The document discusses the front covers of two music magazines - Smash Hits and Q magazine. Smash Hits targets young girls aged 8-14 as its core audience. Its front cover uses stereotypically "girly" colors like pink, features popular young pop stars, and promotes gossip stories about celebrities to attract readers. Q magazine targets an older, more mature audience. Its front cover has a simpler, more sophisticated design and features interviews with established alternative pop artists like Madonna to appeal to its target demographic.

1. MUSIC MAGAZINE
PRESENTATION
TASK.
BY MEG ALLARD

2. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CORE
TARGET AUDIENCE IS FOR THIS
PROJECT?
The target audience for this magazine would be young
girls, I know this from looking at it because of the
colours, the layout, the stories and the people on the
front. For example they have used colours like pink
because this is stereotypically a girls favourite colour
which for this reason would draw their attention straight
to it. The layout is very spaced out but with big font so
that it looks like there are lots of stories but they don‟t
look boring to read about by having lots of writing in
small font. By putting Pink and Avril Lavigne on the
front cover will attract the target audience because
these are big pop stars that they will idolise and who
they will be into at the time. I think that the age range
for this magazine would be between 8 and 14 years old.

3. WHAT INFORMATION CAN YOU LEARN
ABOUT THE LIFESTYLE PROFILE/INTEREST
OF THE CORE TARGET AUDIENCE FROM
THE FRONT COVER?
Young girls would like to read these stories because of many
reasons, one of the main reasons is because all the articles in this
magazine are pretty much gossip about pop stars that they look up
to and like their music, so therefore that would interest them to buy
it as they would want to read about them and know everything
about them. The sort of stories that are on there that include
gossip are „Snogging Madonna was cool” Britney confesses
everything to Smash Hits‟ this would make them want to read it
because Madonna and Britney would be in the charts so they
would know who they are, by reading this they would be able to
talk to their friends about it and know all the gossip because that‟s
what girls that age like to do. Another main thing that they have
included in this magazine to attract the target audience to buy it is
by giving away free gifts, from reading what the gifts are they don‟t
sound very good and they are clearly not expensive to
make, however young girls don‟t have much money and for them
to get a magazine and free things as well is an extra and would
make them want to buy it again because at that age it is exciting to
get a poster to put in your room or a free sweet

4. WHAT MUSIC MAGAZINE GENRE
CODES AND CONVENTIONS CAN
YOU IDENTIFY?
The genre for this magazine is pop, many conventions
of pop are being showed in this magazine by having
pop stars on the front looking pretty and glammed up.
For example on the front of this Smash Hits are Avril
Lavigne and Pink, these are two very powerful pop
icons, they wear fashionable clothes that can be
relatable to the audience and they are also heavily
stylised, from all of these elements young girls that
would read this would want to be like them and dress
the same as them. They also look like they are having
a good time, they aren't posing, they are just jumping
up and down and having a good time, which is the
mood that pop conveys; happy, bubbly and most of it
is censored.

5. WHAT ELEMENTS OF THE HOUSE
STYLE CAN YOU IDENTIFY?
The elements of the house style that occur
throughout this magazine and most young pop
magazines are the colours. The main thing that
occurs is the colour pink and this is because most
people that buy these magazine are young girls
wanting to read about their idols, and pink is
normally a girls favourite colour so therefore they
will be more likely to buy this magazine rather
than the same sort of one with blue on the front.
Another thing that they use throughout is big font
size and a simple front, this is because if it was
small and there was lots to read girls wouldn‟t
want to read it because it looks too much and
boring, where as with bigger writing it looks less
boring and when they read it they will be happy
with themselves for reading an article and will
want to read more, also if the font is simple it also
looks easier to read.

6. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN MISE-EN-SCENE
In the magazine „Q‟ it has Madonna on the front, the image of her is a medium close up. This is affective
because it means the full concentration is on her and this is what the publishers would want. She is wearing a
black silk jacket with the hood up, on the hood there is a strip of gold which shows how classy she is, the
jacket looks as if it is in the style of a boxing robe. She is holding the hood with her right hand which has a
glove on it, but the glove is very unusual as it has her first two fingers in it then her ring finger and her little
finger out of it, this is very unusual but it is very Madonna because she is trying to make a fashion statement.
The back ground is black, this is looks good because it is quite plain which means that your concentration is
not taken away from Madonna and also it blends in with her robe so it looks very sophisticated. She's also
wearing big hoop earrings that you can really see but they are again Madonna setting one of her fashion
statements. She has quite a sexy pose which sums up Madonna, this goes with the theme of the magazine
because it is also sophisticated.
On the smash hits magazine it has Pink and Avril Lavigne on the front, there images are medium long shot.
This is good for this style magazine because it means you can see more of there body, so therefore you can
then see more of what they are wearing which is important for this magazine because the young readers
would prefer to see what they are wearing as they are a fashion icon for them. Pink is in front of Avril Lavigne
and she has her hair scraped back, she has her fist out and has a very punk rock ring and bracelet on, she is
also wearing a bikini top with a necklace that has tassels coming down to her waist. Avril Lavigne is jumping
up and down, her hair is swinging and she has one hand up in the air and one in a fist shape like pink. I think
how they have set them out is very clever because this is how you would expect to see them in their music
videos.
These two magazines don‟t have much in common, they have many more difference because of the style of
magazine they are. The main things that they have in similar are that they both give away free gifts. And
another thing is that they both have quite a simple font style, however these are for different reasons, smash
hits reason is so that it doesn‟t look too much for the young readers to read and „Q‟ magazine have it to carry
on their sophisticated look. Their main differences are their colour scheme, Smash Hits have loads of different
colours that stand out like; pink, green, yellow and blue. Where „Q‟ tries to keep it simple with classy colours
like; red, black, silver and white.

7. LAYOUT AND STYLE
OF LANGUAGE
The layout for „Smash Hits‟ is very busy and all over the place, this is
because they want the magazine to look like there is loads in it and there is
loads to read about, they also want to look young for the readers because
they are young and if it was plain and boring they wouldn‟t want to read it.
They have some of their writing in shapes like; rectangles, squares and
circles, this is good because it sections them off and makes it look less
confusing and more simple for them so they can read the stories
individually. Their language is very relatable to the target audience because
they don‟t use big words as they are young, and they say things like „cringe‟
this is clever because it is a common word that young girls would say and
therefore they will like to read what is „cringe‟ in the magazine.
„Q‟ magazines layout is really simple but classy. They may have wanted it to
be this simple because they wouldn‟t want to over do it and make it look
messy because by having it simple it also makes it look neat and not messy
which is what adult would want. The language that they use in it is much
more mature and adult like because that is their target audience, they don‟t
use words like „cringe‟ because they would not like that as it looks really
young and inexperienced.

8. MUSIC GENRE
CONVENTIONS
„Smash Hits‟ has many pop music genre conventions, the main one is
the colours they have picked, in this case they have chosen very bold
colours that stand out and that would also appeal to the target
audience; pink, yellow, green, blue and white. Another convention is the
pop stars that they have on the front, Pink and Avril Lavigne, at the time
these two stars were the biggest and best in the chart so by putting
them on the front they will get more sales than if they put someone not
even in the charts on there. Pop music is quite bubbly so this is why
they have lots going on in the front cover to convey the mood.
„Q‟ has many alternative pop genre conventions, for example the
colours, red, black and silver are the type of colours you would see on
the front of alternative pop albums. They have listed lots of names and
famous people on the front of the magazine which shows the interesting
interviews that will be in it with people from this genre. They have got
Madonna on the front which is effective because she is the queen of
alternative pop and this will be a strong selling point.

9. MUSIC ARTISTS FEATURED AND
THE AUDIENCE THEY APPEAL TO
„Smash Hits‟ have the two biggest pop icons at the time on the front of
this magazine and this is good because the audience which is young
girls will know of them and be into them so therefore will buy the
magazine to be able to read about them as well as listen to their music.
They also have the Sugababes on the who are also big fashionable and
glammed up pop stars. Then there‟s a small photo of Gareth Gates
which is clever and not uncommon on this sort of magazine, young
girls could fancy him so this is a very big selling point whenever the
target audience is young girls.
„Q‟ only have two photos on the front and only one of the images is
really an important one for the audience and that is the main one of
Madonna, however the fact that they only have one photo isn't a bad
thing, for this magazine it‟s a good thing because they want it to look
smart and sophisticated. Although they only have one image they still
have many names on the front of people that are in the magazine and
they still stand out just as much, maybe even more. The fact that they
are in writing and not images will stand out more to the target audience
because they are adults and they will buy the magazine more to read it
then look at pictures unlike young girls.

10. SPECIAL FEATURES AND
ARTICLES IN BOTH
EDITIONS.
„Smash Hits‟ has quite a few special features on the front, but the main
one that stands out is the free things it is giving away, they are giving
away 3 free things and although they aren't big or expensive things they
will still draw buyers attention and give it the edge on other magazines.
They have loads of „interesting articles‟ that are made to look good on
the front, for examples „most embarrassing stories ever‟ they have
photos to try and show how embarrassing they are supposed to be but I
doubt they will be the most embarrassing stories ever.
„Q‟ has more special features than „Smash Hits‟ in my opinion. It has a
great special feature that says „THE 50 BEST BRITISH ALBUMS AS
VOTED BY YOU!‟ this sounds interesting because you want to find out
who voted for what the most and especially as it involves the audience
by letting them chose. The main article is about an interview with
Madonna, this is huge because she is such a big star, also there is a
quote from her interview that says „Stupid question! Next!‟ from this you
can tell that she has an odd personality but you want to read about it to
see if she says anything else like that in it.

11. WHAT OVERALL TECHNIQUES
ARE USED TO MAKE YOU READ
THE COMPLETE MAGAZINE.
The main technique that they have used to make you read the
complete magazine is the house style, this is important because
it contains many important things that attract the target
audience.
„Smash Hits‟ have used the same colours throughout the
magazine to keep the buyers wanting to read and still feeling
like it is a girly pop magazine. Another thing is the bubbliness of
the front cover with things scattered all over the front because
they wouldn‟t want blocks of articles with lots of writing they
would want a lot going on. Another thing they would have used
to make them read the complete magazine is using young
slangy language throughout so the girls still relate to it and have
it on their level.
„Q‟ magazine has kept the same level of sophistication through
out because the target audience would have brought the
magazine because of the cover so would like it to carry on all
the way through the magazine.

12. MODE OF ADDRESS
The mode of address normally used in language, for example it might say
„you‟ or „do you want‟ it involves the reader.
„Smash Hits‟ has only two modes of address, the first one is when it says
“Who‟ll win the battle of the rock chicks?” this would make the girls want to
read it because its like asking them so they would want to get involved. The
second one is how Pink and Avril Levigne are looking into the camera and
sticking their fists out. I think the reason that they haven‟t included many is
because young readers don‟t really understand or even notice them, so its
more about the colours, who is in it and if they are giving anything away for
free. And in this case the editors have done all of those things to the full
extent by using stereotypical girl colours, big pop stars and three free gifts
away, and for this magazine that works.
„Q‟ is slightly different, they involve one direct mode of address, and that it
when they say „THE 50 BEST BRITISH ALBUMS AS VOTED BY YOU!‟ and the
„you‟ part is the important bit and this is because it is about the reader or
possible buyer, this is effective because it makes them feel involved and
noticed by the magazine publisher and everyone involved in it. However the
reason that they have only used it once is because they want them to feel
involved but they don‟t want to change the sophistication or classiness of
the magazine.