Analysis of Music Magazines

This is Billboard magazine, it is a popular music magazine about the charts with a target audience of older teenagers who enjoy listening to pop music.

The colours on the magazine all revolve around the vibrant red colour of Rihanna's hair. Having a darker background creates a strong contrast with the red hair and automatically draws attention to biggest and most important part of the cover. Red and Yellow are two bright colours which help create this contrast.

Rihanna's gun tattoo relates to the words 'The Re-Reinvention of Rihanna' as it's a James Bond theme writing style. Also 'Re-Re' is related to Rihanna as she refers to herself as 'Ri-Ri'.

Red is the main theme colour on the magazine and it also links to the feature stories listed down the side. For example, 'Bull on Parade'. When you think of a bull, red is the main associated colour, the same with 'Killer App Summit', the word 'Killer' makes you think about the colour red relating to blood. The lighting of this magazine is generally dark with one main bright colour, red. This would be because red is the colour that relates to Rihanna really well and she is the main subject on the cover.

The fact that Rihanna's head is on top of the main title of 'Billboard' could suggest that she is chart topping at the time of this issue release, or she has just released a new song.

This issue of Billboard is featuring Lady Gaga as the main subject. She has bright purple hair which creates a light contrast with the background making the colours very appealing to the target audience.

The title 'Billboard' is in black as it's a very contrasting colour with the neutral purples and this is the part of the magazine which catches the eye of the readers and allows it to draw in attention. The colours used also are fresh and new relating to this new issue. Thirdly the colours are consistent and bright which reflects the pop genre and the only anomalies are the blue and yellow colours in the title 'Billboard'. However on every issue 'Billboard' has two, strong contrasting colours in the 'a' and 'd' of the word. This is  a constant feature for 'Billboard' and is how they make their magazine different from the other music magazines.

Lady Gaga's hair is the main attraction of the magazine cover, it's big, bright and in a unique style. This reflects the sort of person she is because she does lots of weird things that you see and hear about in the media and press. Also Lady Gaga likes to be centre of attention and she likes to do things first, and it's an unusual thing to see somebody with purple hair, especially with it made into a bow. It's not only Lady Gaga's hair that is unique, she also has a very strange fashion sense and wears clothes that nobody else has seen before, just like the outfit she has on in this image.

This is Top of the Pops magazine, a magazine which is targeted at an audience of young teenage girls. This is further emphasised by the glittery pink title and the different shades of pink throughout the cover.

TTOP magazine try to include lots of interesting topics to keep their target audience attached. For example one of the feature stories is about One Direction and Justin Bieber. The majority of young teenage girls love listening to pop music and are obsessed with male singers like Justin Bieber and One Direction, so including people like this keeps the magazine relevant to the target audience and therefore makes them want to buy future issues.

The bright pink and the black on the front cover creates a strong contrast which the eye is naturally drawn to, and because these are young, fun colours it attracts the young target audience to it.

This magazine is also very popular with it's target audience because it includes huge pop artists such as Jessie J, Lady Gaga and Rochelle from The Saturdays. These are all role models to young teenage girls who they want to be like and dress like, this is why there is a feature story about dressing like Rochelle for a small amount of money. This magazine also offers advice about the stereotypical things which young teenage girls go through which is another good asset to the magazine encouraging this audience to buy it.



This is XXL magazine which mainly features the rap genre. In this issue Lil Wayne is the main subject on the cover and inside this copy. Again the colours on the magazine are very consistent and black and red reflect and describe rap music very well, deep but passionate.

The colours on the magazine also reflect the genre as they are quite violent and 'in your face' which could be seen as intimidating, a bit like rap is if an outsider listens to this genre.
The intimidation is also emphasised by Lil Wayne himself, he is a controversial artist who a lot of people like but a lot of people are unsure of, his pose also adds to this. However using intimidation isn't to scare people away it's a way of drawing people in because the strong contrasting colours intrigue them, and this isn't seen as intimidating to the target audience, stereotypically older teenage boys. However rap is an open genre which is for whoever wants to listen and be involved in it.

Although the name 'Lil Wayne' is big, it's transparent, this is showing that Lil Wayne is a big world wide artist who doesn't need his name to be highly recognisable. Also 'Still I Rise' is a song by Lil Wayne, but it could also mean that he is rising in the charts and becoming more and more popular.