Magazine Analysis - Kerrang

GENERAL 

The company in which produces the 'KERRANG!' magazine is Bauer Consumer Media. The target audience of the magazine 16-25 year old's and specific towards rock music fans but lately the age group of its audience has dropped to 14-17 as it has been proven that this age group read the magazine more often and enjoyed the content and featured artists more. 

The cost of the magazine is £2.20 which is cheap for the target audience (students, young people with low incomes etc..) and is published weekly. The total circulation sales are 52,272 (50,128 in UK and republic of Ireland)

THE COVER 

The magazine is called 'KERRANG!' which symbolises the sound that an electric guitars make. This shows and has been purposly done to attract an audience who have a high interest in rock and heavy metal music as this is the genre of music that an electric guitar associates itself with. 

The masthead/title logo is 'KERRANG!'  which is presented with a font that consists of jagged sides in order to give an electrifying tone or feeling which also contributes to the the audience that the publisher is aiming to target. The masthead/title logo also has straight white lines going through it giving it a smashed and possibly electricuted effect which further implies the heavy metal value. 

The Main image is a man dressed up in a clown mask, a red jump suit and black  

leather gloves. You can tell he is wearing a mask and not just painted his face because some facial features like his eyebrows and cheeks are exaggerated and look plastic. Also his eyes are black which shows his face is covered. The facial expression of the clown is happy/excited as both eyebrows are raised and he also has a big cheeky smile. The clown's direction of gaze and body language is facing forward towards the reader which shows interaction to the reader. Also he is standing up straight with his legs together which makes it look like he is watching the reader.Alot of people who are interested in rock and heavy metal music, ofter associate themselves with characters such as the one shown on the front cover, therefore this also contributes to targetting its ideal audience. 

Across the top are small images of various rockbands such as SUM 41, PARAMORE, BILLY TALENT and MANICS. This attracts their target audience because it shows a range of artists that are featured within the magazine and the fact that posters of each of the artists are available inside the magazine, attracts more people to buy it. There is also an image of a motorhead wine bottle. These images review, introduce and promote new or old bands and are included inside the magazine as well.

 

The typefaces, graphics and colours connotate the genre of the magazine. As discussed previously the font type for the masthead 'KERRANG!' gives an automatic recognition of what the magazine genre is and what it is most likely to consist of.

Also the font used for 'SlipKnot' is very sharp and almost aggressive, showing the intensity of the rock and heavy metal music which again contributes to the idea of targetting a rock/heavy metal loving type of audience. The colours used which are red, black, white, yellow and a hint of blue also contribute to the idea of rock and heavy metal music as the genre of the magazine as these colours have been used to present a electrifying effect and is used as a way that the audience will automatically know the consistance of the magazine. The way that the colours have been put together, for example having yellow text over a black background has a huge effect on which audience the magazine attracts as this associates itself with rockers, emo's and goths of which these subcultures are stereotypically attracted to dark and bright contrasting colours combined together therefore the publisher has used this in order to create a magazine which best suits them. 

 INSIDE 

'KERRANG!' magazine consists of 63 pages in which 19 of these pages are adverts. The categories in which these adverts are put into are games, ticket sales, clothing, CD/DVDs and clothing. The topics within the magazine include competitions, being able to win specific prizes or tickets to gigs. also it have double page spreads of posters of famous rock artists in which the readers may rip out and put on display. there are also topics such as reviews on different acts, with information on what their intentions and ideas are for the music industry and dates of their upcoming gigs if any. These can all be categorised into, feedback, news, reviews and posters.  

Within the magazine there are 14 double page spreads. The content of each double page spread varies, and have different topics covered on each. The first double page spread is used to advertise a new game for xbox in which it shoes the xbox logo and a car across the double page. This is then followed by numerous other double page spreads which talk about different rock artists, some of the things they have quoted in interviews, information about themselves and what they have been recently getting upto. This covers atleast 3 double pages spreads but a different artist is being talked about on each. This is then followed by another 3 double page spread based on live reviews from their live shows. This talks about the way in which the artists performed, where they performed and if their performance was good or bad. It then goes on to talk about 'SlipKnot' who is also the main image on the front cover of the magazine. this includes 3 double page spreads based on the same topic it talks about how 'SlipKnot' came about, a story about it and also a mini interview of one of the members.