

to Chaz’s response in the

interview, and its not just about

her music but her other hobbies

as well.

I think the image is effective

and connotes the love for her

hobbies and the importance of

living a healthy lifestyle, along

with her music career. The

image type is quite adventurous

instead of Chaz just posing

casually and looking at the

camera.However, I think the quality of

the image is not as sharp as I

hoped it would be.

Throughout the planning of my double page spread, I wanted the interview to focus on Chaz Flora’s music (as it is a music pop magazine), however, I also wanted to add some of the female artists’ other hobbies and family life. This is so the reader receives a little more information about their favourite artist, and so they can relate to Chaz more – get more personal identity. I wanted to portray that Chaz is still a normal 16 year old teenager, even though her growing music success might show another life she lives.

I wanted the heading to be simple and easily understood, but also grab the teenage readers’ attention as the word ‘REAL’ (in capitals and different coloured font) connotes some truth into Chaz Flora’s character, which causes the audience to wonder and read on – entices the reader as they want to know more about the young artist’s lifestyle.

I have used Levi Strauss binary oppositions which is indicated in the heading ‘meet the REAL Chaz Flora’; the media’s usual perspective of Chaz Flora vs Chaz Flora’s true character/lifestyle from her own P.O.V. These two concepts will create a more interesting interview, as Chaz might reveal something about herself that her fans had no idea about, due to the media maybe giving the same information about her.

FRONT PAGE: I believe this page mostly conforms to conventions

due to its variety of shot types of different genders of artists, its

bright and appealing colour scheme and the style of fonts which

correspond to the magazine’s genre. There is not a lot that I

would change ,however, if I had the chance I would probably have

added more images and text to fill in the extra space and so

there is more for the audience to look at and relate to.

CONTENTS PAGE: In general, I am quite pleased with the layout

of text and images, and there is an equivalent balance of the two

on this particular page. If I had to add something extra, I would

have created more quotes and images as this is the layout that

most existing magazines follow on a contents page.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD: I think this page least conforms to

conventions as the volume of text on one page seems too

overwhelming to look at, if seen by a young teenage audience.

The large quantity of text would have suited more to an older

(sophisticated) audience – would appeal more to my secondary

audience, who are older females.

Throughout creating my pop magazine production, I had to be careful that

my magazine wasn’t focused too much on random gossip, such as fashion.

I needed to stick to the music and the artists.

I did slightly challenge this in a way as the content on my magazine pages

had a mix of gossip particularly about the artists’ music, but also on

fashion and make up.

I think the convention IS for pop magazines to combine music, fashion

and gossip.

However, I did keep this in mind and combined fashion and gossip with the

music of artists. For example, on the contents page, it talks about make

up which were seen worn by a variety of popular celebrity artists.

Therefore, I did try and link new gossip to pop artists.

Before I did my corrections, on the right centre side of the magazine, it

said ‘Nicole’s love for fashion’, however, this wasn’t really relating to the

type of genre my magazine is. So I eventually changed it to ‘Nicole’s tips

for pop success’, which focuses on the music element of my pop

magazine. This is to ensure that I kept to the brief of the production.