Kerrang Magazine Front Cover

Kerrang magazine Article Analysis

Kerrang is a rock music magazine, and the genre of music for the magazine is rock. The layout of the magazine is a double page spread, with the first whole image dedicated to the main image of the band ‘Architects’, and the pull quote made by one of the band members. The second page is dedicated to talking about their new album that is coming out. The image of the ‘Architects’ is on one whole page because the image will attract the audiences eye to the article, there is a comment from one of the band members ‘Tom Searle’, which would attract the audience to reading the article because they will want to know more about that comment that the band member made, it stands out because of the bold yellow.

The masthead of the article is on the second page of the double page spread, ‘THE TIME IS NOW’ masthead attracts the eye of the reader because of the large size and bold yellow of the ‘NOW’, that would be the first thing that the reader would see when flicking to that page in the magazine. The colour of the background is black, so that the white writing stands out more, with the writing in columns, making the layout of the article seem more formal than it actually is, but the formal side of the article changes with the yellow writing and the first letter of the article bold and yellow. There is a strapline underneath the masthead that is a breath introduction to the article, telling the audience what the article is about. The writing is in capitals and with the white colour of the text to the background it stands out to the black background. The bands name is in a serif typeface in the strapline, with the rest of the text in a sans-serif fonts, making the name of the band stand out to the rest of the text in the strapline. There is a box in the middle of the text of this that each band member want the audience to know about them, this attracts the audience to the article because they will want to know more about the band members and quotes that they have said.

The audience of the magazine can keep interest throughout the article on the Architects by the image of the band, which would separate the article from others by the use of the image of a band that would attract the audience to the article, the large image is used because a young audience don’t want too much text. The audience also keeps there interest with the article with the box that says ‘Right here, right now’,  easily digestible, which is the band members telling the audience of things that they want them to know about themselves, this attracts the audience because they will want to know about the band members instead of just about their new album that is coming out. The language of the article flows so that the audience will not get bored reading it and will keeping them entertained. The comments from the band members in the article keeps the audiences attention, because they will want to know what the band has to say on curtain subjects, like the fans, the album, and more. The layout overall keeps the audience interested with the article because its not too complex, and boring, the audience don’t want to look at the article and not want to read it because it looks not very interesting.

From looking at this article I would believe that the target audience for the magazine is for teenagers and young adults for both gender. I think that this article appeals to this audience because the layout is perfect for this audience, and the language used suits this audience. The type of article that this is, is a review of their music and their albums, but it is also a interview in a kind of way because of the band members are
Commenting on things, for example in the article it talks about how they are not angry people, and you the band members commenting on that comment, but in the article you don’t have someone asking the questions. This appeals to the audience because they get a bit of both, they get information on the band and then they get to see the actual comments that the band members have made on curtain things. There is direct mode of address from some of the members of the band, and in the actual article as well, with the use of ’you’ in the text that  would keep the audience involved in the article and can relate to it.

The language used in the article is suitable for the target audience because of the slang, and swear words used, for example, “I stopped worrying about the future, the past, or whatever s**t going on”, “f*****g funny”, these would  not attract an older audience because they wouldn’t like to read an article with that language in it, so that’s why it is targeted at teenagers and young  adults. The style of writing is very informal, this is because of the target audience, if it is informal they are able to relate to the article. The sentences are not very complex this is so that the audience will not get bored of the article, this suit’s the target audience of the magazine, because they would lose interest and their minds would wonder when they are reading the article.

The colour in the magazine is used to keep the audience interested in reading the article, the yellow is used to highlight important things that the publisher of the magazine would want the audience to see, and so that they would stop looking through the magazine and read the article. The black background is used to make the white writing stand out, so that the audience would more likely see the article because of the brightness of the writing would attract the audience to it.