Plastic Pop Industry...

Something that seems to be pretty self explanatory due to the usage of the words "plastic" and "pop". It is generally the idea of the manufactured industry that is the genre of pop music. Basically, it is the pop genre as a whole, the whole idea of visually being picture perfect and producing a lot less "serious" music, in context to music and lyrics. It all began in the 1950's and still exists now in the 21st Century, beginning with acts such as The Rolling Stones and Spice Girls. However, a whole new phenomenon arose when reality tv had it's own take on the industry. Pop Idol was the first of many. Many people say that this whole idea of the industry being plastic has ruined the phenomenon that is pop music, on the other hand, some may say that it has only enhanced what was there to begin with, and this being for the good. Pop Idol winners "Hear'Say" are what some may call a "One Hit Wonder". Typical of all of the music reality tv shows, the winners have huge promotion on the awaiting of the release of their new single.(which coincidently always comes around just in time to take the christmas number one spot!) Then once the single has been released, it seems as though most of the acts just... disappear. Take Michelle McManus, Will Young, Steve Brookstein, Leon Jackson and funnily enough, many, many more. In contrast to this there have been some success stories from music reality tv, look at 2nd place Pop Idol contenders Girls Aloud, and worldwide superstar Leona Lewis, so it is arguable whether or not the pop industry being plastc is a blessing or a burden, either way, it is still hugely influential.If you would like to find out more information on the Plastic Pop Industry there is a particuarly detailed, yet still interesting book which also has illustrations written by Nick Brownlee called, "Bubblegum : The History of Plastic Pop".

Bearing all this in mind, I have analysed some pages of a very famous Pop Magazine, Top of The Pops, also known as "TOTP".

As the text on the powerpoint slides are quite small, I have inserted it here:

Content
The content of this magazine is very, what some might say “girly”. It is a feature about jewellery and accessories which is a known interest of girls at the target audience at the age of 10-14. It is very appropriate and clever because not only is it advertising the things a girl of this age would want, but it is also advertising and promoting shops and companies, to buy these accessories from.

Use of colours
The colours used are generic throughout the issue and actually similar in every magazine. The contrast of bright colours like neon pink, blue and green, work very well in contrast to the also girly pastel, yellows, oranges and purples etc. It is very stereotypical of this magazine, but in this case the stereotype proved correct and is going down well with the readers. Not only is the colour scheme appropriate but it is also easy on the eye, It’s appealing to the audience, because at this age, bright and cheerful colours are sought after to a girl at this age, it also works well in context to the genre of music that the magazine is advertising. The genre is pop, this is a cheerful, happy go lucky and bright genre of music. Yellow is a bright colour and has hidden representatives and meanings in the fact that when shown it can mean that the mood is happy , bright and uplifting, this is very appropriate for the music and readers of the magazine.

Language
The language used is informal and could even be classed as “slang”. It is quite appropriate as it is addressing a target audience which at this age would use informal language such as “fash” as an abbreviation for fashion, they also use alliteration to make it that bit more attractive. In context to this the readers can feel like they are familiar with or can relate to the writers. It used short and snappy abbreviation to make the tagline, memorable, appropriate and so it just rolls off the tongue. They use words like “lovin” instead of loving to make the audience feel a sense of communication, as if the magazine are speaking to the audience as if they were a friend.

Image
The image of a rapper who was famous at the time of release is a good selling point as he was appealing at that moment in time. The use of a male is good selling technique as is will gather a female audience for a point of attraction, but it will also attract the male audience in a sense of being able to relate to or even the fact of liking the featured artists’ music.

Language and Punctuation
The language on this cover is very informal. It addresses the audience in an informal manner to make them feel comfortable and as if they are associating with a friend. They are using informal similes and terms such as Natasha Kitten’s claws lash out...miaow! In context to punctuation it is very exciting, there are a lot of question marks, exclamation marks and ellipsis, to keep the audience focused, interested and wanting to know more, typical of their young female target audience, they are doing so by making their magazine almost one full of “gossip”.

Genre
It becomes very obvious as to what genre this magazine is just by looking at it and this is done by the choices or artists featured in the magazine. The central main cover image is of Pop/Rapper star Eminem. Even though his lyrics and videos may be controversial he is still seen as quite a commercial icon in the pop music industry. Pop Idol winners Hear’Say are also featured on the bottom strip along with two of S Club 7’s band members, an obvious choice of music from the pop genre! However, it is not just the artists on the magazine which make it one that is typical to a pop magazine, it is the colour scheme also, it uses bright, exciting pastel pop colours which we would probably usually expect to see in a teenagers bedroom. Pop music is a very commercially positive light hearted genre, and because of this so is the magazine, it is upbeat and happy and contains no explicit content.

Link to institution
The BBC is a huge music institution, conquering almost every form of media possible, music magazines being one of its most experienced forte’s. Because of this, the institution is commercialising the magazine into much more than just a red through, it has extended TOTP onto many more forms to expand its target audience and therefore profit. There is also a TOTP music channel, which is reaching out to all television and music lovers, and there was also a TOTP TV Show, which was, undoubtedly shown on BBC Channels, this show featured all of the audiences favourite artists which were also featured in the magazine.

Contents
The content of this magazine more or less just light hearted celebrity gossip, however it is not as ruthless or insulting as some of the older women’s glossy magazines which are also available on the market and this is because of it’s much younger target audience. Samantha Mumba is a Pop Artist, bearing in mind that she is a grown women, it is highly doubtable that she keeps a “Secret Diary”, however, because most of the readers at home probably do, they have manufactured this habit onto the artist so that they can relate, whilst doing this they have used the word “Exposed” which will also make this story exciting and informing for the gullible reader. It becomes quite obvious after looking at the pug, three sectors and top and bottom strip that there are no serious or even true to life stories in this magazine, which can be seen as fooling the reader, however, the that the youth of today is progressing- and not always in a good way, this almost seems to be a blessing in disguise, as in a way it is almost preserving their innocence of the real world!

Masthead and Strap line
The masthead and strap line are probably one of the most relevant convention in any magazine as not only do they tell you what each magazine is called, allowing familiarity to the reader. The big TOTP logo, is probably a world known masthead, as it is plastered everywhere on almost everything – merchandise, television programmes, magazines and even it’s own channel! The strap line in this particular magazine is “NO.1 FOR MUSIC!”
This is a very important sentence on this magazine because it tells you what it contains, informs you that it is the best in the business and also keeps the reader excited with the capital letters and exclamation mark.