Codes and conventions are the features that crop up again and again in a piece of media. Therefore, the codes and conventions of pop magazines are the features that appear repeatedly in pop magazines so that audiences can identify what genre the magazine celebrates. A main convention of pop magazines is the style and overall look. They commonly use bright, girly colours such as; blue, yellow, pink and generally use white as a background colour. These colours will attract the young teen female audience who will be drawn in by the bright, girly feel of the magazine. These colours also reflect the bubbly personality of the target audience. There are often many unique shapes within the magazine itself which gives the magazines a fun and youthful feel. This contrasts against magazines like Kerrang which provides a dark and aggressive feel through the dark, masculine colours and block shapes.

Codes and Conventions of Pop Magazines

The mastheads of pop magazines are conventionally placed in the top left hand corner and mostly use bright colours and they mostly use quite simple fonts that are easy to read. However, the fonts often show a girly, youthful element. This is shown in the Top of the Pops magazine where the masthead is in a very simple font but they add a flick or a curl on some of the letters. Again, this indicates the magazine is aimed at a fun, youthful audience. The sell lines on the pop magazine front covers often contain the name of a band and artist and give an enticing snippet that will attract the audience and make them want to read the article.

The main image on pop magazine front cover conventionally dominates the page but it is often an image of a boy or girl band such as One Direction or Little Mix. Solo pop artists also often appear on the front cover such as Rihanna, Jessie J and Olly Murs. The main image is always of a band or artist who is current and popular in the charts. The main image indicates to the audience which genre of music the magazine is representing, therefore the costume, body language and facial expressions in the main image is important in signalling genre. The costume in the main image will very much follow the mainstream fashion trends that are current at the time. The facial expressions will mostly be a fun smile but it can occasionally feature a serious pout. The body language of the artists in the main image will be generally quite neutral and friendly, highlighting the innocence of pop as a music genre.

Within the magazine there are often posters of the bands and artists that feature in magazine articles. Conventionally, fashion pages appear in pop magazines, focusing on female fashion which highlights that the majority of the readers of pop magazines are female. There is also pages which focus on the outfits that celebrities have worn and the magazine tells you where you can find outfits similar to the celebrities. Quizzes and competitions also feature a lot in pop magazines. Audience participation is important in pop magazines as it draws in the young female audience who enjoy getting involved in the magazine.

I will use the pop magazine ‘We Love Pop’ as inspiration to help me understand the codes and conventions of pop magazines when creating my own pop magazine. I like the fact that the ‘We Love Pop’ magazine has a masthead that looks like a logo for the magazine. The idea of having the name of my magazine looking more like a logo, rather than a word written on one line because it looks more interestingand makes it more easily recognisable. I am also using ‘We Love Pop’ as inspiration because the magazine manages to present the girly, youthful feel of the magazine to signal the genre of music but it doesn’t go over the top and it still looks quite sophisticated as a pop magazine.