Comparing music magazines

Q magazine

The founders of Q magazine are Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, Bauer Media Group produce it and it was first published in October 1986 at this time it was originally called Cue to imply a musical reference ‘ready to play’ but got mistaken as a snooker magazine. In 2006 Q published a reader survey called ‘100 greatest songs ever’ which was won by Oasis. In late 2008 Q adapted its image, by using a smaller amount of text to create an increased focus on subjects other than music. This led to criticism from much of the Q readership, but is yet to be seen if this change in attitude would affect sales.

The magazine has a widespread review section, with new releases in music, reissues, music gatherings, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a system of star-ratings from one to five stars. It also accumulates a list of around eight albums, which it classes as ‘the best new releases of the last three months’

The majority of the readers are in the ABC1 area rather than C2DE and it is much more popular in the age range of 15-34 rather than 35+ and over 2 times more men read it than women. The issue with this information is we do not know whether the high popularity within the ABC1 comes from each one or maybe is just from C1 and with the age it could mainly be 15 year olds or maybe scattered all around that big age range.  The typical reader is slightly higher up in social class but probably fairly young as it’s not as popular in 35+ which would imply the audience is mainly teenagers and young adults.

The house style of this magazine is fairly consistent throughout for example the heading/title is the same in every magazine, maybe some slight adaptions made but it is unnoticeable and the background sticks to quite a pale colour such as white or grey for most of the issues with a few exceptions being made for certain artists to fit their genre or the main topic of the issue. The colour and font of the sell lines and tag lines stick to reds, blacks and whites of quite a bold font but once again they sometimes change to fit the artist or new background etc.

Q represents women as sexual items and in some they look quite animalistic which implies they are dominated and sexualised. Whereas the men are shown to be quite fierce or dominant even by not showing any particular facial expression because their face takes up most of the cover but with the women their bodies are on display or at least shown slightly in the image. This would mean that for the audience the female audience admire and aspire for the women in the magazines but have a desire for the men. Whereas the male audience would have a sexual desire for the women and aspire/respect the men.


Top of the Pops

Top Of The Pops magazine is a monthly publication published by BBC magazines. It features chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. It is a supplementary magazine for the TV show Top Of The Pops until it was cancelled in 2006, however the publication is still in publication.

The magazine was launched in 1995 and is famous for giving The Spice Girls their nicknames. Alongside a revamp of the tv show, it was originally marketed as the missing link between Smash Hits and NME. But its format was gradually changed with less music content and a demographic shift to young girls. It has has several editors over the years including Peter Lorraine, but its current editor is Peter Hart.

The magazine is aimed at 11-14 year old girls Most readers are in the ABC1 category, however their are a small range of young females in C2DE. Most of the readers are probably BC1/C2. The housestyle of the magazine consists of bright colours like pink, yellow and white which connote happiness and purity. This creates a positive atmosphere for the reader and makes in very feminine. The conventions of a Pop magazine are followed extremely well in this magazine including posters of young, inspiring celebrities and 'gossip' from their lives.