G321 - Contents Page - Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops

This is quite clearly a Top of the Pops magazine, due to the bright pink banner, the girly, swirly font and the iconic font headings, e.g. "We [love] boys". Although the title of the magazine isn't shown throughout the magazine, it's the house colours, font and content which quite obviously make it a Top of the Pops magazine.

The constant colour scheme are bright, bubbly colours which reflects what Top of the Pops target audience is and what sort of things they like. It also offers familiarity to the audience as they know that the magazine will never be like Kerrang! or Q, with sophisticated and/or ‘rebellious’ language. The language here is extremely girly and ‘immature’, with phrases like “Juicy secrets from an Eastenders insider” and alliteration such as “Flirty Florals”

This contents page shows the front cover of the magazine with arrows to key parts of it to inform the audience where to find certain articles, e.g. “Justin: I was bullied!” is found on page 16.

This magazine isn’t entirely about music as there are parts about fashion and style – this makes the magazine more appealing to the audience as female preteens will want a combination of their pop idol and where to find the latest high street fashion. This shows that the editors know what their target audience want from the magazine and how to link it to pop music – the fashion styles and tips reflects the music.

Then the magazine has a designated section for “Wins & Offers” to add to the appeal of their magazine. This again shows that the magazine in general knows what their target audience wants from the magazine, e.g. winning Katy Perry's make up bag.

The section on “Celebs & Gossip” appeals the to the audience as the TOTP editors know that their target audience of preteen pop fans will want to know as much as they can about their favourite idol, e.g. Justin Bieber. They also try to make it relatable to the readers as under the headline, “Justin Bieber…” it says “Yes, he was bullied too!” This would make the teenage girls reading feel as if they can relate to him because of this. It’s as if it’s shocking to both the reader and the editor that a pop icon like Justin Bieber could have ‘suffered’ the way ‘normal people’ do.

At the top, there’s the segment “We [love] boys” with the comment that they’ve highlighted everything to do with boys on the contents page. This makes it easier for the female readers to navigate their way around the magazine and find their preferred pop icon and “get inside [their] heads”. For people over the age of 16, this would be a bit odd, but for preteens and young teenagers who are in that stage in their life where they’ve ‘discovered’ boys, it makes them want to buy this magazine more.