Magazine Front Cover Research - Kerrang!

For my initial research I decided to choose "Kerrang!" as it is a music magazine which I am familiar with. "Kerrang!" focuses on the punk/rock/screamo genres of music. They aim at readers aged 14+ who will be the type of teenagers who have the money to spend buying the magazine each week at only £2.20, and will attend concerts in their free time. They will listen to loud guitar heavy music and will aspire to be like the bands in the magazine and the majority will be able to play an instrument.

This is an example of a "Kerrang!" front cover. The masthead is black, in bold and outlined in a white box so that it stands out. It is partially covered by the main picture, this design is standard on "Kerrang!" covers. The picture is of males, late teens early twenties which is a common stereotype of music magazines. The music of the band is reflected into the styling of the image to create a similar attitude. The centre photo itself is covered by a sub-title which tells the readers that the magazine will feature "You Me At Six". They have also added in smaller text a few lines about the band above and below the central sub-title. "Kerrang!" have also included overlapping photos in the bottom left corner which also show the reader what they will find, a poster special, in the magazine. They have also included an additional image to the right which is set in a typical polaroid outline which has text underneath for information which refers to the image. A banner top and bottom also list bands that are included in this weeks issue.The colour scheme is black, white, yellow, red and green.

Unlike other music magazines "Kerrang!" goes against the typical use of two or three main colours as each cover features a different mixture, however even though they use more than the average amount of colour, they only use small amounts of each colour so they all stand out equally.

Kerrang! use the same style throughout all their front covers as this next image shows. This front cover features 30 Seconds To Mars. It is laid out in the same way, a banner top and bottom, masthead behind the main image, images both in the bottom left corner and on the right above the barcode. The main image shows self confidence and power by the serious expression and looking straight at the camera. Also the dark sunglasses reflecta cool attitude. A sub-title in bold about the main feature of the magazine with smaller text bellow and above the sub-title which include snippets of the interview to entice the readers.