TOP OF THE POPS MAGAZINE

• Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly publication 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 until the latter was cancelled in 2006.

• The magazine was launched in February 1995 and is famous for giving girl group The Spice Girls their nicknames. Alongside a revamp of the TV show, 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.

FEATURES

• Oops, Shameful Celeb Slip Ups—The magazine picks the funniest celebrity pictures and associates them with a witty quote

• Your Oops—Readers send in the most shameful stories• Gossip 2 Go—The month's hottest celebrity gossip• The Wonderful World Of The Wanted-A page wrtten by The

Wanted• Don't Miss—The magazine picks some of the hottest films, TV

programmes and games, plus the latest single reviews by a random celebrity.

• Top Of The Shops—The magazine picks out some of the hottest bargains, where you can buy them, and their price

• Real Life—The magazine draws our attention to situations that happen in the real world

• The Surgery—Originally called Star Therapy, this was hosted by a random celebrity who tries to sort out readers' problems. Along with the name change, the section is now hosted by BBC Radio 1's Aled and BBC Slink's Dr Mel.

• Your Letters—Hosted by Dick and Dom who take a look at some of our readers' gossip about stars, clothes or just real life situations.

• One Direction page with your questions and their answers, 1D fan of the month

• Background and Ownership Created in 1995, this monthly magazine keeps its readership (87% girls; 13% boys; primary audience aged between 11-15 years) thoroughly informed with all things pop music and pop-related celebrity. At a cost of £2.30, it is quite expensive for a 42 page glossy magazine. However the freebies and little extras included help this price to be reasonable. The institution that makes this magazine is the BBC Media Institution. Within the magazine there are articles which direct readers to many children’s BBC productions, such as Tracey Beaker (CBBC Channel).

• Magazine features; “ Oop, Shameful Celeb Muck Ups” – The magazine picks out “cringe” celebrity pictures and gives them each a witty quote “ Your oops” – Readers send in their own embarrassing stories “ Gossip2Go” – The month’s newest celebrity gossip “ Don’t Miss” – The magazine promotes the latest film for it’s target audience e.g. Twilight Saga, New Moon.

• “ Real Life” – Situations from the real world to inform young girls of the outside threats “ Your letters” – Keeping in touch with readers Posters of celebrities for readers to cut out. top of the pops is already a music show on TV, therefore buyers would immediately relate the products back to the show. If they already have a liking of the show then they could assume the content of the magazine and would perhaps like to read it for more information about their favourite stars.

• This magazine features the genre of Pop music i.e. chart music with a wide appeal, especially young female and male singers/bands. It is orientated towards young females, and keeping them up to date with the latest in ‘popular music’ but in an effort to retain its young, largely female readership – a readership not usually addressed by music magazines – it has lifestyle features like fashion and make-up, celebrity gossip, some elements familar from ‘real –life’ magazines, celebrity scandal, articles about boys and relationships etc. Of course, all these are watered down so appropriate for the young readership.

• Reader Profile Top of the pops readers are young consumers, primarily female, with a keen sense of curiosity towards pop music and its celebrities. They have varied interests within this topic, consisting of young male and female celebrities from TV shows, films, successful musicians, either soloists or bands, mostly female soloists and male bands. They are accessible through all kinds of media, which is why this magazine must throw in all it can to maintain its readers. As the consumers are of 11-14yrs, they do not have an income, therefore they depend on parents/guardians. The content must be suitable for 11-14yrs, otherwise parents would not feel obliged to buy a product for their child which contains explicit material – although a lot of the material teases about that sort of thing.

• Style of the magazine Bright colours and shiny happy people – make the appearance friendly to its young readers. Male artists are portrayed and therefore viewed as an object of desire. Female artists are portrayed and therefore viewed as an objects of inspiration. Mode of address is young, youth orientated slang. Use of teen jargon e.g. “fit” or “phwoar.”

• Free gifts - Female beauty products Adverts – Aimed at females, hygiene and beauty products, also advert for NCPCC – Childline against any kind of abuse. Question and answer layout for interviews, as opposed to journalistic features.

• Competitions etc to give readers a sense of ownership to encourage them to buy it.

• Cover Analysis This is a typical example of an eye catching magazine cover, not only does it use vibrant colours to attract buyers buy it also has a picture of a successful pop star to appeal to its target audience. Looking at this particular cover, I would say that it appeals more to girls than to boys, purely because of all the information and goodies the magazine has to offer.

• The colours are bright and vibrant and often stereotypical female to appeal to the primary audience.

• This can be reinforced by the use of free gifts, such as eyeliners and liquid glitter liners.

• Sometimes the cover is packed with images and text - bright colourful images, music stars or celebrities from TV shows or movies that appeal to this target audience, like “New Moon.”

• The varied use of images allows contrast within the cover showing its readers the magazine is not just about music but all other types of media too, which of course, reflects the BBC being a multimedia corporation even if the central theme is music.

• The diversity in the articles allows something for everyone.

• There is a limited colour scheme for the cover- 5 colours apart from the BBC logo; similarly, there is a limited use of fonts so as not to make the cover look too complicated

• The range of hooks/cover lines gives the reader the impression that there is something for them.

• The use of competitions and cut out posters are interactive components to the magazine, which are fun for the readers and helps give them a sense of ownership.

• Colour contrast and layout. Pages tend to reflect a house style, using a particular colour scheme, which helps gives the issue identity. Colours are used to make the layout look vibrant and attractive. The pages are split up with the use of text, boxes and images. Boxes include more text or highlight various details relevant to the feature to make them stand out for the reader. Look at the way images are used – how is the main subject posed and positioned? What is this telling the audience? Bars across the top of the pages can be used as headings to imply the “exclusiveness” of the article. Quotes can be used outside the feature, sometimes as the title, to hook the reader and give the impression she/he is finding out something directly from the star.

• Future of Music Magazines Due to the recent increase of digital media, consisting of mobile phones, internet and interactive television, it appears that music magazines will eventually decrease in the market making way for new media which is not yet available. At the moment all digital media has become a threat to music magazines, so most of the magazine publishers have created websites that complement their magazines to keep readers updated for free, whilst also keeping information only for their magazines to persuade readers to continue purchasing their product. As digital media has become a lot less costly as buying weekly or monthly magazines it seems readers numbers may decrease; however, there will always be people who do not have access to the digital media or like to read from a screen and prefer hard copies.

• Language Analysis That this is aimed at younger readers is apparent from the use short and simple sentences. The informal tone and use of colloquialisms help the target audience relate to the text; hence they’ll be more likely to buy it. Use of the word, “Your,” immediately attaches the reader to the article suggesting it is about a reader’s experience and one, therefore, that others can share. The use of alliteration gives titles rhythm, making them bright and catchy, Stories are summed up with a snappy topic phrase either in the title or strapline to engage the reader.

• Simple informal language is used to maintain the feeling that the true-life ‘embarrassing stories’ are written for and by readers of the same age range and that they happen to everyone. This is also enforced with the use of names after each story. Generally, these are used to reassure the readers that they are not alone in their experiences, reflecting the BBC’s educational remit. Exclamation marks emphasise the point of each story. This immediately states the aim of each story for the readers, similar to the snappy headings.

• Top of the Pops magazine promotes the kind of artists that appear on CBBC programmes like Friday Download as well as on BBC Radio One; however it also promotes the film industry with the use of adverts for the recent film releases that are suitable to the product’s audience. Other BBC products are promoted too.