‘Kerrang!’ is a rock magazine. It is mainly addressed to teenagers at the age of 15-20. To specify the age of their target audience I was taking attention on the price. The cost of the magazine is only £2.20 therefore it suggests that it is affordable for the target audience which I have identified .The magazine attract the rock fans mainly by the colour shame they have used on the cover; red, black and white. People believe that rock is an aggressive music genre therefore in this case red colour on the cover symbolises the danger and aggression. From an extra textual knowledge we know that Slipknot plays heavy metal. They also have a significant style which they express by the clothes, props they use. The key image also links back to the meaning of red used on the front cover; it is because the person on the image looks very aggressive and vulgar. His hairstyle is also very messy what links back to the genre of music his band produce. As I have mentioned before black is one of the colours used. The masthead is in black. The font looks smashed; it shows how rock is spontaneous and it appeals to the target audience. The font of the main cover line is the original, representational font of the slipknot band. It makes the audience think that the information they will read are up to date and taken straight form the band.

Kerrang’s front cover analysis

On the Front Cover Kerrang! shows that there is 9 other covers for this particular series of the magazine so the audience may be attracted as they have the right to choose the one they really want because they may have their own, favourite member of the band. In the same time the publisher can be sure that the sales will grow. Kerrang! Also adds free poster to their magazine, what will also help to attract the attention of the audience because they may buy it only to get the poster of the person they really admire.The selling lines on the front cover are used to attract the audience. By the selling lines the target audience can find out what is inside of the magazine and what can they expect from it. Selling lines are also very helpful while making decision whether to buy or not the magazine. If you are not interested in what is advertised in the selling lines you probably won’t buy the magazine as it will not appeal to you. Selling lines are also very important because they save time of the customers as give enough information so they do not have to go through the entire magazine to find out what is in there. Overall, the magazine front cover is very organised, however it is a big contrast to the expression the key image has made. The key image is very unorganised and messy but the cover is neat and well organised.

Example of 1 of 9 different covers.

All the 9 covers.

UNCUT is a Rock magazine as well as Kerrang!. However, the target audience will be different because the magazine aims to older, more mature more sophisticated audience. The price also makes a huge difference because UNCUT is worth £4.70 so the people from the higher social status are more likely to afford the magazine as they have more disposable income. A lot of different aspects included on the cover also inform us who the audience could be. I will start off with the key image. It is black and white. They have used this image to ‘bring back the old times’ and to satisfy the target audience as that kind of music and those people were really famous in their teenager times. The clothing of the person on the main image also links back to the 70’s. The hairstyle is also different to ours now, is really messy and wild. The use of colours also appeals to the target audience because the colours are in great composition.Red may link to the dangerous or sophisticated side of rock. The use of gold isn’t accidental because the magazine talks about the 40th anniversary of the band. Black is a standard colour used on the covers, however same as in the Kerrang! magazine it may symbolize the dark side of rock. The masthead is also red. The letters are big and bold. They carefully thought about it because it also has to appeal to the older generation people so it cannot be too outstanding.

Uncut’s front cover analysis

The magazine offers their audience a free CD. The audience may be attracted because that is a great occasion to buy their favourite CD even thought they may not be attracted in the magazine. So that will bring some extra customers.

The main cover line is emphasized by the red colour. It is because they want the potential audience to know what is included in the magazine and who is it about. The cover lines as well as the selling lines are persuading people to buy the magazine and give them ideas of what they can find inside the magazine. Their colours are in harmony with the style of the front cover.

Finally the layout of the magazine is simple and clear, however compared to Kerrang! they included more of the features which will help the audience decide whether buy the magazine or not. This magazine is also more bright and in my opinion more attractive in comparison to Kerrang!..

From my extra textual knowledge I know that the Kerrang! cover is made of weak paper and all the pages are made up from the same paper. On the other hand, the UNCUT’s cover is much more strong and made of different material than the rest of the pages. It links back to the price and the target audience.

The Rock Sound Magazine is obviously a rock magazine. The target audience of this magazine can be a mixed group of people. Teenagers also as the adults can be attracted by this magazine, but the price £3.99 testified that it may be more of the adults because they can spend money. It is cheaper than the UNCUT magazine, however it still a big price. Lot of things happens on the cover. There are 4 different people on the key image. They all have similar type of clothing and hairstyle. From my extra textual knowledge I know that the band was formed in the 2004 so it is just their stylization to look like the old time stars. The cover is very bright because of the use of different colours. The masthead is a neutral white. It is because they wanted to keep a balance on the page and to do not make it to messy even though there are a lot of things going on, on the cover. The main cover line is yellow same as the text ‘free CD’ in my opinion they uses that to link those two feature to draw audience attention. The selling lines are in the same colour as the masthead. They inform people what they can find inside of the magazine. If the audience is interested in one of the bands they have named in the selling lines they will be more attracted by the magazine.The cover lines are in different colours, some of them are grey the rest is blue. Even the font is small the text still stands out on the page. It is attractive because people get the information of what will be included in magazine.

The Rock Sound magazine front Cover analysis

The Rock Sound magazine offers free CD which I mentioned before. The Free CD will attract the potential audience because The Cd itself may be really expensive but when there is a occasion of buying it for a price of the magazine they will obviously do that if they are fans of the band; Panic! At The Disco.They have also added free posters. Which will take even more attention of the audience. Something new, which two other covers haven't on them and what in my point of view is a great way to attract the audience is the fact that they have promoted a competition. It was a good choice because people will just look on the page and know that they have the opportunity to win VIP tickets for Download.

The layout of the page is kind of messy and unorganized compared to the two others magazines. However it may be because they wanted to give the audience something different and to show the real messy side of rock.

Contents Page Analysis

This is the contents page of Kerrang! magazine. The heading is placed in the top right corner. Is quiet different to all other magazines because we used to see heading in the opposite side of the page. In the top left corner we can find a lot of writing. In my opinion it isn't so good because people won’t spend that much time in the shop to check what is written, however it may attract people because they will know what they can find inside the magazine without going through the pages. The left side of the page is mostly filled with the images of different artists. On the other half of the page they have placed pictures of bands, to keep the contrast, make the page look more dynamic.

On the right side there is also table of contents. The more appealing features have been emphasized by different colour to get the biggest attention possible. The page is laid out well and is really clear. The background of the page is white to make all the text easy to read for the audience. The use of yellow was a good idea because it look bright and attractive for the audience it creates positive house style.

Contents Page Analysis

This is the contents page of the Rock Sound magazine. From all 3 contents pages only on this one we can see that instead of writing ‘Contents’ they have placed a ‘Rock Sound’ and the series of the magazine. In my opinion it was good choice because people know how contents pages typically look and this is something new, something fresh that we can not observe in the other magazines; something challenging the conventions. The page has been mostly filled up with the picture. Even the content table is transparent so we can see what is behind. On the picture we can see two young fighters. It represent the aggressive side of the rock and links with the text quote on the left side. The facial expression of those two young males also shows the aggression. That also can help me specify more deeply the target audience because making any of the picture I can note that the most interested will be males in the similar age as the one’s on the picture. The contents table is in the bottom right corner. It takes just ¼ of the page. As I mentioned before the table is transparent and the colour used for the text is white to make it clear and easy to read.

Contents Page Analysis

This is the contents page of the UNCUT magazine. The heading of that page fits the masthead of the front cover. It is very good because it keeps the style of the magazine. The page has been mostly filled by the main image. The image is black and white. It links back to the cover because their purpose was to get to the mature audience. He holds guitar which links back to the genre of the magazine. On the left side there is a column with the content. It is attractive because people don’t have to read a lot and they still have an idea of what is in the magazine. The use of colours is very simple. On the page they have mainly used white and red . Comparing this contents page to the Kerrang! magazine this one is less chaotic. Perhaps because the audiences are different.

From all of the contents pages the one that would get my attention would be Kerrang’s magazine one. Kerrang’s contents page is the most interesting and includes the most features. It has several different pictures so the page looks interesting and appeal to me.

• The guitar has a United Kingdom flag on it. It will attract the attention of the patriots. And it also links to the heading ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.• There is not a lot of writing on these pages. However the style of the font fits the style of the pages.• The headline is really bright and catches the attention of the audience even more than the picture does. It is also in two different colours so it makes the page look more attractive.• The main image presents person playing on the guitar, it is really attractive because people while looking at the page without even reading the article have an idea what it can be about and judge if the article will be interesting.

UNCUT’s Double Page Spread analysis

• The text on the page is white. It is a great contrast to the dark background. The lines above and under the text divides the pages to sections and that makes the pages look more interesting.

• The use of colours will mostly appeal to the male audience because the colours are dark. Picture also mostly appeals female readers because people on the image are also men.

• The eye catching title on the page is also white. The letters are in capital and stand out on the dark background. The title makes people get interested and pass them straight to read the article.

• On the picture we can see two individuals. They both look like they are indifferent to each other. That may links back to the content of the magazine. Their clothing also expresses the style of the music they play, rock. They bring the atmosphere from the rock video clips to the magazine pages.

UNCUT Double Page Spread analysis

• The picture will mostly catch the attention of young males. The picture shows the typical teenagers nowadays. They are relaxed and ‘chilled’. They also look interesting and their dress code is really fashionable.

• ‘Need To Know’ table is a great feature, and will attract the audience as they will be interested what they should know about the teenager world.

• The title of the article will mostly appeal to the teenagers as it is ‘THE TEENANGERS’. The title catches the eye of the audience and looks fresh on the page because of the use of blue for the background.

• The picture will mostly catch the attention of young males. The picture shows the typical teenagers nowadays. They are relaxed and ‘chilled’. They also look interesting and their dress code is really fashionable.

• The use of colours will stereotypically appeal to the male audience.

NME Double Page Spread analysis