Smash Hits!

Smash Hits! was a pop magazine that wasn't successful. The reasons for this are as follows; its rival magazine Top Of The Pops had a larger readership as it already had a successful TV programme which many people watched weekly. Due to this high demand for Top Of The Pops, Smash Hits! found it difficult to compete, even though it had sales that peaked a million in 1989, they soon fell to a mere 120,000 (www.magforum.co.uk).

The title for the magazine; Smash Hits!, gives the reader a sense of excitement. The use of an exclamation makes the magazine seem exciting and makes you more interested in reading it.

Double Page Spread - Top Of The Pops

The double page spread contains the same colours that the front cover has, continuing on its use of colour and font styles. The use of pink suggests, once again, that it is a more feminine page.

The use of language is informal, for example; "Still just mates?" and "Rih's new ring!". This suggests the sort of people that would read it are after an easy read and don't want to be bored, they want to be kept interested.

The images are mainly about celebrity relationships. They show the details and pictures of the ins and outs of relationships and try and decipher what might be happening in their lives. Close-ups and selected close-ups give you a better idea of what is really going on in the picture. The use of speech bubbles makes the picture seem more light-hearted and funny.

The main sells are the pictures of relationships of different celebrities - Rihanna and Chris Brown, and Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical to be more specific. It's use of decorative font tries to make it seem more interesting. The double page spread of relationships is also very opposite, while one side of the double page is showing a relationship split, whilst the other is showing an engagement.

Front Cover - Top Of The Pops

The title of the first magazine I'm going to look at is Top Of The Pops. The reason for this title is that it used to be a popular TV programme, therefore the brand name and recognition of the magazine for its key target audience is already there, and their customers know what magazine they are getting.

The front cover shows many different styles of font, ranging from sans serif, capital letters and decorative fonts. The style of font is mostly modern as they are appealing to a younger generation and want to make the magazine seem more appealing to its target audience. The front cover has many different sized fonts. It uses larger fonts to make the reader notice the more important headlines first, therefore making them interested straight away as it's the first thing that they notice on the cover.

The colour is primarily primary only - blue and yellow. This is because using primary colours is scientifically proven to be more noticeable and make people want to notice it. They also use pink and white to make headlines etc. stand out more. These colours suggest that the target audience is for a younger generation and therefore less mature people. The pink suggests that the magazine is very feminine and is primarily aimed at women.

The use of language is very informal, using made up words, or more commonly known words that people use in everyday speech e.g "OMG" and "Eew,". Their use of language immediately makes them seem aware of the current pop music industry, as well as what celebrities are doing whilst not performing. It's use of alliteration makes the headlines seem to flow much better and seem more interesting to want to read. The use of exclamation marks make the articles seem more exciting and interesting.

The use of certain images and article titles such as; "Eew, Rihanna! It must be love!" makes you assume that you are going to read about celebrity gossip and what they are doing in their free time, things that most people who would buy this sort of magazine are interested in.

The main image on the front cover are of a new up and coming band that would appeal to their target audience. It's a posed shot, this makes the band seem more idolised and is generally a more flattering way of taking a picture of them. There is no particular gender for the usual front cover image, mainly just the bands and artists that people want to read about. The front cover band are known internationally and were first heard in America.

The target audience is mainly women aged under 45. NRS says that 116,000 women read the magazine and that 66,000 men read it.

The main sells of the magazine are in pink and blue. The use of informal language makes the reader seem more interested in them. The colours of the main sells differentiate from the main title, this is because most readers know already what magazine they are buying and therefore it makes the article titles stand out more.

Information that is presented on the front cover is a bar code, an issue number, the date of when the magazine is on sale and the price of it. It also shows an age at which it is suitable for you to use and also a website address that you can go on.

The amount of pages in this issue is 43.

The main stories on the front cover are to do with interviews of popular celebrities and also information about celebrities that their readers may be interested in. It also shows up and coming events and new DVD's and CD's that will soon be available.