Kerrang Magazine Analysis

Joe Reeves

Clearly the genre of this music magazine is heavy rock and metal

music. The masthead is large and the magazine has the same house style

throughout the front page. The typography used in the masthead is very unique and it stands out which

means that it is a recognisable brand. Also because the lead singer of

Slipknot (Corey Taylor) is covering two of the letters means that the brand knows that they are recognisable as

they do not have to show the whole of the name of the magazine. This is

challenging the codes and conventions of a music magazine as the title is not fully on show which is unique and may

attract people.The cover uses direct mode of address

which attracts and entices people because Corey Taylor and the rest of

the band are all staring straight at the camera. Corey Taylor is in the middle third of the page which is sticking to the codes and conventions. This is

done because it is the centre and the main article so it deserves to be in the

middle.

The main image of the band Slipknot is a mid-close shot which is showing that the band have a

set dress code that they all conform to. The fact that the band

are all looking at the camera shows that they are focusing on

what they are doing whilst having fun. The fun side comes from the over the top masks and the boiler

suits being worn. The “Access All Areas” pass that Corey Taylor is holding could be

seen as a buzz word as it is saying that the readers are getting

exclusive content that someone who hasn't read it won’t be

getting. This could be creating a sense of loyalty as the readers are

getting unique content that nobody else is receiving.

The colour palette does conform to the codes and conventions using a lot of red,yellow,black and white.

The lack of vibrant colours (except yellow) shows that this music

genre is quite dark and not as out there as some other music genres.

Metal music often has vicious lyrics about death and blood etc. so the red could be representing the blood which metal music is

largely associated with. The yellow is a nice contrast to the red as

they both work well together. It is very different to use yellow on top of red so this could be why Kerrang chose it for their in-house colours. The black also connotes death as it is a dark colour and lots of metal music is very dark and twisted.

The puffs used on this front cover are all spread out around the nonogram

that Slipknot are pictured on. This is to make sure that the main image is

clearly the main article and the other articles are not as big. This follows the codes and conventions of a magazine

as the headline article is the main image and there is nothing covering. It makes it clear to the reader who the main article is on and what will be featured. The use of pictures withe

puffs is effective as it shows the reader what and who the article is about. This may attract readers as they may see a

puff which has a band they like on rather than just Slipknot so they may be encouraged to buy it. There is a wider range of genres on the front cover. It is not only metal music

featured, there is heavy rock such as Enter Shikari and classic rock such as

Kurt Cobain.

The title of the contents page is large

and bold so the readers know what this page is. It is the

largest piece of text on the page. The white writing for the title

follows on the theme from the front cover.

The writing underneath the words

“Contents” is significant because it is talking about the

festival which is most popular with the metal and heavy rock genre so it is informing the

readers that there is a big festival coming up so they know when it

is.

The editors letter takes up a small bit of

space in the rightthird of the page and has a picture of the

editor of this edition. The letter is just a short summary on

what is happening in this weeks edition.

The main image is not associated with the

feature article. It is a completely different

band which goes against the codes and conventions as usually the main image is the same band or artist from the front page.

This could be Kerrang reaching out to a

different audience as the two featured are different genres of

music.

There are subheadings to separate the

articles into different categories. This helps

the reader to know what each article is

about so whether it is an album review or

whether it was one of the articles from the

front page (the features).

The headline is effective as it is a pun on his name. The Way

Forward is light hearted and witty showing that this interview is quite upbeat and happy rather than about topics that are not

very uplifting,

The image of Gerard Way bleeds across the page. The background

is the black background that

Gerard Way modelled in front of. This is effective as it is

different than the red or white usually use. This goes against the

codes and conventions, however on most double page spreads in Kerrang,

the image is the background too.

The word “Way” is in red because the article is about Gerard Way and in this photo his hair is the same colour.

This fits with Kerrangs in-house theme too as the red is thecolour that follows the whole way through the magazine.Throughout this article

there is an in-house theme. At the start of each paragraph there is a drop-cap which is effective as it shows clearly where there is something different about to be said or

written.

There is a pull quote in the middle of the two

pages. This is effective as it shows the reader

an important quote and it essentially

summarises what the artist is saying in one

quote.Both of the pages have the page number in the bottom right orleft corner depending on what side it is on. As well as the pagenumber there is the name of the magazine. This is an in-house

theme as it is the same on every page. This is effective asit makes it easy to navigate from page to page based on the

contents.