I have decided to analyse Kerrang! as is it aimed at young people and fans of rock music. It will help me to find out what fans of rock music and young people enjoy in a magazine and aid my decision on choosing my target audience.
The title of the magazine is ‘Kerrang!’ which, although a made-up word, has an onomatopoeia sound to it and sounds explosive. This symbolises the music genre as it is often loud and has instruments that make loud, explosive noises such as drums and electric guitars.
The publisher of the magazine is now Bauer Media Group. Previously it was published by EMAP. The Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Worldwide magazines amount to around 38 million a week. The Bauer Publishing Group comprises 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started in the UK with the launch of Bella magazine in 1987 and as H Bauer Publishing became Britain's third largest publisher. Bauer further expanded in the UK with the purchase of Emap Consumer Media and Emap Radio in 2008 to become the UK's biggest publishing group. H Bauer brands include women's weekly and TV listings magazines: Bella, Take a Break, that's life! TV Choice and Total TV Guide.
The cost of Kerrang! is £2.20 and is produced weekly. It also has an official website on which it advertises the magazine, as well as a TV channel which also advertises the magazine. The total circulation of the magazine is 134,000.
The cost of Kerrang! is £2.20 and is produced weekly. It also has an official website on which it advertises the magazine, as well as a TV channel which also advertises the magazine. The total circulation of the magazine is 134,000.
The main audience of Kerrang! Are fans of rock music between 14 and 20. The majority of readers are males and this is shown through the pictures which are mostly of males. However rock music is heavily dominated by male artists which may be the reason for this.
It also uses slang terms for words and has sections for twitter and facebook groups which show that it is up to date with technology and therefore will appeal to young people who are, generally, up to date with technology.
There are several pages at the back of the magazine with opinions and reviews of recent music and interviews with music artists which allows the reader to interact with the magazine.
It also uses slang terms for words and has sections for twitter and facebook groups which show that it is up to date with technology and therefore will appeal to young people who are, generally, up to date with technology.
There are several pages at the back of the magazine with opinions and reviews of recent music and interviews with music artists which allows the reader to interact with the magazine.
The main image on the magazine is the main singer from a band called Biffy Clyro whom of which most fans of music magazine would recognise. He is topless and covered in tattoos and face paint which gives the connotation of carelessness and youth. He is also holding a sword which connotes violence but he is smiling which makes him seem cheeky. There are also other, smaller images of rock music artists that would be well known by the target niché audience. There are also images of the free calander that support similar images.
The title of the magazine is at the top of the magazine but since it is so well known by its colours and style, Kerrang! isnt fully shown and it slightly covered by the image of the singer. The title is very bold and uses 'rugged' text that makes it seem broken and tattered; it is published weekly. The images and colours used appeal to the niché audience that Kerrang! targets.
The colours of the magazine are red, yellow and white. The red connotes anger which adds to the image of the sword weilding person on the front. The colours connote youth but not specifically age and can also appeal to older people.
The title of the magazine is at the top of the magazine but since it is so well known by its colours and style, Kerrang! isnt fully shown and it slightly covered by the image of the singer. The title is very bold and uses 'rugged' text that makes it seem broken and tattered; it is published weekly. The images and colours used appeal to the niché audience that Kerrang! targets.
The colours of the magazine are red, yellow and white. The red connotes anger which adds to the image of the sword weilding person on the front. The colours connote youth but not specifically age and can also appeal to older people.
The magazine is quite dark looking but has very bold titles. The darkness of the magazine represents the type of music of the artists that are featured in it. It also uses very simple language and coloqueal phrases so the younger audience can identify with the magazine. This is also done by the way that the singer is looking at the camera on the image of the front page. There are also lots of pictures of various rock artists so that even if the audience do not recognise all of them, they are likely to recognise, and want to read about at least one of them.
The use of subtitles and smaller titles breaks the magazine cover down into different parts which appeals to the younger, 'MTV generation'.
The use of subtitles and smaller titles breaks the magazine cover down into different parts which appeals to the younger, 'MTV generation'.
Kerrang! addresses the reader in a fairly casual way through the uses of pronouns (who rocked your world in 2010?). However it doesn't use much slang but does use colloqueal phrases such as 'fight back'. The articles shown on the front are the kind of articles tha would appeal to fans of rock music since it is centred mainly on the artisits. There is also a large part of the front cover dedicated to showing the freebies in the magazine (calander, posters) which would entice a reader to buy it. There is infomation about up and comming bands aswell as old bands and various shows they are performing.
There are a lot of different advertisements that appear in the magazine. These include: Adverts for gigs, phones, against animal testing, magazine subscriptions and clothing advertisements. This is because the target audience of the market are young people and therefore have disposable income. The prices for these items however is quite low since young people do not tend to have a huge supply of money.
The majority of those in the magazine are males since rock is heaverly dominted by male artists. They are generally shown to be carefree and cheeky but lovable which allows people to relate to them and identify with the artists. Also if the artist seems to be just like a regular person it may make someone want to listen to their music.
The people that read this magazine may often be musical themselves or be part of a band and can therefore identify with the bands in the magazine.
There is a limited range of representations for women since there are very few women in the magazine. Also most of the images are of white males and therefore does not appeal so much to different cultures or genders and have a very niché audience.
However there are also older musicians in the magazine which would appeal to those of an older generation as they would be more familiar with their music.
There are no celebrites in the magazine since the niché audience of this magazine wouldn't like mainstream music and therefore are unlikely to follow mainstream celebrity 'gossip'. The kind of artists shown are mostly new and up and comming musicians, or bands that have recently been on tour or started a new album; the type of articles that the reader would be interested in.
The people that read this magazine may often be musical themselves or be part of a band and can therefore identify with the bands in the magazine.
There is a limited range of representations for women since there are very few women in the magazine. Also most of the images are of white males and therefore does not appeal so much to different cultures or genders and have a very niché audience.
However there are also older musicians in the magazine which would appeal to those of an older generation as they would be more familiar with their music.
There are no celebrites in the magazine since the niché audience of this magazine wouldn't like mainstream music and therefore are unlikely to follow mainstream celebrity 'gossip'. The kind of artists shown are mostly new and up and comming musicians, or bands that have recently been on tour or started a new album; the type of articles that the reader would be interested in.
Similar magazine that are in competition with Kerrang! are Q, NME and other rock/alternative music magazines. These magazines tend to stay at around £2-£3 with kerrang! being the cheapest at £2.20. The similarites between these magazines is that they follow similar artists and cover the same topics. They also both give dates and infomation about gigs and often give away posters.
The reason Kerrang! is so popular is because it is very up to date with popular bands but also because it has little competition; rock is not a mainstream genre. Also the magazine sells at a very reasonable price considering the other magazines on the market.
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