Billboard Magazine Analysis

The main focal point on the front of this magazine cover is the large old fashioned CD player; this is because it is largest thing on the cover. When people look at the CD player they will then notice the title of the magazine, the fact that this is layered over the top of the title makes it harder to read the title, but certain areas of the text is visible therefore making it recognisable. Once the viewer has looked at the title of the magazine their eyes will travel down to see that someone is holding this CD player up. The subject in this magazine cover is holding the CD player slight forward; this is what makes it stand out more because it seems to be larger than the subject who is holding it. When people see the magazine at a first glance will wonder who this is on the front cover, but when they look at it more closely the will see the large typography on the left and realise that it is Justin Bieber. The fact that Justin Bieber is on the front cover of the magazine will automatically make this issues’ target audience teenage girls between the ages of 11 and 16, this is because they are more interested in this musician.

The colours used in this magazine cover are all primary colours (red, yellow and blue). These colours are very simple but they are very neutral colours, I don’t think that these colours are supposedly targeted to one particular gender. The background colour goes from a darker blue going up to a lighter blue this is to ensure that a lot of emphasis can be put onto the subject on the front of this magazine. The font colours used are very simple as they fit in with the rest of the colour scheme, they are very complimentary colour. The white font is used to make the fonts stand out as they are the main articles in the magazine. Under the main subtitles the text is I black, this is so the text doesn’t stand out as much and detract from the other text and images in the cover. The fact that the other text on this front cover is considerably smaller the other text on the page, this is because the main focus can be put onto the image and the title.

The house style of this magazine is that in every issue the title is the same. This is significant because when it is on the shelf alongside other magazines that reach out to a similar target audience, this magazine will instantly be recognisable, due to the distinctive title. Every issue has elements that attract both a male audience female audience. This is good because not many magazines reach out to both sexes therefore making this magazine quite unique in doing this. The people featured on the front page of this magazine are always targeted to a young market, I know this because they bands and artists featured are always young, upcoming and popular, for example this issue features Justin Bieber another issues feature Taylor swift, Miley Cyrus and Soulja boy.