Kerrang Cover analysis

Cover analysis of Kerrang magazine 

One of the music magazines that I will write about for my coursework to analysis the covers of magazines is Kerrang. Kerrang magazine’s target audience is for teenagers and young adults that enjoy the rock genre of music. Kerrang is a rock music magazine, which is published by Bauer Consumer Media, which first published Kerrang on the 7th June 1981. Bauer consumer media also publishes many other different kinds of magazines that include: heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parker’s, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, 4Music, and much more. There are over eighty different media brands spanning a wide range of interests. The magazine costs £2.20 so it is suitable for teenagers and young adults still in college because they have a disposable income, so they don’t have to think about not spending the money on a magazine than having to worry about having to spend money on more important things. With this magazine you are able to look at more information on the magazine on their website www.kerrang.com, The publisher of the magazine also has a website that enables you to look at more information on the publisher and Kerrang magazine http://www.bauermedia.co.uk.

The cover of Kerrang magazine always has the same kind of layout; you’re able to know that it is a Kerrang magazine by looking at the layout. Kerrang always has a main image of an artist or band (most of the time the main image is of a rock band). The main image this issue of the magazine is of ‘A day to remember, which a rock band is. In the main image the band have direct mode of address, which catches the eye of the audience, there is also direct mode of address with the heading of “Are you ready…”, which gets the audience to become involved in the magazine, the audience is able to relate to the magazine. The facial expressions of the main image of the band are that they look like they are having fun, some smiling or pulling a face, even though they are meant to be a ‘hardcore’ rock band and ‘rebellious’ as most people would believe they are because of the genre of music they play. The main image has been cropped, leaving the top half of the body, and the legs of the band ‘A day to remember’ have been cropped, this is so the main focus is on the faces of them, with there being a heading across the rest of the bodies of the band.

The masthead of the magazine always stays the same, Kerrang is the logo of the magazine, and you can see this because of the fact that the masthead never changes, and people would see only some of the masthead and would know that that is the Kerrang magazine. The masthead of the cover has a colour of black or white, this is so people will know it is still the same magazine, and won’t get confused. Because the magazine is so well know, the masthead doesn’t always have to show the whole of it, they can cover up some of the masthead with the main image, which most magazines do when they are well known. There are only three coverlines on this magazine, and they are all about rock bands, so people will want to read the magazine when they see the coverlines are about famous rock bands that they might like, the coverlines are about bands/artists, and they are highlighted in red, so they stand out and the audience will see the bands and want to read he magazine.

 There is a banner across the bottom of the magazine that they do in most of the Kerrang magazines, it always tells the reader what is posters are going to be in the magazine, this helps sell the magazine because the audience will see that there are ‘free’ magazines and will want to buy it. The colour scheme on the front cover is red, black, white and yellow, with these colours they help the magazine look more of a rock magazine. There is only a main image on the front cover and then there is images of the posters that are going to be in the magazine, this is because they want you to have more focus on the main image and to be interested in the bands that will feature in the magazine, without having to read what the features are going to be about. The ‘WIN’ in the strapline at the top of the magazine, catches the eye of the audience. The audience will to know more about how to win tickets to the Kerrang tour, so they will red on to find out how to win. At the bottom of the magazine you can see that there is a list of different bands and artists that will appear in the magazine and the audience would read it and would want to know why the bands or artists are featured in the magazine. Kerrang is a rock magazine which is a good example of a rock magazine, as it uses different rock styles to the magazine.