Music Magazine Analysis

Cara Williams

KERRANG! magazine

The name of this magazine is KERRANG! It is a rock magazine. I chose this magazine because the bold colours used on the front cover really stood out and caught my eye on the shelf.

I don’t usually read this magazine, i rarely read any music magazines, however if I was interested in rock music then I would read this magazine because it is full of lots of detail and had great stories.

FACTS about KERRANG!The owner of KERRANG! is Bauer Consumer Media, this company also make magazines such as; Womens magazine, such as closer, heat, pop and GRAZIAMens magazines, such as mojo, Q and empireMens lifestyle, such as FHM and ZOOOther genres of magazine made by bauer are:•Gardening •Transport•Football•Golf•Pets•Angling•Motoring•Photography•Lifestyle•Radio•Charities

FACTS about KERRANG!

The editor of KERRANG is: JAMES McMAHON

ALSO THIS MAGAZINE COST £2.20 HOWEVER IT IS FREE ON THE INTERNET

Main Image

The main image is of a band called ‘THE BLACKOUT’. The positioning of the 6 band members shows them standing very confident and bold. The main image takes up the whole page and the top of the image covers some of the magazine name/title, this shoes that the magazine publishers are confident enough to know that the magazine will still be recognised without the whole name on show. The outfits being worn in the image by the band members links very well to the band’s name ‘THE BLACKOUT’ as they are all dressed in black. The poses of all the band members show how all the members are cool, they look like a rock band who are very well known

Font

The font used is very long and narrow, most of the text is very large which is good because it catches peoples eye when the magazine is on the shelf. The large fonts links to the outrageous cover because the band out on the front seem very loud and dress crazy.

I think the bold text used on the title is very effective, it is very easy to notice and fits very well with the genre of the magazine (ROCK).

ColoursThe colours used in this magazine are white, red, black, blue and yellow.

Having the band members who are dressed in black stood on a white background makes the image a lot more noticeable also because the title of the magazine is black on the white background it makes it stand out. Then over the top of the black outfits of the band members there is white text which says the band name; which is ironic because it’s in white and their called BLACKout.

The bold yellow strip at the bottom of the page is really eye-catching. The blue strip on the left hand side of the cover is the background of other banks which inside there are posters of, having the blue background really makes you look at that offer, and pursues you to buy it because there are 7 free posters.

Advertisements

Advertisements

There are 23 pages of Ads in this magazine. Most of the ads are for different rock bands, about their up and coming gigs, for HMV which is a shop that sells different types of media, DVD’s, CD’s, games etc. another advertisement in the magazine is for a HTC phone. I think these ads are mainly aimed at the male gender and people who enjoy rock music. This magazine cost £2.20 and if you view it on the website it is free.

Advertisements

This is the advertisement in the magazine which is for a rock band called Rammstein. They are a German band who are coming to England for a tour. This advertisement is quite dark, which leads me to think that the advertisement is aimed at males who like rock music. The text and colours used in the advertisement are very dull but quite bold, and really stand out in this magazine which is why this advertisement caught my eye.

Advertisements

This is an advertisement for the HTC smart phone. Phone advertisements usually interest men more than women, I think the colours used in this ad are very plain and because of that the text and picture are much more noticeable. This advertisement is on the first inside page of the magazine, I think they have put this here because of the white background the ad is very eye-catching and grabs the attention of the reader straight away.

Genre

The genre of this music magazine is rock, I don’t enjoy rock music however many people do and for them this magazine would be of great interest.

Contents PageThe contents page is on the first page as soon as you open the magazine, I think this is a great place to put the contents page because as soon as you open the magazine you instantly know where to look for the pages that interest you. The layout of this contents page is very clear, all the pages are listed on the right hand side of the page and the different sections are all very clearly labelled. There are images on the left side of the page that show some of the bigger stories and the images are numbered to show what page you will find them on.

I think the colours on the contents page link really well with I colour scheme used on the front cover, the colours and the text used flow through.

Editorial/EditorAs I have already said the editor of KERRANG! James McMahon on the contents page he writes a paragraph about the latest issue of KERRANG! He uses informal language as he says things like ‘kick-ass live posters’. I think using this sort of language makes the magazine seem more friendly, if the editor uses language like he is having a conversation with the reader it make the reader feel more comfortable. The editorial is set in a great place on the page because it is easy to see and read and because there is a picture placed next to it of James, it makes the editorial more exciting.

The Online

The website for KERRANG! Is free to view, it has all the same information however some people don’t have internet or would rather read the magazine than look on the internet and read the articles from there.

Some of the offers available in the magazine are not available if you view the online site. You can subscribe to KERRANG! For £5.50 a month, this will save you £46.20 a year.

The website where you can view the latest edition of KERRANG is:http://www.kerrang.com/