Kerrang Contents Page Analysis

I have been looking at and analysing different contents pages from music magazines. I found this Kerrang contents page is suprisingly clean looking and neat when compared to the usual style of the magazine. The colour yellow they use on their masthead every week on the front cover is splashed across this contents, the same yellow that is used on danger or caution signs.

Kerrange Double Page Spread Analysis

This double page spread has all the features the acts on a Downloads 2007 festival line-up. The puffs in this immediately get our attention. The colour is very similar to the yellow colour painted on roads, it is an eye-catching colour, almost alarming, and grabs the attention of the reader immediately. These puffs contain the stars of this festival answering a question and that will be very important to hardcore fans. The style of the puffs are like paint being spread carelessly onto the page. It is clear the pictures have been taken during the show, and during the act, it gives energy to the spread and looks exicting. The way the artists are holding their guitar or mics, their tattoos, their clothes and the expressions on their faces are giving us the impression that it is very loud heavy metal music, and that is only from the pictures. In the text, the names of bands are in capitals and are bright red, while the rest of the text is black. This makes it easier for the people who only want the details of the line-up, as they can see clearly who has played at this particular fetival. It shows the festival was maybe 'dirty', 'grungy' and 'messy' which will appeal to many readers. It is the complete opposite from my previous analysis of the NME magazine I did earlier. While that double page spread gave the impression of a clean, new band, this gives us the impression that these artists are experienced and well known, and are therefore allowed to act in this way.

NME Double Page Spread Analysis

This double page spread featured in NME, introducing a new band named the Teenagers. The photograph is large, because they are trying to make the readers become familiar with their faces, and the messy pictures in the background represent the lifestyle they lead; it links in with the band name. The titles that feature in this page are all in capitals, meaning they want your attention, and give the impression that this band is loud. The main colour used is blue, which may portray the band as being 'fresh' and 'cool'. It may also give the idea that they are boys who want boys to listen to them, they don't want to appeal to females. The puff that says 'NME loves' is attractive to anyone who trusts NME's taste in music. The puff that quotes the band saying 'Of course we're a sexual band, We're the Teenagers and that's all they think about,' gives us the meaning behind the name of the band and may help them appeal towards all teenagers and that they can relate. Their body language in the picture seems lazy and care-free, giving us the idea that their music is laid back and something to listen to when your relaxing. They also have other bands being introduced on the side, but the layout still gives the idea that NME prefer The Teenagers over these other bands. They have at the very bottom a puff with Alex Turner, the lead singer of The Artic Monkeys' face in, and his favourite new band 'The Rascals' featured underneath. Any person reading this that belongs to Artic Monkeys huge fanbase will be instantly attracted to this, and will probably listen to The Rascals after they have read this. The colours and pictures link this spread together, and it looks clean and easy to read. It still has a 'young, messy' feeling to it, but it gives the impression that this band is fresh, new and worth a listen.

I have completed my contents page mock up. I tried to make it formal and simple for the parents but also wanted to make it look slightly unorganized so it will be appealing to the children. So while the layout of the masthead, contents, puffs and information that is important to the parents is quite straight forward, the pictures are scattered in the background, something that children are interested in and represented in a way that they will be preferable to younger people. I also wanted to refer back to the main page. I'd make the main picture again to do with results (the main story on the front page) and the main puff is referring to the same thing. The contents are the most important thing, which is why this is the biggest part of the mock up.

I have almost finished my front page for my peliminary. I was going to photoshop a certificate onto the paper they're holding but now that the image is smaller, it seems fine to leave it the way it is. So this is possibly my final piece. I may come back to it.

Check back for updates!

Rolling Stone is a well known magazine that was founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner. Throughout the years it has boasted interviews with famous stars, a lot of which are music icons. The main focus of the magazine is in fact music. But it does have elements of politics and other popular culture. Rolling Stone is pretty diverse when compared to NME and Kerrang, who rarely have women on the cover, and appeal to a smaller audience. As we can see above, we have a pop icon on one cover, rock icons on another, and fresh new artist on another. They all have played a part in different kinds of music, and the colour schemes and fonts are compeltely different, and relate to the personality of the figure on the front or the mood of the magazine. Other magazines tend to stay within the same rules when font, puffs and contents are in mind. However, the masthead has always stayed the same font, which is all it needs to be recognized, as many people are familiar with it. I find it particularly interesting that in a great majority of the Rolling Stone covers, the masthead always has obstructions covering it, generally the artist/s head on the front. This shows that they do not need to advertise themselves, the content is the most important part. In the cover with Lady Gaga on, we can only see the letters "Ro" of Rolling and "One" of stone, but it is clear that this is Rolling Stone, because this font is so distinctive. There are bubbles surrounding her, maybe representing her personality and making it exciting because she is a fresh star. No letter can even be distinguished on the cover with Guns 'n' Roses as the main attraction. The Michael Jackson tribute issue is very simple, giving a sense of loss, and respect to the former singer. This makes the issue look classy and surprisingly makes you want to look inside, something puffs are generally used for, by keeping the content a mystery. I have enjoyed looking through the Rolling Stone covers, because there are so many, and they also different from each other. They also don't have too many distractions in terms of content information, making it looks more artistic and stylish.

For the past few days I've been looking at some of the frequent features that music magazines use on their front covers to advertise their product and it's content. I found Kerrang particularly interesting, they seem to grab the attention of the possible audience by putting big names in music on their front cover. I've noticed they've used Metallica, Muse, Slipknot, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Green Day and many more, which all have a massive fanbase and are well respected bands. This cover caught my attention with it's masthead: "25 years of Metallica: Inside the world's greatest metal band."

It's also frequent in most magazines that the title of the magazine can be almost completely covered by the band on the cover, because they know they are so well known they don't need the logo to be the focus of the magazine. Kerrang aims for a 'rough' look, using jaggered banners, with quotes and messgaes placed randomly on the page.

Metal magazines in particular are popular for being different. They appeal to people who like the music they advertise on the front page, whereas a majority of people may have never heard of them. The most important thing is that they do not use false advertising (like a lot of women's magazines) to appeal to a wide range of people. They clearly show what they are selling, and it is the audience's choice to buy or not.