2. BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
Billboard is an American music magazine, devoted to music and its industry.
It is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. The magazine follows
the worldwide recognised music charts, tracking the most popular songs
and albums in various categories, on a weekly basis. The two most notable
charts is the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200. It’s headquarters are in
New York City and is owned by Prometheus Global Media. The PGM is a New
York based media company. The Billboard magazine maintains several
internationally recognised record charts, which tells the viewers the latest
songs and albums across the several categories on a weekly basis. Billboard
is however the world’s most influential music magazine. The Billboard brand
is built on its exclusive charts and unrivalled reporting on the latest news,
issues and trends across all genres of music.
3. THE HISTORY OF
BILLBOARD
Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William H. Donaldson
and James Hennegan. It was originally titled Billboard Advertising and was
published monthly, it was a trade paper for the bill posting industry, hence the
magazine's name. The cover of the first Billboard Advertising carried a grainy
black and white cameo of one R.C. Campbell, a Chicago advertising executive.
This is a photograph
of R.C Campbell
In February 1897, Billboard Advertising made a major shift in change. The
magazine's name was changed and shortened to The Billboard. Now the magazine
was listings of fairs and ads for outdoor attractions which began to increase. At
the start of 1961, The Billboard was renamed to Billboard Music Week. The
publication was now devoted to almost entirely the music industry. The title was
simply changed to Billboard in 1963. Today's Billboard is helmed by president and
publisher John Killcullen, with co-executive editors Tamara Conniff and Ken
Schlager heading up the editorial team. Under their leadership, the magazine went
to a major redesign and repositioning in May 2005. Billboard is now read in more
than 100 countries around the world. Billboard.com now attracts 2.5 million unique
visitors each month.
4. TARGET AUDIENCE
In my opinion by looking and reading the Billboard magazine. I would say
that the magazine is mostly for young teens, from the age of 16, to young
adults , at the age from 27. This is because the magazine provides its
readers with the latest updates from the music charts, but to different
various types of genres. Overall it is aimed towards both genders males
and females depending on the cover star and the age range of the target
audience. The layout of the magazine is very mature and is not
overcrowded with images of teen bands and other artists. It also does not
advertise news and gossip of the artist’s lives but only conveys the weekly
update of the music charts.
5. MUSIC ARTISTS
FEATURED
The artists which are featured in the Billboard magazine tend to be
popular artists for example Beyoncé and Eminem. They choose to put
these artists on the front cover because as they appeal to the older teens,
as they do not perform too girly music, as the target audience is growing
up which means so is there music choice which used to be artists like
Justin Bieber. As these artists are role models for younger generations
magazines will display them so they will cover most of the page whether it
will be on the front cover, contents or even the double page spread.
6. LAYOUT, DESIGN AND
STYLE OF LANGUAGE
Billboard places the music artist at the front cover of the magazine
in the middle. This is done so the artist can grab the viewers
attention. The viewers will firstly be attracted by the main image
because the main image directly looks at the focal point of the
camera, breaking in to get the viewers attention to get them to buy
the magazine. The layout and design of the contents page is
organised and clear, as it is put in a number of different sections so
that the reader is not wasting time which for the target audience
being young adults is a good thing.
As you can see here Beyoncé
is directly looking at the
camera to get the audience’s
attention.
7. MODE OF ADDRESS
The mode of address that Billboard uses is informal. This magazine
tends to take a quote from the artist who is featured on the front
cover talking about their fans. They use informal language because
they want the reader to feel as if the artist is talking to them as their
friend. They also use direct mode of address ‘you’. This shows that
the reader will feel as though the artist is directly talking to them.
Here is Rihanna who is featured on the front
cover. Her quote is ‘my fans don’t really know
who I am’. When the reader will read this
quote they will automatically think that
Rihanna is talking to them personally which
will draw them in and will create enigma so it
will encourage them to consume the
magazine.
