My Kerrang Analysis - As part of my magazine research

Kerrang is an internationally recognized music magazine, and plays a very influential role within the world of modern music. The magazine is very bold and stands out a lot more than other stereotypical music magazines. The first aspect of analysing the magazine cover is Language. The differing style and types of font used vary to the purpose of the font. This link directly instigates the size, colour, style etc. They range from large, bold back fonts for the title and sub headings, to large red fonts with the purpose being to stand out. The size matters greatly with the contrasting between sizes and fonts to separate what is inside the magazine. There are 4 different colours of font used, white, black, red and orange. White and black are the main colours which resembles the rock theme of the magazine. The photos include many famous rock legends with the topic of the ’50 sexiest people in rock’. They all look quite gothic, with dark hair and the men wearing eye liner. The gender is very mixed, with it evenly split men and women. This would define that it is a magazine with a target audience of both men and women.

The page elements are laid out to a more segmented front cover. The title is at the top, typically as any magazine would have. Also there is a large section of font in centre of the magazine, enabling it to stand out even more. The pictures laid around the outside help to advertise this text, as they are directly related to it. It is immediately recognisable that this is the main feature of that particular issue of

Kerrang. The white space is used specifically to attract attention to the contrasting font, in this case, the title. This contrasting effect would benefit the magazine in helping browsers to spot the magazine and helping to generally stand out. The overall result of the colours used on the front cover, is that it is definitely a more gothic, ‘Emo’ magazine. The colours are very bland, with the contrasting black and whites against each other, as well as the slightly brighter colours which help sell the magazine in terms of what is inside. The whole idea of colour being used to draw attention to the magazine would be the main purpose for how colour is used. My eye is instantly drawn to the bright font in the centre ‘50’. The distinction between the darker fonts and colours used to match the genre of the magazine, enable the central text to stand out much more than anything else, especially the ‘50’. I would then be drawn to the images surrounding the text, as they are related to it which you can guess purely from the positioning of the images. The eye is naturally drawn to the images, so therefore having lots of images on the front cover is not only informative, but very good at advertising the magazine to browsers. The text tries to relate to the reader by getting them directly involved, ’50 sexiest people in rock! As chosen by you’. This would immediately draw the attention of someone and therefore draw attention to the images around it as candidates. The images and text help each other out in a way by almost advertising each other. The general rock image, within stereotypical colours, images, fonts and style compliment that magazine for its purpose and genre.

The title of the magazine is very bold, and suits its purpose very effectively. In a strange essence, the title manages to portray the ‘loud’ image that the magazine intends to give. The ‘cracking’ effect that it uses with the title and the slightly disfigured letters, could symbolise the genre of the magazine of rock, and a loud lifestyle. This would be supported by the quotation below in a different font, size and colour, ‘Life is loud’. In terms of connotations, the blank font could be linked directly as the stereotypical colour associated with rock. Also the splitting effect of the title could be related to the idea of ‘loud’ which the magazine tries to represent to the reader. In most of the photos of ‘Rock stars’, they mostly have very extravagant hairstyles and serious facial expressions.

Furthermore, they wear make up in attempt to try and make them look more menacing and extravagant to the reader. This relationship between what the photos denote, as well as the overall genre of the magazine are very closely related. Most, if not all the people in the images look typically as if they have a bad attitude and a little bit ‘badass’. The costumes, hairstyles, facial expressions and make up, can all be directly linked towards the connotations of what the reader thinks about what their behaviour and attitude would be. In terms of the text and what can be interpreted from it within who owns it and the style and background of them. Kerrang initially begun as a one-time supplement in the Sounds newspaper, which focuses on the genre New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of other hard rock acts. AC/DC appeared on Kerrang’s first cover. The Original owner was United Newspapers who then sold it to EMAP in 1991. In 2008, EMAP sold its consumer magazine to current owner Bauer Media Group. Within the ideology of this magazine, the general target audience would be teens and the younger generation. The style of this target audience would partially be ‘Emo’s’, gothic, and just those who are more in tune with rock music and the specific genres. In contrast, a differing style of magazine would be ‘MOJO’ which has a much wider variety of genres of music. Other similar magazines to Kerrang, is Rock3 and Rock Sound, as they both deal with the same genre of music, and have the same target audiences.
The magazine denotes the immediate target audience of the magazine with the statement in the center of the front cover, ’50 sexiest people in rock’. This would immediately link the target audience to those who liked Rock music as a genre, and the overall fashion, style and celebrity news within the rock world. The magazine cover seems to denote a relaxed attitude towards life, as in that in relation to the images, the people in them do not care what they look like or what people think. It could almost be considered their way of life. The target audience would be more in tune as to who is on the front cover; however some rock legends such as Ozzy Osbourne could be included to sell the magazine better, as he is such an iconic figure. Within the representation of the magazine, the front cover seems to portray men and women as equal, and that neither has dominance over the other. Furthermore this could be directly linked to the Language, and how the men are wearing make up which stereotypically, is something that women do. However, both genders appear to be wearing similar clothes, have similar styles in terms of colour, and both are wearing make up. The general essence that this magazine gives off is that there is equality in most aspects of their lives within, sexuality, sexual orientation and attraction, race and social status.
In conclusion, the magazine Kerrang uses a variety of differing techniques in attracting the target audience, and readers towards buying the magazine. The various aspects including the font, size, images, colour and title can be the difference between a magazine being popular and successful, and being a failure. The ideas and representation that the images portray to the reader about life, and where the rock world sits in comparison with normal life, are crucial to the magazine selling.