The magazine cover is very pink and glittery with pinks, blues, and white to appeal to its target audience of young females. It uses bright colors and sparkly elements stereotypically attractive to teens. The masthead is placed on an angle and the "w" of "we" is stretched out and slanted to make the title personal and involve the readers. Cover lines and posters of popular artists are strategically placed to guide the reader's eyes across the cluttered page and entice them to purchase the magazine for gossip and stories.

1. Pop music magazine cover
annotations
By Matthew McMinn

2. VIBE
Colour scheme is not very complex, it has
different shades of pink/purples and the
main background colour is white and this
shows it is a studio taken image. This makes
it easier on the editor not having to mess
with the background. The other colour on
this magazine is the blue in Chers
clothing, this works well with the white and
pink/purples, this is a conventional theme
using 3 or 4 colours. This is because the
audience for this magazine is probably going
to be young teen girls who want to idolise
the people represented in the magazine. You
would not stereotypically expect to see a 14
year old boy going into Tesco and purchasing
this magazine.
The language used of “you” appears quite
personal and seems 1 on 1 and so you would
feel you are having a type of conversation as
the reader. This would especially attract the
attention of young women and teens in the
context it is used in of “Will Ashton take you
out” which is appealing to a lot of young
females. “You” also stands forward from the
rest of that sentence giving it a more
emphasised personal approach which is very
appealing to an audience.
Cover lines down the side of the
page are mainly shown graphically
than with words. This is to give a
general idea of what will be in the
article and younger people generally
have a better imagination and so this
will print an image in the readers
head, the image just catalyses that.
Masthead big and bold and pink. It is quite a
tightknit font with no spaces and I like how the
circle with “of the” in it is using Chers hair to fill in
where the gaps and it is creating a different
colour, however it does seem quite difficult to read.
The masthead is also on top of Cher as is
everything else on the cover. This could be to do
with her not hiding anything as it says in the pink
circle and her appearing from all the images and
text could represent this.
The “REAL” Cher Lloyd suggests to the reader that
they maybe haven’t seen the real Cher and up until
now she has been pretty fake. The audience for this
magazine would be interested in celebrity gossip
which is why this works well as it entices the reader
into the magazine. This also makes it feel personal
as she is opening up about who she really is.
The white text against the black text makes the
white stand out more and so it subconsciously
makes you pick out those points as key parts.
Posters along the bottom of One Direction, a
small one of Jessie J and Cher. The text says
“sizzling” which is a word you relate to a frying
pan when its hot and you’re cooking
something. This then represents the feelings of
most young females towards One Direction
(mainly).
The layout of this magazine cover is quite clustered and tightly packed but it
appears to be common through this cover as the masthead is tightly packed
and then so is everything else on the magazine cover, only the pink circle is in
free space. This suggests a lot of magazine content.

3. Billboard
The main colour’s in this scheme are
black, light browns, white and a golden like
yellow. There is also a slight hint of blue in
the “a” behind Taylor Swifts head. This
matches the conventions of a typical
magazine cover of the 3 or 4 colours. The
colour scheme looks to have been done to
match Taylors golden, brown hair. You also
do not see much clothing in the splash
image, you mainly see flesh. But what you
do see of the clothing also matches this
colour scheme as it is a sparkly golden
colour. The colours make this magazine
quite bland as there are a lot of browns and
golden yellow colours in the text and
background, but this does match Taylors
style of music as she sings country/pop and
browns are a down to earth type of colour
which is what country music is about, being
in touch with yourself. Taylor does also sing
pop music and this is where the sparkle of
her golden dress/top comes in as it fits the
stereotype of glamour in the pop industry.
The masthead has been put behind Taylors head suggesting this is a
well-known magazine as they do not need the whole word to
recognise what it says. This could also infer that Taylor is more
important than the masthead as she is in front of it covering her up.
This maybe because she is what makes the magazine not the
masthead. Also this masthead reminds me of a famous art style of De
Stijl. This technique is commonly known for putting bright colours in
between bold black lines and so Billboard are using inter-textuality.
DE STIJL
The splash image shows quite a bit
of Taylors flesh although it is
nothing that what be considered
sexually revealing, it still hints at the
hegemony of women in the west
which you associate country music
is from.
“Taylor Swift” is in block capital on
her and this heavily shows that this
is who the image is of. Then
underneath in the golden yellow, is
a statement made about her, this
suggests there is more to read and
that this would entice the reader
into the article
The font of the cover lines down the left hand side of the page vary in sizes and colour and it feels slightly dis-figured.
None of the cover line text is on Taylor herself and her body positioning is towards the text but her head is turning
slightly away and her eyes even more so. This style pushes the readers eyes to the text on the left and you would
normal read from the left so you would hope it wouldn’t be missed. Something about her eyes though tell you to turn
the page over as if she is daring you in the sense she is just looking at the corner of her eye and this gives it a personal
feel that she is convincing you.

4. We <3 Pop
The colour scheme on this magazine appears
very stereotypically girly with the BRIGHT pinks
and light blue background. These colours show
a heavy apparel to young females. Also the
glitter around the “We <3 Pop” is very bling like
which would also attract young females of the
stereotype. The other main colour is white, this
may have been influenced by the fact that it is a
Christmas edition of this magazine because
white is heavily associated with this period of
time. This magazine cover also matches the
conventional 3 or 4 colour scheme that most
magazines appear to have. This is because the
reader may lose themselves in all the colour if
there is too much.
This cover also seems quite cluttered and jam
packed which suggests to the reader that there
is a lot of gossip and other things to read about.
Young females also stereotypically enjoy gossip
as they can feel connected with a celebrity if
they know more personal information about
them and this is a ploy used to get people to
buy the magazine.
The masthead is to the top left of the page, it is sparkly and suits the Christmas theme of
the magazine as it is a Christmas special edition. Tinsel is sparkly and that is what you
would relate this too. Young females would automatically be attracted to this
stereotypically as they like pink and shiny materials. The masthead has been put on a slant
and is slightly tilted. This makes the cover seem less linear. The “w” of “we” is also
stretched out and slanted where it starts and then straightens up to look like a regular “w”.
This gives the feel of the “we” is stretching around everyone so they are involved in the
“we” and it feels personal. The title is also placed in a speech bubble and this makes it
seem as if Zane and Niall are saying this. If they’re saying the title as if they like the
magazine (in a twisted way they are saying how they feel about the magazine by saying the
title of it) and so this will make people buy the
magazine as people worship the ground they walk on.
Running along the bottom of the page are some magazines items that aren’t really
stories but are in the magazine and big enough that they need to appear on the cover as
it is the cover that makes the reader decide upon whether to buy this magazine even
though there is the phrase “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” The posters in the bottom
left of the page show a bunch of pop singers that are male and a phrase of “Festive
Fitness” this is because the posters are of, what are deemed ‘fit lads’ for young females
to put on their bedroom walls. This is an attraction to them and so would make them
buy the magazine. The alliteration pun fits in with the theme and with what the posters
are about/like.
Cover-lines are everywhere over this cluttered
page. Some are on the top right of the page and
another is too the left. However they are very
cleverly placed. The “Ziall” cover-line is placed at
the end of Olly Murs’ elbow from his salute. This
means that when people follow his elbow with
there eyes they will see this cover-line an then
know it is in the magazine. The same is similar
with the cover-lines in he top right, the cover-lines
end at Olly’s eye level and so will be seen bye the
people looking a Olly’s picture. The reader will see
these cover-lines due to the smart positioning of
the editor (or whoever does the cover). Also the
fact that the magazine is cluttered suggests a lot
of stories and gossip to be read.
The main cover-line is on Olly himself under his
head. This cover-line is bigger than the rest as it is
an “EXCLUSIVE” and the magazine feel as if they
need to emphasise this to the reader. This also
tells the reader that this will most likely be a
double page spread (or longer) in the magazine
and so this is why it is larger.