Kerrang! Magazine Front Cover & Contents Page Analysis

Front Cover

The main colours in this magazine are black, white and yellow.  Yellow being the main colour shows that it’s quite a positive issue despite Hayley’s quote. The caption “I have nothing left to prove” matches the image as she looks unhappy. The shot is a mid-shot so that people can see her pose and body language. The majority of the information is all in the left third of the magazine.

At the top of the page there is a competition to win VIP tickets. This could suggest that this is an important competition which is why it is in the top of the title. ‘Haley’ and ‘your’ is highlighted in yellow. This could be to make the reader and Haley connect and make the magazine appeal to the buyer more. On the Left third there are other features to the magazine such as ‘Bullet for my Valentine’ also in yellow and black and white. Generally the main names on this front cover are highlighted.  There is also a plug on this magazine which gives off a special vibe to the image. “Huge 7-day guide” grabs your attention. At the bottom of the page there is a 'PLUS!' section. It gives an 'even more' sort of feel to it. That this issue in particular is crammed with articles/posters and worth your money. There is also some text at the top of the bar code. This is Kerrang trying to fit more information onto the cover.

Kerrang is published by Bauer Media Group which is a multinational publishing company with an average of 38 million magazines a week. Kerrang is arguably the best rock magazine available in the UK. It’s certainly one of the most popular and frequently bought amongst teenagers that are into the rock/indie genre.  Although Hayley Williams is the headline in this issue, Kerrang has a wider variety of features as it has a popular music channel and a website. Obviously this magazine is mainly targeted to those that particularly like Paramore.

The general Ideology behind this cover is that Hayley is the headline to the magazine. "Haley answers your questions" is the main feature, hence why this is on the front page.  Because of this, this makes Hayley the key selling point to the magazine.  A music fan would browse magazines in the shop and notice that on this particular issue Hayley Williams is on the front cover. This would be a good enough reason for someone to buy this magazine because she is a music icon and at the time her band where very popular. This is a good representation of the idea that putting celebrities on the front cover of a magazine encourages people to buy it.  Furthermore the gripping headline "I have nothing left to prove..." encourages you to buy the magazine even more. What does she have to...or have not to prove?

The Audience is quite small, Kerrang is only reaches to certain group of people. Those into rock/indie/alternative however this is considered one of the best rock magazines. The 'poster special' box is a key selling point. This is because teenagers that read this magazines fill their walls with posters from each issue. Now a typical reader would look at this magazine and think "Ooh more posters for my room". This may sound unbelievable but I once bought a £2.50 magazine because it had an A3 Tom Daley poster inside. Then again it has been put on the front cover so it proves that this is a selling point.

Hayley can engage with young female readers as well as the male audience that might find her attractive. The price to the magazine is £2.20. This may be a little pricey since you can buy a 65p 'pick me up' magazine however as i said before, Kerrang reaches a niche market, and you get  what you pay for in the issue. It's unlikely you'll find something in the magazine you weren't interested in. It certainly covers the main gigs and is a highly recognised magazine. It's quite respected within the rock music community. Hayley Represents rebelling. The colour of the magazine have a dangerous feel to it as yellow and black can be linked with hazards and something that you can't cross. This is why 'Security' is written across her top. But because Hayley is in a careless pose as mentioned before it gives you a reason to read the magazine.

The language is clear as the front cover has a rebellious sort of tone to it. The smashed title and the careless pose by Hayley say that she’s breaking security. She has security written across her top which shows that she doesn’t care. Hayley dominated most of the cover and is the key selling point to the magazine as at the time this was published, paramour (Hayley’s band) and just became very popular in the Music Scene and about to go on tour.  

Contents page

The main colours to this contents page are Yellow, Black and White. This gives that rebellious, hazard feeling to the magazine. The contents page has the typical conventions. There is;

• The title 'contents'
• Authors Notes
• The title of the Magazine somewhere to be found on the contents page
• Main feature (This time it is 'Bring me the Horizon')
• Features with Page numbers in numerical order
• Various pictures
• different fonts and colours
• Issue Number

The picture at the top of the page takes up most of the page (half). The image is not posed and is sort of free. I like this because I think it would connect with the reader better and in a way you could pick up more from it. Since Kerrang attracts a young audience and the people in the image are young then it makes the image believable and appealing. What I notice about the contents page is that it has various headlines in black and yellow. 'Feedback', 'news', 'swag', 'live reviews', 'features', although it is at an early stage, I will probably use something like this in the magazine that I make.


There is a simple background that is white. This is important because the text on top has to be readable as that's whats important to the magazine.  The page numbers are easy to understand. Next to a heading such as 'Bring my the horizon' there is a number which represents which page that article is on. There doesn't need to be page numbers  because of the typical conventions that you would find on a magazine you know that the numbers represent that page numbers. The magazine is represented as being a a full issue with lots to see as it seems that the contents is crammed with headlines/titles.

The institution is the same as before...

Kerrang is published by Bauer Media Group which is a multinational publishing company with an average of 38 million magazines a week. Kerrang is arguably the best rock magazine available in the UK. It’s certainly one of the most popular and frequently bought amongst teenagers that are into the rock/indie genre. Kerrang also has a Popular website, TV music Channel and Radio.