Pop Magazine

Poppy Bennett
Mr Haywood
Year 12
BILLBOARD
NME
Rolling stone
 Mastheads.
Billboard magazine uses a masthead that involves very bold lettering. This allows the writing to stand out, and the
use of colour pulls the audience in. The writing is very neutral in terms of gender, as it isn’t overly feminine or
masculine, and the colours used don’t conform to any gender stereotype. This suggests that the magazine isn’t
trying to limit their audience by gender. However it is suggested that the magazine is more for a younger target
audience, as the bold and bright colours are very youthful, which in turn will attract a younger audience. The
name, ‘Billboard’ isn’t something that you would see on a children's magazine, so this would show that it isn’t
necessarily meant for a childlike audience.
Theses examples of Billboard magazine covers have a
different coloured masthead. The beige coloured
masthead on the cover with Katy Perry matches with
some of the titles around the front page, and it
matches with parts of her skin. And the light pink
masthead on the cover with Miley Cyrus, matches with
the light pink dress she is wearing, which contrasts
with the green leaves, and in turn makes the masthead
stand out. This coordination shows that the magazine
can be very sophisticated ad trendy, whilst still being a
pop magazine.
 Mastheads.
NMEs’ main logo however, is this red, black and white logo. The boldness
of the colours shows that this is a bolder magazine than others. And the
audience may be for a mostly male audience when you look at this logo, as
its very strong colours, which has correlation to the stereotypical strength
of younger males. I would say that this is targeted for teens as the blocky
look of the letters is quite eye catching, whilst still being simple enough to
be youthful.
However when looking at other NME mastheads, I don’t think that it is
targeted for a male audience, as they include a lot of stereotypical
feminine colours, such as pinks and purples as seen to the left.

NME uses a similar technique to Billboard magazine with its’ masthead,

however, instead of having the whole masthead colour be changed, it is
usually just a black outline of the letters, as that allows that colour of the
background to come through, and stops am overload of colour on the
magazine cover.
 Mastheads.
Rolling stones’ logo is very ‘gender neutral’ and is ageless. This magazine
masthead shows that the magazine is appropriate for anyone of any age, as
it doesn’t conform to any stereotypes. The fact that this masthead also
adapts its colour to the cover its on, shows that is can adapt to suit any
reader. The shape stays the same, even when the colour doesn’t so it is
easily recognisable to anyone wishing to pick up a copy.

For covers that are very simple, and ‘classic’,

the masthead stays as the original logo. This
is so that the focus is on the cover, and the
logo equally. However with covers that
depict a model wearing bright makeup, or
an overall bright background, the masthead
gets toned down, so that the focus is more
on the model, and the colour from the logo
doesn’t clash. .