Kerrang Magazine Analysis

Assesment Objectives

To assess candidates' ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (AO3).

To assess candidates' ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.

Magazine Analysis

Kerrang! Issue #1185
November 17th 2007

Cover
Target Audience

The target audience for the music magazine Kerrang! is mainly aimed at teenagers to young adults. As it is a Rock/Metal magazine, it is mainly from a niche market. There is no main gender target for this magazine, as they pictures that they post are mainly of male singers, some of them can be seen as ideal partners, and the male part of the audience just enjoys the music itself and the information they can get about the genre.

PUGS

The PUGS on this magazine are in the bottom right hand corner and contains the barcode, issue number, release date and the price of the magazine. It also shows a link to the website http://www.kerrang.com/. These PUGS are in an unusual format as the issue number and date of release are usually not near the bar code, and at the top. There are also PUGS at the top detailing bands that have articles written about them in the magazine. From experience i know that these bands are from different genres of rock so therefore these band names will appeal to lots of people. These are written in black and yellow chunky sans serif writing and is the house style for themagazine.

Masthead and Sell Line

The only world in the Masthead is the title of the magazine: Kerrang! This title is onomatopoeic and connotes the crash of a crash cymbal on a drum kit – an instrument which is used in most mainstream rock music. The exclamation mark emphasises this sound and gives the title more energy. The font is a sans serif font and is all written in capital letters, the colours are black writing on a white background, and the font in the title itself also seems to have shattered. These three elements combine with the onomatopoeic sound of the title.
The sell line “life is loud” connotes that life is the rock music written about in the magazine. This is because rock music is always played loudly at concerts and therefore it connotes that the meaning of life is the rock music that is written about. This is written in red with a black border around each of the words, to make it stand out.

Main cover image

The main cover image is a photograph of guitarist and front man of the famous rock band Muse, Matt Bellamy. This attracts the female readers as Matt Bellamy is known as being quite good looking and therefore is seen as the ideal partner scenario. The fact that he is playing a guitar obviously connotes the fact that he is in a band, and the lighting and background in the photo shows that he is in a live gig situation.

Main cover Line

The main cover line for the magazine is 100 Greatest Gigs Ever! This connotes excitement, and the sans serif font also increases this idea of excitement as the text has a worn effect which connotes the idea of rock being “hardcore”, and therefore this shows their own magazine as “hardcore”.

Cover Lines

There are several other cover lines on the cover of this issue. Underneath the main cover line, it says “Your votes are in! And the winners are...” This line adds to the connotations of excitement from the main cover line and makes the consumer want to buy the product more.
There is also a cover line in the bottom right corner of the magazine which is slapped over two pictures of lead singers from different bands. It says ““We’re going to crush the UK!” The Black Crusade vs. Taste of Chaos”. The violence in this phrase gives the feeling of a more rocky “hardcore” attitude, which is appealing to the target audience.

Other Images

The other images that are on the cover are frontmen of different bands which feature in the magazine. Examples of these are Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance and Matt Tuck from Bullet for my Valentine. The facial expressions of the singers on the cover are all representative of how they act when they are on stage and singing. These pictures show who is in the magazine and so people who see the cover may be inclined to buy it if they like the bands on the cover.


Contents

Content

On the contents page of the magazine, there are a number of features. There is a short letter from the editor of the magazine to the audience. This gives the reader a sense of being involved in the magazine, as if you were the editor’s friend. There are many pictures on the page with page numbers next to them. These pictures are of various band members and band logos such as the logo for Led Zeppelin. This is so that the reader who is going to buy the product can decide if there are any articles in the magazine on bands that they like.

Juxtaposition of Elements

The layout of the magazine is quite organised. This makes it easier for the reader to decide if they want to read the articles. The various band quotes on the page bring excitement and comedy to the reader so that they want to buy it. There is also a small advertisement in the bottom right hand corner advertising a subscription to the magazine.

Splash

Content

The main picture on the splash is of the lead singer of metal band “Machine Head” Robb Flynn singing to a large crowd of people. This connotes the importance of the band and therefore the article in the magazine. The text is written in the house style of yellow, black and white which is very striking.



Juxtaposition of Elements

In the spread, the picture takes up most of the page. This highlights the importance of the band Machine Head to rock music as it is the biggest spread in the entire magazine. In the banner above the main article, the bands names are also emphasised as they are written in bold print.