Detailed Textual Analysis of a Magazine Front Cover

We love pop is a music magazine aimed at teenage girls aged 12 to 15. it focus’ on pop music and the artists involved in the genre. From a magazine in the genre I would expect to see bright colours, posters, free gifts and big fonts to represent the young target audience.

The colour scheme is bright and includes a lot of pink; this is because the magazine targets teenage girls. The pink connotes fun and innocence which represents the stereotypical girl that would want to read we love pop. The main image is of the Saturdays who are a girl band that young girls would look up to and aspire to be. In the photo they all have direct address which makes the reader feel as though the band is talking directly to them, this creates a bond between the reader and their favourite celebrities which is why the girls want to read the magazine. The image shows the band facing everyday problems such as bad makeup and hair problems etc which is appropriate to the target audience because the teenage girls can relate to how the band look and feel in the image. Another colour used (mainly for the text) is bright blue, this connotes happiness and enjoyment which is what the editor wants the reader to feel when they read the magazine, the bright colours also highlight some of the most important text.

The headline (which is also the logo of the magazine) is in a speech bubble which gives us the idea that the readers like to gossip and chat with friends, possibly about the information inside the magazine. The word 'love' is replaced by a heart, this text language connotes that the readers often use social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter which means the magazine could use cross media to appeal to their target audience. By using the text language, the reader also feels as though the magazine understands them and knows what they want and like which will encourage the target audience to keep buying the magazine. The headline for the main image ‘Saturday’s soap opera’ is effective because it is comical and the reader will want to know why the bands life isn’t perfect as we would expect it to be.  The anchorage for the main image says ‘tears, tantrums and total meltdowns’, this suits the magazine because the target audience can relate to what they are talking about in the article and will want to read it to get advice on how to deal with the problems themselves as they look up to the band. The typography is bold and rounded like bubble writing, this could be linked to young girls drawing and doodling in their free time.

The magazine has a pug at the top of the magazine in a bright blue circle advertising the 12 page one direction pull out that is inside the magazine, the front cover also tells the reader about the free ‘girl power posters’ that are inside. The pugs promote the magazine and encourage the reader to buy the magazine because they think they are receiving exclusive information and free gifts. There are 5 sub images on the front cover, two of other female artists that the readers will look up to and three small images of male artists. The male artists have been included because the female readers will be attracted to the boys so will enjoy reading about them.

To conclude, the most important features to any magazine, including this one, are the main image as that is what first catches the reader’s eye and the main headline linked to the image because if this seems like a good story then the reader will not hesitate to purchase the magazine.