Magazine Analysis: Front Cover (2)

The magazine Kerrang! is aimed mostly at young men as the genre of music featured is punk, rock and metal which is generally stereotypically as a male/masculine genre. However the band featured on the cover “We are the in Crowd” has a female singer in the photo, so this could suggest that the magazine is trying to appeal to a young female audience of metal and rock, as they can relate to the female singer in the band.

“We are the in Crowd” are the only band featured on the cover, which shows that all the focus in this magazine are on them,  which promotes the band and the magazine so they can both distribute and sell their products to a wider audience.

The band on the cover do not reinforce the stereotype of metal fans as loud, aggressive and violent, as the photo of the members are of a medium shot and all the members of the band are happy and are smiling, which shows they are inverting the stereotype. The white background also inverts the stereotype as the white reduces the image of violence and has connotations of purity and peace.

This cover mostly uses black and white colours as they contrast well, giving a slightly more grown up a bit but still youthful appeal with the use of other colours such as yellow and pink, which helps target the audience more to young females as pink is more seen a feminine colour.

The tag lines for this issue of the magazine are all on the right, showing that they are not blocking the main image on the cover. This also makes sure the magazine is neat and does not have different taglines all over the cover, as this will decrease focus from the band mostly featured on the cove.

A pull quote from the magazine says “A Celebration of Three Chord Fun” which gives the impression that this magazine is not stereotyping metal and rock fans as aggressive and rude, as the word (fun gives more of a happier and welcoming vibe. This could also be another way that the magazine tries to promote itself to a wider audience who don’t normally listen to the music that the magazine promotes.