Masthead: The presentation of the title ‘Kerrang!’ is highly appealing to the
target audience. It is capitalized, and shares the ‘screaming’ effect that is
shared with the music/artists they commonly promote. Kerrang! itself is a very
iconic magazine among most teenagers who have interest in music from the rock
genre, due to this the masthead has been pushed to the back of the cover,
behind the image of 30 Seconds To Mars. The sharp, cutting lines through the
title emphasize reflect the edgy, alternative genre of the music they promote.
Capitalization further promotes the ‘screaming’ nature of the music that is
promoted, but also the fact that they want the masthead to stand out among the
other music magazines.
Image: The portrayal of 30 Seconds To Mars on this cover is very common
among all music magazines, band formations normally have one ‘stand out’ member
who is usually the singer and often takes center stage in the photo. The attire
of the middle member differs from that of the other two quite considerably. His
jacket has more accessories on it, which are left relatively uncovered by the
cover lines. The two outsiders are also wearing shades, preventing us from
being able to establish contact with them, however the middle member is able to
because he is the ‘main feature’ of the band. It can be said that this
inclusion is important for all music magazines, or even magazines in general.
The image itself is a midshot of each member, the less important half of their
body in terms of what we look from a front cover is removed. It can be said
that the hair colour of the middle person attracts them more than any other
part of the image, instead of using attire as the stand out feature, Kerrang! has
chosen to focus on other elements that can be used to stand out and challenge
the conventions that other music magazines follow. The image overall is very
bleak, the three band members all appear to be expressionless and don’t
captivate the emotions we would expect a music magazine to have. This said, to
stereotype the audience Kerrang! targets, it reflects the attire and attitude
that they have.
Font:
The font used is very appropriate, predominantly
using the same one throughout. The masthead font is the only one that is used
just once in the entirety of the magazine cover, this is perhaps to establish
an identity apart from the cover stories and such. It could also be that
because is targeting a very specific market, they feel it important to have it
separate from the other fonts on the page. The ACDC cover line incorporates the
lightning bolt they have in their logo to further emphasize their knowledge of
such things and inform that the reader that they are a resourceful magazine who
are aware of such things.
Colour: The use of colour on this front cover is very important; four main
colours are used consistently to stand out whilst keeping in line with the
conventions of the genre that they market. Yellow is used limitedly, perhaps as
it is too bright and would be drowning if used too much on this cover. Red is
an obvious choice, used commonly on most music magazines of all genres. Black
are white are used much more on this cover than the other magazine covers I’ve
looked at, again this is most probably due to the colours that are associated
most commonly with rock music.
Cover
lines: Minimal information is given about each
story, importance of having a mix of upcoming/well known artists is very
important on this magazine. Language such as “sex” and “drugs” is very
provocative and expected from the type of magazine that this is, the two topics
appealing to the teenage demographic. The reader’s inquisitive nature is
satisfied through the inclusion of the magazine claiming to “answer your
questions” as an attempt to get them to read on.
Cover
price and publish date: Small and beneath barcode,
where they are commonly placed on Kerrang! magazines. The price further
indicates who the target audience are, costing just £2.30 is very affordable
for teenagers.
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