Top of the Pops front cover

"Top of the Pops" semiotic deconstruction

Forms and conventions
The Top of the Pops magazine front cover holds the original forms and conventions of a magazine. For example, it includes a bold colourful title to capture the target audience’s attention and direct it towards the text. It also includes sell lines and teasers to entice the audience into the magazine. For example, “Jonas Brothers come clean about EVERYTHING!” this entices mainly young girls interested in the Jonas Brothers- which are also the target audience for this magazine. It captures the interests of Disney Channel viewers too, as the Jonas Brothers are broadcasted by the Disney Channel which then also promotes the channel throught the magazine. Furthermore, the magazine also says “WIN! Tickets to the X Factor”, this again, entices a wider target audience as it is of interest to X Factor fans too. X Factor's audience are also not only girls, which could then entice the male gender too, as well as a variety of ages. “Strictly Confidential and Exposed” is another teaser from the front cover as it creates suspense for the reader, and makes them want to read what’s featured inside the magazine as it sounds secretive- maybe some extreme celebrity gossip.

Title- connotations
“Top of the Pops” was already an established television programme showing the chart hit music, and therefore captures the interests of the audience who previously watched the show before it stopped showing on BBC1. The title implies the top or best songs from pop in its time- modern music of today. This attracts readers who enjoy pop music and also those interested in the features shown on the cover such as real life stories.

Imagery
The main imagery used on the magazine is a photograph of the Jonas Brother’s centred in the middle of the cover. This brings the attention of the viewer towards the image rather than the rest of the features/ images/ text shown on the page also. The cheery facial expressions of all the different artists and actors which are also photographed on the cover, bring a really welcoming and enticing aspect for the audience. The front cover as a whole looks well presented and organised, almost representing the organisation and perfectionism of young girls- which is again, who the magazine is targeted at.

Colour codes- connotations
From the colours on the front cover of the Top of the Pops magazine, we can see who the target audience is. Lots of pinks, purples, yellows and whites have been used to capture the audiences eye and also reflects who their particular audience is, as they're very feminine girly colours.

Articles and features
The front cover gives the audience a good indication of what is featured inside the magazine, which is a benefit as it entices its particular target audience more as they know what they’re buying (what they’ll be reading about) before they buy the magazine. The features which are shown to be included in the magazine are, celebrity gossip pages, real-life stories, competitions to win girly prizes, television and film gossip, as well as shopping bargains. This again shows us that the magazines target audience is mainly young feminine girls.

Typefaces/ graphics/ stylistic features
Lots of different fonts with different colours have been included on the front cover of the magazine, again to entice their particular audience. Some bold dominant fonts have been used, as well as smaller, more fragile fonts. This shows that the creator of the magazine wants the viewer to be drawn to the bolder text first. This could be because the bolder text might be more interesting and exciting for the reader, therefore wanting the audience to read this first to be captured into reading the magazine.

Audience
From the cover of this particular magazine, it is quite easy to see who the audience is targeted at. We know this from the colours used, the font, the images and the features which have been chosen to be included into the magazine, which I have previously identified. For example, in the competitions, one of the prizes included is makeup, making it clear to us who the competition is directed at. The target audience is mainly aimed at young girls who are into music- preferably pop music.

Issues raised
No strong issues have been raised by the representation of people shown on the cover. However, we can quite a feminine approach from not only females on the cover, but also the young males. For example, we can see they take pride in their appearance by using hair products and posing infront of the camera. This again, also relates to the target audience being aimed at females.

Improvement
I think the magazine could be slightly improved by making it clearer to the audience that the magazine is about pop music. Without the title, I think the viewer would be oblivious to the music aspects to the magazine. For example, the magazine itself looks as though it is a general magazine for young girls, including all the connotations of a celebrity gossip magazine, such as Heat.