Billboard is a weekly American music magazine with a circulation of

16,327. It is also an internationally recognised music chart which has

a variety of different music genres. The magazine itself focuses on
mainstream music such as pop, hip-hop and R&B which has a wide
audience in comparison to other genres. It is owned by the media and
entertainment company Prometheus Global Media. The first ever
issue was realised in 1894, making it one of the oldest trade
magazines in the world. The intended audience was mostly music
professionals including artists, music retailers, and DJs. Now the
target audience as well as the genre varies.

The masthead of this music magazine is the second largest text on the
cover; it is written clearly in the colour black and states Billboard.
Situated at the top of the magazine, it fills the space horizontally. A
clear sans serif front is used for the masthead; the same font is used
in every issue, making it more serious, fluent and easily recognised
without confusion. Unlike other magazines, the masthead is not
incorporated into the house style. It is simple, big, bold, and clear, it
has a repeated pattern of colours in the letters B, O, A and D, which is
consistent in every issue, this makes the masthead bold and enables
it to stand out. The masthead is also known as the logo or
iconography branding, which is usually featured on the contents page
as well as the cover. This enables the magazine to stand out against
other magazines on a shelf and allows the target audience to identify
the genre of the magazine; the colours are designed to draw the
attention of the target audience and encourage them to purchase the
magazine.


The largest text on the cover are the letters PNK, (referring to the
famous artist/singer P!nk) presented as a cool imagery. The letters P
N K are shown in capital, in the colour black, outlined in white, with a
pink drop shadow. The letters fills more than half the magazine cover,
emphasising the importance of the featured artist compared to
everything else on the cover. There is an image of superstar Pink
herself, posing between the letters P and N as the missing letter I. She
is standing sideways to appear more slender symbolizing the thinnest
of the letter I. This was done deliberately to come across cleaver,
cool, and creative, it was also done to attract the eye of the target
audience.
Pink is an international pop star, the main purpose of having her on
this magazine cover is to attract and appeal to a wider audience. Her
music crosses between hip-hop/pop/R&B and pop-rock, the use of
her on the cover of billboard magazine directly links to this type of
magazine as Pink doesnt stick to one genre of music and neither does
the magazine.

Black, white and yellow are the chosen colours for this magazine
cover. Black and white are the most common natural colours that
have been present before any primary or secondary colour. Theyre
complementary colours as theyre opposites; black represents
darkness, sadness, and mysteries, while white is associated with
purity, peace, and positivity. This creates simplicity and contrast
making the body text and title more visible. The image preoccupies
most of the audiences attention due to the creativity and originality,
the contrast between light and dark helps the masthead, titles of
articles and cover lines to draw attention away from the image,
balancing the focus of the audience on both information and imagery.
Instead of increasing the size of some words, a touch of yellow which
is associated with happiness, sunshine, and enthusiasm was added as
a highlight to emphasize the words making them appear more bright
and noticeable.

The header reads WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS, VOCAL ISSUES, SILENCE
ARTISTS, TOURS which gives the reader a slight idea of what
happens behind the scene of an artists life. For example they could
be suffering from vocal issues.

THE COLOUR OF MONEY is the third largest text on the cover; it is
positioned just below to the largest text on the cover PNK in the
colour black, it is outlined in white, allowing it to stand out.

HITMATER, GLOBAL TOURING POWERHOUSE & MAJOR NEW BAND
PARTNERSHIPS is directly below this cover lines.