Analyzing A Music Magazine Contents Page

This is a contents page from the BBC's TOTP magazine. The layout of the magazine is fairly busy and colourful- much like the mind of a teenage girl. This contents page features a mini version of the front cover with arrows and page numbers that directly relate to each story. This could be used to show a 'what you see is what you get' attitude, as there are a lot of featured articles, or could be used as a way to help the reader interact with the magazine more easily.
The general house colour scheme is pink and purple, stereotypically suited to a young female target audience. The colour yellow has also been used as a highlighter for certain parts of the magazine. This acts as a way of drawing the readers attention to those articles, as well as relating to them. By this, I mean that the typical teenage girl is more than likely to doodle on magazines, and highlight parts she likes.

The balance of pictures to text is outweighed by text, however, the pictures are bolder and brighter. The photograph of One Direction, is typical of a female orientated magazine, as girls lust and long for these gorgeous boys to walk into their lives. The celebrity endorsement grabs the readers attention- and creates a way of escapism, through living and understand the lives of celebrities, vicariously through the magazine.

Despite the fairly messy layout, all articles featured in the contents page are grouped into subheadings, again creating ease for the reader when navigating through the magazine.This also gives the impression, that there is a need to be ordered and disciplined despite the hectic lifestyles of teenage girls.
The title of the contents page matches that of the front cover, perhaps showing it to be the 'house font'. The title font is very similar to handwriting, again reinforcing the idea of a teenage girl doodling in class.

The language used in the magazine is cheeky, and tries to be 'down with the kids', through using relatable language. I don't think there are swear words in the magazine, however, words such as 'Phroar' or 'PHEW' are used as colloquial, onomatopoeia, perhaps seen as a buzz word for teenage girls. the use of the word 'we' on subheadings also creates a good reader/writer tenor, and also implies they have similar interests- the magazine in this way acts as a friend to the reader, and helps create a sense of identity.