By Anisa Ayoob.

FRONT PAGE.

The background relates back to the colour of the masthead which appears at the top of the magazine.

Mid shot of celebrity (Michael Jackson) showing eye contact. This is shown as Michael Jackson is looking straight ahead. It attracts fans of that interest.

Yellow has been used in order to relate it back to the colour of the masthead.

White has been used as the background colour is black and therefore white font would be more effective.

Blue has been used as the background colour where small amount of writing has been included-mostly in front of the black background.

Smash Hits magazine is aimed at teenagers and young adults and therefore is suitable for its purpose.

A masthead is used at the top of the magazine in order for the target audience to be informed of what the magazine is called at first sight.

The magazine front cover contains a lure, ‘19 Hit Songwords’. This is to engage the reader to open the magazine and read on.

Connotations.

• Shows that the genre of the magazine (pop music) goes well with the name of the magazine.

• Loud.

• Out of control.

History.

• It ran from 1978 until 2006.

• The magazine was founded by a man called Nick Logan, who was previously known for editor of NME. Publisher: EMAP Metro.

• The publication was initially monthly but switched to fortnightly after only three issues, which it remained until the magazine actually stopped.

• The biggest advantage of the magazine in its early days, and one of its major selling points was the publication of the ‘Top 20 Song Lyrics’.

About Smash Hits.

• Genre: Pop music.

• Typical content: Song lyrics, images, interviews, quizzes, posters, horoscopes, ‘Current Top 40’.

• Feature artists/bands: McFly, Busted, Gwen Stefani, PiNK, the ordinary boys.

• The magazine stopped publications due to declining sales and circulation.

• There were one-off specials released for occasions such as Michael Jackson's death as well as Take That and Lady Gaga.

Success.

• In the 1980’s there were 100,000 copies for every edition of the magazine, however when sale figures came through, there were only 18,000 magazines sold after three weeks of that magazine sale.

• They then lowered the printing copies to 50,000 and within the first two weeks only sold 25,000 copies. However, after the third week this rose to 31,000 and then after the fourth week this rose to 36,000 which is 72% of the printing copies sold.

• In February 2006, the magazine was set to finish. However, Smash Hits were keen to continue with the digital television, digital radio and website services.

http://www.smashhits.net/

http://radioplayer.smashhits.net/

Target audience.

• Smash Hits was a pop based magazine, aimed at teenagers and young adults. This is because of what the magazine includes. The magazine included things like puzzles, games including ‘guess the celebrity’, word searches, lyrics to songs, chart music and more.

• Also, the magazine involved pop. Stereotypically, pop is the genre of music in which the younger generation are more likely to listen to.

• The magazine featured artists such as Steps, S Club 7, The Spice Girls, Hearsay, Britney Spears, Boyzone, Westlife, Madonna. All these music celebrities appeared to be inspiration to younger children, and people such as Britney Spears, stereotypically were seen to be idolised by younger girls.

What smash hits offered?

• It offered a variety of things for people.

• The magazine’s focus was for people attracted to the genre of pop.

• The magazine in every issue ever sold included: posters of celebrities A4 size/double paged posters, song words to the number one song in the chart, advice to younger people on how to become a pop star, puzzles, quizzes, word searches, crosswords, the top 20, interviews with celebrities, gossip on celebrities and much more.

• The magazine offered a fun alternative to music. You were able to read everything about your favourite pop stars, and receive things such as posters in return. The magazine was fun and lively, always looking positive and never included anything negative.

Future plans.

• As the magazine has actually ended there are no future plans in store. There were talks of limited editions of Smash Hits to come out, however the company believed it to be unsuccessful and a waste of money.

• Although the magazine has gone, Smash Hits is still around. Smash Hits still uses digital television, digital radio and online services.

• The channel Smash Hits, is a popular music channel, playing all the latest pop music out and shows and plays a new music chart.

• The radio station Smash Hits is also a popular radio station, again playing all the latest music, with radio DJ’s announcing news on celebrities and telling the latest news in the industry.

• There is an online service website of Smash Hits. The website shows what’s on, music, predictions of newest music, free stuff, careers in Smash Hits, links of other websites and a wall in which people are able to speak anonymously of the latest music and celebrity news.