Kerrang
Music Magazine Analysis

 General

Kerrang! is produced by a company called Bauer Media Group. The target audience I found on the bauer media groups website is; 'Our spectrum of readers. From the younger teenage readers who are more open to different genres of rock music - from EMO to Thrash etc, to the readers who respect Kerrang!' The magazine averagely costs about £2.20,it is also published weekly

Kerrang!'s weekly circulation is 42,077. Unfortunately unless you are a paying subscriber you cannot access the data on the National Readership Survey's website, although this is what The Guardian had to say about the Kerrang! website; 'Kerrang! may have lost focus in recent years, but the fact that it continues to thrive after three decades is cause for celebration' If all magazines in circulation were each purchased by one person then the weekly revenue would be £92,569.40, monthly this is £370,277.06

The Cover

The title is called that because it is onomatopoeic of the high pitched 'screech' that comes out from a guitar when strummed incorrectly or highly. This illustrates and works well with the target audience for the magazine.

All three subjects (Muse) all seem to be smiling and have a happy expression. They are all looking directly at the camera and the person on the far left is pointing at the camera; they are all similarly dressed - in a leather jacket each. This creates a rapport with the reader which is ideal for the specified target audience. They are juxtaposed to the right of the magazine; this allows the editor of the magazine to fill the left side of magazine with editorials. These editorials are put in place to beguile the readers of the magazine into reading further in.

Although, another 7 images appear on the cover of this edition. They are here to concede to the reader what is inside of the magazine without them even turning a page. The magazine states there are 5 posters inside, 'your ultimate rock hero revealed' , also different competitions that could be won.The colours of fonts are either black, white, red or yellow. Their is one unchanged font on the cover of this magazine; this helps to achieve a unified 'house style'. The cover talks to the reader by addressing it as if the reader was its friend. The magazine is written informally to create a rapport and a relationship with the reader, writing informally helps this happen because its as a friend would speak. The cover of this Kerrang! magazine is unlike any other music magazine, it offers a more rugged feel about it, there is barely any space left on the cover once the text and images are placed on. The unique selling point (USP) of this magazine is the dishevelled feel about it.  The cover is very trashy and messy, but this portrays the target audience bests likes.

Inside

On the inside of the magazine there are 63 pages,18 of these pages are advertorials, the advertisements include; Album releases, live concerts, music festivals, subscription deals and health care products. You can tell a lot about the target audience of a magazine by the adverts; these adverts are clearly assigned to appeal best to the readers of the magazine. Judging by the adverts that are contained within this magazine they are tailored to people who listen to rock music.

The artical topics inside the magazine include;

Rock Music News
Live Reviews
Posters
Featured Articles
Album Releases and Reviews
Gig Guide
The Ultimate Rockstar Test

There are 7 double page spreads inside this edition of the Kerrang! magazine which talk about a variety of topics varying from interviews with bands, to the line ups of upcoming concerts. Kerrang! achieves a unified house style in all of its magazines by keeping the fonts and the colour changes to a  minimum; there are only a few font changes and three main font colours - red, white and yellow. The language throughout the magazine is informal and the colour schemes remain similar - black, red, white and yellow. All graphical elements are very similar too, each drop down quote is formatted the same and images on a page are usually circled. The house style is appropriate to the target audience because it is very messy, which is stereotypically implied about the listeners of rock etc. it is appropriate because it helps back up and strengthen the stereotype.