BILLBOARD

MUSIC

MAGAZINE

DONE BY EMAN SHAH

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE

Billboard is an American music magazine, devoted to music and its industry.

It is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. The magazine follows

the worldwide recognised music charts, tracking the most popular songs

and albums in various categories, on a weekly basis. The two most notable

charts is the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200. It’s headquarters are in

New York City and is owned by Prometheus Global Media. The PGM is a New

York based media company. The Billboard magazine maintains several

internationally recognised record charts, which tells the viewers the latest

songs and albums across the several categories on a weekly basis. Billboard

is however the world’s most influential music magazine. The Billboard brand

is built on its exclusive charts and unrivalled reporting on the latest news,

issues and trends across all genres of music.

THE HISTORY OF

BILLBOARD

Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William H. Donaldson and James Hennegan. It was originally titled Billboard Advertising and was published monthly, it was a trade paper for the bill posting industry, hence the magazine's name. The cover of the first Billboard Advertising carried a grainy black and white cameo of one R.C. Campbell, a Chicago advertising executive.

In February 1897, Billboard Advertising made a major shift in change. The magazine's name was changed and shortened to The Billboard. Now the magazine was listings of fairs and ads for outdoor attractions which began to increase. At the start of 1961, The Billboard was renamed to Billboard Music Week. The publication was now devoted to almost entirely the music industry. The title was simply changed to Billboard in 1963. Today's Billboard is helmed by president and publisher John Killcullen, with co-executive editors Tamara Conniff and Ken Schlager heading up the editorial team. Under their leadership, the magazine went to a major redesign and repositioning in May 2005. Billboard is now read in more than 100 countries around the world. Billboard.com now attracts 2.5 million unique visitors each month.

This is a photograph

of R.C Campbell

TARGET AUDIENCE

In my opinion by looking and reading the Billboard magazine. I would say

that the magazine is mostly for young teens, from the age of 16, to young

adults , at the age from 27. This is because the magazine provides its

readers with the latest updates from the music charts, but to different

various types of genres. Overall it is aimed towards both genders males

and females depending on the cover star and the age range of the target

audience. The layout of the magazine is very mature and is not

overcrowded with images of teen bands and other artists. It also does not

advertise news and gossip of the artist’s lives but only conveys the weekly

update of the music charts.

MUSIC ARTISTS

FEATURED

The artists which are featured in the Billboard magazine tend to be

popular artists for example Beyoncé and Eminem. They choose to put

these artists on the front cover because as they appeal to the older teens,

as they do not perform too girly music, as the target audience is growing

up which means so is there music choice which used to be artists like

Justin Bieber. As these artists are role models for younger generations

magazines will display them so they will cover most of the page whether it

will be on the front cover, contents or even the double page spread.

LAYOUT, DESIGN AND

STYLE OF LANGUAGE

Billboard places the music artist at the front cover of the magazine

in the middle. This is done so the artist can grab the viewers

attention. The viewers will firstly be attracted by the main image

because the main image directly looks at the focal point of the

camera, breaking in to get the viewers attention to get them to buy

the magazine. The layout and design of the contents page is

organised and clear, as it is put in a number of different sections so

that the reader is not wasting time which for the target audience

being young adults is a good thing.

As you can see here Beyoncé

is directly looking at the

camera to get the audience’s

attention.

MODE OF ADDRESS

The mode of address that Billboard uses is informal. This magazine

tends to take a quote from the artist who is featured on the front

cover talking about their fans. They use informal language because

they want the reader to feel as if the artist is talking to them as their

friend. They also use direct mode of address ‘you’. This shows that

the reader will feel as though the artist is directly talking to them.

Here is Rihanna who is featured on the front

cover. Her quote is ‘my fans don’t really know

who I am’. When the reader will read this

quote they will automatically think that

Rihanna is talking to them personally which

will draw them in and will create enigma so it

will encourage them to consume the

magazine.