Kerrang! magazine cover..

Kerrang! Magazine Cover.

Kerrang is a weekly magazine that costs £2.20. The magazine is aimed at a young audience between 13 and 25 who are interested rock/punk/alternative music and enjoy knowing all about this genre's news, gossip, new bands, album and gig reviews as well as upcoming gigs.This magazine may also reach out to new musicians and less known bands who are aiming for this level of achievement and to be publicly known as well as Kerrang's featured bands. They'll want to know what everyone's up too and perhaps inspiration. Due to it's price being very reasonable for the amount included, the relaxed, messy layout and the tatooed men featured I believe it is aimed at the social classes C1, C2 and D. I believe E would be interested but it would be out of the price range. It looks too unsophisticated to be for A or B.

The Masthead, Images and features all insinuate this magazine is aimed at a rock/alternative audience due to the edgyness and almost 'broken' look about it, making it look fairly rebellious, which is steriotypical of the rock/alternative crowd. The images are of members of two popular bands within the rock/alternative scene and will be instantly recognised by these people.

The font and it's size vary with importance, with 'KERRANG' being the largest to advertise what the magazine is and seperate it from the hundreds of other magazines that would be displayed around it. Following this, the featured bands names 'Enter Shikari & The King Blues' are the main cover line and is the second largest text, to advertise what is featured and grab the attention of their fans and fans of similar music taste to pick it up and read. The largest image is of the frontmen of these bands which is then portrayed behind the main cover line to encourage the eye to be drawn to them because of the facial recognision and eye contact intended with the picture and reader, then to 'Enter Shikari & The King Blues'. The images also contain one band member pointing outward towards the reader, encouraging the personal connection between the audience and the magazine. The image overlapping the masthead means the audience focuses more on the image, as if it's standing out and jumping towards them. The words 'you' also establish a personal connection between the reader and the magazine. There is no real selling line apart from 'The Kerrang! Tour: Access All Areas' which would be promoting the magazine, and it's events and merchandise.

Also on the cover are cover lines of competitions with the word 'WIN!' in a small bubble at the top of the magazine, instantly drawing in the eye of the reader who feels they would be in with a chance of gaining something. The cover line for featured posters is very eye catching as this will really appeal to this audience genre who, being teens, enjoy expressing themselves and their tastes with posters and images accross their walls.

The colours are contrasting and very bright. Using a colour scheme of cyan blue, hot pink, black and white, the magazine appeals to both genders and cleverly uses the bright blue and pinks to highlight important, interesting parts of the magazine. A good example of this would be the neutral white colour of the main cover line, with the black highlighting for the less important parts and the bright cyan blue highlighting the bands names to catch the eye straight to this, which will be why the reader will want to pick it up. They won't want it if they don't like the featured bands. The contrast of the Blue and Pink encourages the eye to flick accross the page at each cover line, because they'll stand out due to the colour contrast. Using opposite, contrasting colours means they match well together stilll, being each others opposites, leaving it appealing to the eye still, making it more attractive to potential readers. Overall, the whole cover is designed and succeeds at appealing to it's target audience and encourages them to buy and read it.