Weekly Magazine - Kerrang!

Weekly Music Magazine
Kerrang!

 I am looking at the weekly music magazine of Kerrang! This issue was released February 13th 2010 and it cost the audience £2.20. The magazine is published by Bauer Consumer Media in the UK.

In my opinion I feel that Kerrang! is for a very specific genre. They focus mainly on Indie, Rocky, bands who play their own instruments sort of music. I got this idea through the way in which the style and the font is from the title for the music magazine.

Audience Profile
For the Kerrang! magazine I think that the target audience is quite specific for this magazine. I think that it targets both males and females. This is shown through the colours used on the front page of the magazine. The authors seem to want to reassure the audience that is is for both men and women. They also want to make sure that both the two genders are drawn into the magazine and are also going to buy the magazine.

I think that the age groups for the music magazine are 13 - 20 year olds. It seems to be a young magazine. I especially feel that it targets the youngsters more because on the front page of the magazine there are techniques used to draw the audience into the magazine. They have articles about "The Ultimate Love Guide" and "Valentine's Poster Special". Only younger girls would really go for this. I can not image 20-30 year olds sticking posters onto their bedrooms walls. Young girl stereotypically do this.

The interests of the target audience for Kerrang! magazine obviously needs to be the people who enjoy, buy and listen to the indie, rocky sort of music in which this magazine offers and focuses on. Inside the magazine there is a large part where they advertise a lot of gigs and concerts for the artists and bands who play music within this particular genre. I also feel that the audiences interests would need to be the celebrities and singers in which the magazine writes about. However, these singers are again linked to this specific music genre. You wouldn't see someone who loves listening to rap buying and reading this magazine. It just wouldn't interest them.

I do not think that the class of these people really link in with the audience profile for this magazine as it mainly focuses on targeting the people who enjoy listening to the specific indie, rock genre of music. Although, the price for this magazine is quite expensive to pay weekly. People in group D and E wouldn't proberbly pay for the magazine but are interested. I couldn't imagine a princess wanting to buy this magazine as they are stereotyped to be elegant and feminine, which is completely the opposite to the style of the music. But these people could easily be interested in the music and enjoy listening to it. So I would give a list of B, C1, C2 and D's.

On the Cover
When you look at the front cover of the magazine the first thing you notice is the main image. This is of two men. I don't know these people but I am guessing that they are artists or even in a band which play the genre of the music that the magazine is writing about. The photo is in the center of the page and is quite large and in your face. The man who is standing close towards the audience is pointing towards to the audience. It feels like it is in 3D as his finger seems as if it is about to come out of the page and into real life. This would help attract and draw the audience into the magazine as it seems that the man is personally looking at the audience, pointing at them, edging them to open the magazine. I get the image of the war poster saying "your county needs you". This was used to get men to join the army whereas, on this magazine, it is encouraging people to open and buy the magazine. At the bottom of the page there are another two photographs and another at the top. Again, the people in the photos must be artists who are singers or are in bands which play this genre of the music.

At the beginning I began to mention how the title of the magazine helped hint and tell me the type and style of the genre of the music the magazine is focusing on. Obviously the title is, Kerrang!, the font colour is white and is sitting over a black border. This helps highlight the name/title of the magazine as they are two contrasting colours. It allows the text to stand out and attract the audiences eyes. The font style of the title is block writing. However, there are lines cutting through the words at all different angles. This looks to me like broken glass. It reflects the style of the music.

There are four different colours used on the front cover of the Kerrang! magazine. Black and white are simple colours used to help texts stand out to the readers eyes. But the main colours used were blue and pink. I think the reason they used these colours were to attract both the genders towards the magazine. As if they would like to reassure the audience that the magazine is for both genders. All of the main texts are written in the blue. They used to pink for all of the other advertisements. They used it to show all of the girlie parts such as the "Valentines Poster Special" and "the Ultimate Love Guide". These are the section in which the females would be more interested. Boys defiantly would not be interested in these sections. The pink is also used to show the competition which is on the front page. By changing this colour from the blue and black used on the main front page allows the audience to clearly see the advertisements and would defiantly attract and draw the audience into the magazine.

The competition is a good way to attract the audience and readers into the magazine. It will also convince them to buy the magazine. The competition is to meet and greet one of the well known and famous bands which perform the music within the genre that the magazine is focusing on. The prize for the competition is defiantly something that the audience of the magazine would defiantly be something they would love to be interested in. This is a great way that the authors draw and attract the audience to the magazine. It will encourage them to want to buy the magazine. As they will buy it for the competition they will also be encouraged to read the magazine.