Youth
On the cover shows Justin Bieber, a young artist featured on the front, Bill Osgerby said " The representation of youth has not changed much over the past 100 years". He also said that you don't have to go far to find a bad representation of youth. This image kind of supports his theory as Justin has tattoos and has been associated with crime however this image also portrays youth as successful. The clothing that he is wearing isn't smart however this is the sort of clothing associated with what a teenager would wear. Although he has been involved in crime he has changed himself to be a better person and being on the cover means he would get loads of money which shows that teenagers can be successful. My magazine will be aimed at people between the ages of 15-25 so this type of artist would be appealing to them.
Race
Malik says that people from the black and Asian ethnicity are classed as "other" in society as it has become 'the norm' to be white therefore anyone from a different ethnicity are not normal, so the word 'race' only applies to the other non white ethnicities. This magazine cover shows your stereotypical black male, with sunglasses, snapback and a big chain. Black artists are usually seen to feature in hip hop or grime magazines however these artists feature in a pop magazine which is breaking the stereotype. Pop magazines usually feature white artists therefore in order to follow the common conventions I will be using a white person on my cover.
Gender & Sexuality
This cover supports Laura Mulvey's theory of the use of women in two ways only: As erotic objects of desire for the males on screen and in the audience. This female has been sexualised as she is pictured topless on the cover and this is appealing to a male target audience. Using the sex appeal to sell the product has become one of the most used techniques in the media industry. If you are appealing to a male target, by putting a half naked women on the front it will increase your magazine sales. My magazine is going to be aimed at a mixture of audiences as my magazine hasn't got a specific gender target. Therefore I will not be using a sexualised image as my cover because it will introduce gender stereotypes.
Lady Gaga is also a well know bi-sexual female however she doesn’t fit
the typical stereotype of an LGBT person, Andy Medhurst says that
‘sexuality disrupts representation, in the real world you cannot 'see'
somebodies sexuality, therefore you would not know their sexuality
unless they told you.’ This image supports that as she looks just like a
“normal stereotypical straight person”. However the media shows gay men as
'screaming queens' and lesbians as 'butch dykes' so this image doesn’t represent
that.
Class
Janet Jackson has never been seen as an “un-classy” woman, however this image of her posing topless for the cover with someone else’s hands covering her
breasts may be seen as controversial and not something a person with class
would do. The clothes that people wear can give off stereotypes of their
personality for example if you saw a person in a business suit you would think
they were polite, however if you saw someone in a tracksuit they could be
represented as working class and rude however I don’t think this is an
effective way of getting to know a person therefore I don’t think class should
determine how successful you are in the music industry.
National/Regional identity
This magazine cover clearly shows the national identity. I think that this magazine is aimed at both British and American readers because the main image shows both of the flags and in the puff it reads "UK VS USA". Andrew Higson states that "Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalised inhabitants of a particular political-geographical space- this can be a particular nation or region". My magazine will show regional/national identity but it won't be predominantly visible to the reader.
These are examples of some magazine mast heads, these belong to successful magazine companies therefore I will take inspiration from these when creating my own. I have noticed that a common link between these are that they are all quite blocky and big, I think this is so that it stands out on the page. All of these have a similar colour palette of dark colours except the top of the pops masthead because that one is pink. I felt choosing a colour that was going to represent my target audience and also look good was important as it could effect how the whole cover is portrayed.
This is the masthead that I have designed, I used fonts and photoshop effects to create the PULSE text. I chose this font from "Da font" because I felt it was more modern than my other decision. I then went into photoshop and created the blue outlines, I chose this colour because it represents my target audience and follows my colour palette.
