Analysis of Top of the Pops front cover

Top of the Pops is a music and gossip magazine mostly aimed at young teenage girls. The magazine features chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. It is thought to be an alternative to the TV show ‘Top of the Pops’. This magazine is considered the missing link between Smash Hits and NME, but the format has gradually changed to be less music and more the interests of young girls. You can see the magazine is mostly aimed girls by the colours used. On almost every magazine cover you can expect to see at least one bit of pink. Straight away this suggests the magazine is aimed at a female audience. The swirly patterns also relate to young girls. They resemble the shapes that would be doodled on the diary of a teenage girl. The top boy bands are featured on the front cover along with the current ‘heart throbs’ of young girls, hence why their images are littered across the front page. The price of the magazine also reflects that it is for a younger audience. It is normally only £2.25 which is cheap enough for a young audience to buy with their own pocket money. The price is cheap in comparison to magazines aimed at older audiences such as Kerrang. I think the target audience’s social status would be about B/C1. This is because they must have enough money to get pocket money from their parents. Pop music covers quite a vast genre of music categories such as R&B. This is why artists such a Rihanna have featured on the front cover. This suggests a variety of artists are featured in the magazine ranging from pop artists like Justin Bieber to hip hop artists like Chris Brown. This shows the magazine has a broad target audience of young girls who listen to different genres of music.