analysing a music magazine cover

Here is the magazine cover I have chosen to analyse; the 13th August 2005 edition of Kerrang .

The title of this magazine is Kerrang; impersonating the sound of an electric guitar. This itself instantly creates the rebellious rock feel for the cover, thus indicating to any audience that this is the genre of the magazine. Producers reinforce this by having the large title in a capitalised letters with an exclamation mark, showing it should be/is being exclaimed. The font is rough around the edges and has a smashed effect over it , both connoting aggression /a certain attitude.

Here the masthead is obstructed by two of the cover images. This is known as bleeding, and is a way of demonstrating how the magazine is well established and that both its target audience and indeed other magazine buyers will know the title regardless.

Kerrangs slogan appears over the title in a post box red, contrasting the black and white, and simple modern font; LIFE IS LOUD embodying the magazine in a recognizable catch phrase.

This cover utilizes overall a range of 10 different images. This could be intentional to represent the quantity of different artists explored in the magazine, but also is likely in this case to be a selection of the artists whose gigs are featuring in the 100 GREATEST GIGS EVER article. Either way the audience is likely to be subconsciously enticed the amount of artist information they are getting for their money here. We know this from studies of Uses and Gratification Theory which show magazines are a main media form used to satisfy cognitive needs; surveillance and personal integrative needs; personal relationships , of fans for their favourite artists.

All of the images bar possibly one or two are look like candid snap, with 7 out of 10 designed to look as if they have been taken by fan at a great gig. Photos have been chosen where the artists have particularly angry or serious or extreme facial expressions. Long hair, facial hair, scary makeup, tattoos and rock poses are all found on this cover, again underpinning the heavy rock stereotype, but also giving the cover an exciting energetic rebellious vibe. It is elements like these which all work simultaneously with the cover lines of this edition, but also overall branding of the magazine.

The main cover line is in the largest text size after the title and placed right across the cover in the top of the bottom half, a conventional location for a cover line which is directly linked to the main cover image. The numbers 100 are the biggest part of the cover line and is what we immediately look at, hopefully impressed by the size of number unusually large for a non special edition; the purchaser is getting great detail and alot of gigs for their money. Greatest Gigs Ever! Is smaller and fits to the side of 100, filling the page. A simple alliteration of the Gs subtly makes the cover line pleasing, and the word ever implicates the idea of all music; everything anywhere and ever; the reader will have the greatest knowledge of gigs after reading this, as it could include gigs before they were born etc. The as voted by you is significant as it directs the audience directly, constructing or further developing a personal relationship with fans and/or the reader/voters. It also simply means that whoever voted is likely to want to buy to see how their band has ranked, equally not necessarily fans are going to want to read the countdown out of curiosity, in case of any shock placements, or to see if they agree/disagree with the entitlements. Starring and and more are effectively highlighted by being in the specific yellow, likewise so do the symbolic stars used to separate the list of yet more artists to be found inside. The reader is ultimately lured inside and subconsciously drawn to open the magazine by the final set of ellipses, strategically situated in the very bottom of the right hand corner.

Similarly to the 100 greatest gigs main cover line, this small side cover line is being used to entice the audience into purchase by utilizing their curiosity as to who think they the nominess should be, and then who in fact are. Also in this case it might have been chosen to feature on the cover as fans and readers are likely to want to know about the nominees so they can then vote for the K! Awards, consequently furthering a sort of personal relationship with the music industry and possib ly social interaction (talking to friends etc about the nominees/who they will vote for), or showing support as a fan by voting.

Plus, being the only un-capitalized text on the page, is relatively large compared to its surrounding text. It is fitting in white and has a black shadow to make it bolder. It is another example of key words to heighten the impact of a cover and to show the reader the edition is brimming with different topics/articles. Furthermore the plus is introducing a list of yet more rock artists. It is key to note that the utilization of all these names of stars being used across the cover in every cover line is a simple way to generate revenue and increase profit from the magazine. This notion is found in Richard Dyers star theory whereby the star is described as a commodity.

It might by deemed by this cover that Kerrang is targeting its magazines and young to middle aged males who aren't afraid not to conform to society and like to be seen to have a rebellious nature and rock attitude. We can infer this, particularly from this specific cover by the significant lack of females; indeed all of the cover images are of grown men, as well as all of the bands mentioned in the cover lines, some of these also being considerably old bands which have been around for a long time.

While this isnt always the same in every edition of Kerrang, it has made it clear not to be a unisex magazine aimed at children, teens, elderly people or young/middleaged/women in general. This does not mean to say however that the niche demographic of people the magazine is aimed at of which buy the magazine, are entirely male. Many people, regardless of where they fit in the population and target audience, will make sure to by this magazine, not just for surveillance and greater knowledge of the rock music genre, but too to build their own image, however they might describe it.

The media is full of stereotypes and this cover is no exception. Whilst the people it shows are essentially real, and not people acting certain characters, it is still partly the media representation them in certain way which is perhaps enforcing a stereotype, even though the star may have created this themselves. Regardless of this the men in the cover images are portraying a particular representation of men to every audience. While it is not suggesting, and one would certainly not think all men are like these rock stars, it is categorizing men as typically looking very confident, dominating, having power and strength, physical strength/good physique, and all of these traits causing them to be the revere of men and sexual fantasy of women. Women are not represented to by rock stars of have the rock attitude Kerrang denotes.

 http://prezi.com/
Firstly to see if I wanted to use a prezzi presentation to present my analysis, after deciding against this, to look at past prezzi presentations on music magazines.

https://www.google.co.uk
I used this initially to research the different music magazines there were out there, then their different logos (gaining these images for my first slide) then I decided I wanted to examine a Kerrang cover so searched these on images until I found one I wished to analyse.

http://www.slideshow.com/users/ellenrussell97
After using google to search for a website to upload my PowerPoint, I chose against common places such as slideshare.com and instead made an account on slideshow as this will support a PowerPoint with animated slides.

http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/Music/music.ph p?pageID=popstar
I used this website after conducting a Google search on star theory, I clicked this first and it was had excellent information so I could reference it in my analysis.