MUSIC MAGAZINE RESEARCH

By

Hayley Wilson

Introduction

Since I am using Kerrang! As my example magazine, I will be looking into it for my magazine research. This magazine has quite a unique style to it, focusing more on Rock music bands. This is quite noticeable by the style it uses. It’s more distinctive when on the shelf as being from the rock genre due to the type of photography used, and typefaces.

Key Facts

• First published on June 6th, 1981.• The publisher is Bauer Media Group, they also publish Q Magazine,

and Take a Break. • There is a Kerrang! Radio, Kerrang! TV, they also utilise podcasts and

their website.• It was originally a “One-time supplement” in the Sounds newspaper.

During the 1980s and 1990s the magazine played many thrash and glam metal acts on the cover, but later discarded them when grundge acts such as Nirvana rose to fame. Sales went into decline in 2003. In 2008, EMAP sold the magazine to Bauer media group.

• Current readership figures for Kerrang! Are: 294,000 adults.

Kerrang!Front Page

The front page of Kerrang! Immediately looks like a magazine for darker types of music. The main image of the page is a man wielding an axe, which although would scare some must appeal to the readers. There are quite a few different sell lines on the magazine page dotted about. There’s one advertising 10 posters being inside, as well as one to Win a signed pumpkin and a few others. These sell-lines are all connected to images next to them, or are separated from the rest of the page by being placed inside a shape. The cover line connected to the main image is “Fear-turing!” which is a play on of “Featuring”. There’s also a cover line connected to the main image saying “Matt Tuck presents The Halloween Issue”. There’s a Puff or “pug” at the top of the page saying “Inside Metallica’s Halloween!” as well as a few advertising freebies and competitions. The mode of address is quite a scary one. A disturbing image is designed to be put across to the reader that the magazine contains something spooky.

Kerrang!Contents Page

The contents page has followed the house style of the magazine by first keeping the red goo at the top of the page and by keeping the same typefaces and colours. The contents page also follows a Grid system of two columns. There is a large column on the left hand side of the page whilst there’s a thinner one to the right hand side of the page. Although the layout of the contents page is simple, there’s not that much white space and it works well with the black and orange text. There’s also a rather large image on the page advertising the chance to win a signed pumpkin. On the right hand side, the different sections of the magazine are also labeled clearly into sections such as news, live reviews, poster special, features, albums and a few others. This lets the reader know exactly what’s in the magazine without having to read everything on the contents page. There’s also an editorial on the page and a bit of information about subscribing as well as an issue number and a cover date.

Kerrang!Double page spread

The headline on this double page spread is “Prepare to enter the gates of HALE!” The main text of it is in a white font, similar to the Kerrang! Title, although the “HALE” part is wrote in red and designed to look like blood has been streaked across the page. The subheading is actually just above the headline and gives a brief introduction saying that the band Halestorm is entering one of Britain's most haunted houses. The article is put into the columns although the pictures don’t seem to be part of the grid and clump together into little groups. There’s only one pull-quote on the page and it’s a quote from Lzzy Hale saying that they love exploitation movies with lots of gore. It’s put in a basic white font which helps it stand out against the dark background. The main image is of the band Halestorm looking rather afraid. The structure of the article is done like a diary of events, however in the first section of the article is immediately mentions the most haunted house. Hooking the reader in and making them want to know what will happen. The style of writing is rather simple and doesn’t seem to overuse any complicated vocabulary. This allows it to appeal to the target audience. This one article seems to stray from the house style, losing the white background and black text. Although the headline is still similar to the Kerrang! Title. This magazine seems to be creating a rather spooky ideology.

Other Studies

This is a study performed by someone else looking into Kerrang! Magazine. I can see that they have looked into the publisher, as well as the magazine. They have also looked at Kerrang! TV which is a feature not many music magazines still have.

Blog post by William Hicks

Rivalries and Media Spotlight

Kerrang! 2013 Awards article

Kerrang Blog News

Recently in the media spotlight, there has been a lot of talk about the Kerrang! 2013 Awards.On it’s own webpage, Kerrang! Has covered a lot of articles on new band releases too.

NME is also Kerrang!’s biggest rival, as although it is in a slightly different style, both magazines cover very similar Music Artists and bands. NME has also been around for a lot longer, and has deeper roots than what Kerrang! Has.

Journalism

The Guardian - My Chemical Romance fans protest against Daily Mail

Kerrang! - The Emo Debate Rages On

BBC - Article on Emos and the Protest

In 2008 there was a protest by “My Chemical Romance” fans against the Daily Mail who labelled the band as being a “Suicide Cult Band”. They were also linked to the death of Hannah Bond, a 13 year old girl who 2 weeks prior to her death, she had started following the band.

During this event, Kerrang! Reported it and supported the protest. There are also articles covering this event on The Guardian and the BBC.