Music Magazine analysis

Kerrang magazine analysis

 

Front cover :

The Masthead is in bold capital letters which attracts the reader, it has an exclamation marks which adds some power to the masthead which reflects the fact that it's a rock magazine because rock is full of shouting and hardcore music, the lines in the masthead show power like it's been hit but it's still strong and powerful. The yellow title represents danger

Being a rock magazine the frontage of the magazine is messy especially the cover lines they are everywhere most magazines have a few cover lines but this magazine has 11 and doesn't really have a neat layout which reflects the fact that rock music is wild. the use of lots of cover lines entices the customer/ reader to read it because it shows that there are many stories, one of which they may be interested in. 

They also use connotations to have a greater impact on the reader in this case they say 'THE MUSIC THAT SAVED GERARD WAY'S LIFE' the use of saved  and life adds impact and attracts the reader because they would want to know how can music save someone's life and they use of making it capital letters and the biggest cover line on the front page attracts the reader. 

Everything on the front page are all capital letters this attracts the reader and makes it stand out. They have a 3 colour scheme which is yellow, red and black which is not the same for other issues of the magazines which reflects the fact it's a rock magazine, it is wild and it doesn't really have standards and consistency, the colour make the magazine stand out and attracts the reader.

They have a skyline which is a really good idea because everyone reads from top bottom and if the reader starts off with reading cover lines it entices them to read it because they might not have second thought on it because they might judge it by the cover so the use of a skyline reduces/ prevents readers putting the magazine down because of the cover page. 

The cover star is an artist who is the main of this issue on the magazine there is a special story about him a double page spread and the cover line to go with the cover star is the biggest to attract the reader. 

The cover star is wearing a suit which is unexpected for a rock star to wear they usually wear t shirts and skinny jeans, but because the is wearing a suit and the cover line says save his life makes it sound and look more serious which attracts all kinds of readers not just rock music fanatics. The cover star is not smiling in the picture he is lying down on the floor with records behind him he has a serious look but also a laid back look because the shirt is not done up properly as well as the tie and. The picture was taken in a studio and is a medium long shot.

At the bottom they have a barcode for the seller to scan to sell also it has the price of the magazine. It also has a competition bit at the end.

The use of the connotation 'secret' show exaggeration but also entices the person to buy it because by using the word secret makes the reader think that they can only find the secret out in this magazine but the fact that it's a secret show review it is not a secret. 

                                

Contents page: 

It is a 1 page contents page. 

The title for the contents page is not as big as other contents page but is stands out because it has a black circle around it and underneath it says 'LEARN TO FLY (THROUGH THE MAG)' which is supposed to be taken in a joke way and shows the magazine is not boring by just saying writing it also has jokes here and there. It also has the issue number and cover date on this page which is odd because most magazines have it on the front page. 

The contents page follows the 3 colour scheme, red, black and yellow. the page numbers are red, the subtitles ( news, reviews etc.) are yellow and the title of the story is black, this is really good and it makes it stand out because it is very clear and neat it doesn't not match the messy front page but a contents page has to be neat so the reader fins it easy to navigate through the magazine. Each article title is in a black bold font and underneath it has a pull quote which attracts the reader to read it.

Some of the editorial features have a picture on the contents page. The pictures have the page number on them so the reader can quickly navigate to it. and it also has a pull quote on the picture. There are 3 sections of the contents page. one part is the editorial features with pictures which are scattered on the page, another section is everything else which is split between 2 columns and the last section is a short paragraph from the editor and the writers who wrote the magazine.

The pictures in the contents page are medium long shots 2 of them are live shows and the other one is in a studio. The people in the picture are not looking serious they look like they are enjoying themselves. 

Double page spread:

The double page spread has the picture over 2 pages which is similar to all the other double page spreads. It has a really large title and text on the bottom half. the double page spread is really colourful to attract the reader and it looks funky and not boring, it has a little amount of text to keep the reader excited. It follows the 3 colour scheme black, red and yellow. the text is easy to read because the page is not filled up but its kept simple, and it is black text on a white back ground

It has the page number on the bottom with the magazine name next to it. 

There is one paragraph in a lager font which starts the article off which is what was written by the interviewer or the writer, and then there are two columns which is what the artists said in the interview. It also starts off with a drop cap which livens up the letters in the article. The font size stays the same throughout the article which shows consistency and makes it look neat and easy to read.

The artist is not looking at the camera in the picture which shows that they have a high status and they are independent.  

The drop cap is red which matches the artists hair colour. 

The languages they use in the magazine suits the genre rock. Some of the language used in sentences is known more as slang rather than proper English e.g. "kind of" they also try to make the article funny by repeating the same sentence but adding a different adjective e.g. "acts different", "sounds different", looks different".  

The artists name is on the top right hand corner so the reader can make sure they are reading the right article.

The publishers of Kerrang magazine are Bauer media group

This is the statistics for the audience of Kerrang magazine. 

http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/kerrang  

By looking at the statistics for who read the magazine I can see that both men and women read the magazine more men read it but the percentage difference is only percent, also I can see that most of the readers age range from 16- 25  and 25-34 so I think that the ideal target age range for my magazine would be 16-25.

This has helped me with thinking about my magazine because it has showed me what language techniques I should use and it has taught me that rock magazines are not neat and also the language does not have to be standard English it can have some slang in it as long as the reader would like to read it.