This magazine is mainly aimed at the younger generation who enjoy listening to heavy metal rock music. As can be told from the front cover the kind of issues and articles that will be featured in the magazine will mostly be about bands like Avenged Sevenfold who produce heavy rock music, with an example of an article like this being, 'Headbangers! 25 Metal Anthems You Must Know'. The target audience for the magazine is 16-25 year olds who enjoy rock music like I mentioned above. The age of the audience has dropped however as years have passed to 14-17 due to the more mainstream bands they now feature with the same interest of rock music but a little more 'watered down'. You can tell the target audiences interests of rock music simply by looking at the front cover as it features a band wearing all black leather clothes with tattoos and chains, etc. This represents the anger and violence of rock music showing the target audience main interest.
I think the magazine is using their mode of address by having the group each holding weapons and all staring at the camera making it feel like it is them against the reader. This goes hand-oin-hand with the anchorage text that comes below and above the bands name reading, 'Sex. Drugs. Violence.' and 'The World's Most Dangerous Band'. This whole image is used purposely to make the audience feel the violence and the anger that the band feels and expresses it through their music, making them feel like they are in a fight and it's them against the band, giving off a huge violent message that is main reason why rock music is so popular. Therefore making the reader want to buy this magazine as it gives them the violence and anger from the band that they love about heavy rock music itself. This shows that the magazine wants to show a almost violent relationship between itself and the reader to coexist with the readers love for violent metal rock music.
The band that is on the front cover is Avenged Sevenfold. They are on the cover because they are a very popular rock band and portrayed as very violent just like their music which is what the target audience want. The anchorage text reads, 'Sex. Drugs. Violence.' and 'The World's Most Dangerous Band'. This implies just what I mentioned above, that the band are portrayed as very violent and 'dangerous' as it goes hand-in-hand with the genre of music they produce and the readers enjoy. If they were to be perceived as nice and kind and generous, then people who enjoy rock music wouldn't like them because they would see them as not being true to the music they produce and not being 'real', therefore they wouldn't make money and wouldn't be a successful band, which means they could in reality be nice, generous guys however in order to be a successful band they need to be perceived as violent to match with their music. Therefore the overall message is that of which a violent and 'dangerous' one.
As the target audience is aged between 14-25 (depending on the change from niche to mainstream bands), this specific young age group is being represented as can be told by the free give-away of the posters which they will hang up on their bedroom walls, etc. and the violence of the music can symbolise the aggression and rage they feel of being a young teenager/young adult and the struggles they are facing, releasing this anger through music by listening to bands such as Avenged Sevenfold. The buzz words that is used on this cover would be the word 'FREE' and 'PLUS', which attract the audience to believe they are getting a lot for their money and also by saying 'Free' they appeal to other consumers that normally wouldn't be interested in rock music by having to opportunity for getting something without having to pay for it. This has the effect that they are getting their moneys worth and going to gain from buying the magazine.
The design of the title block is very large, bold, capitalised and black with slashes going through it. This could mean many things such as the violence of a knife slicing it to simple guitar strings going through it to symbolise the music behind it. This just relates back to the violent and aggressive image the magazine has and tells us that the readership of the magazine enjoys violent music that bands such as Avenged Sevenfold produce. The puffs that are featured on the front cover of the magazine suggest that there will be interviews or reviews of popular rock artists that are out at the time for example, 'Lostprophets: How to survive Rock 'n' Roll!' which would be an interview of a band talking about Rock 'n' Roll which is exactly something the target audience would want to read. This tells us that straight away they expect an audience that deeply enjoy rock music and enjoy hearing about it and hearing about famous rock bands talking about it like the 'Red Hot Chili Peppers: Anthony Keidis on the 'Intense' new album!'.
The design of the title block is very large, bold, capitalised and black with slashes going through it. This could mean many things such as the violence of a knife slicing it to simple guitar strings going through it to symbolise the music behind it. This just relates back to the violent and aggressive image the magazine has and tells us that the readership of the magazine enjoys violent music that bands such as Avenged Sevenfold produce. The puffs that are featured on the front cover of the magazine suggest that there will be interviews or reviews of popular rock artists that are out at the time for example, 'Lostprophets: How to survive Rock 'n' Roll!' which would be an interview of a band talking about Rock 'n' Roll which is exactly something the target audience would want to read. This tells us that straight away they expect an audience that deeply enjoy rock music and enjoy hearing about it and hearing about famous rock bands talking about it like the 'Red Hot Chili Peppers: Anthony Keidis on the 'Intense' new album!'.
The slogan for the magazine is hard to see due to the main image blocking it, however it reads 'LIFE IS LOUD', which is used as the music that the magazine features is very loud and it means so much to people that it can consume their life, therefore they came up with Life if Loud. This attracts readers because fans of rock music enjoy loud music and it can also represent the readers behaviour as themselves in their life can be very 'loud' in terms of their behaviour by being very violent and aggressive, etc. The main colours that are used are black, white and red. These colours really stand out on the page, and also (especially the black and red) are very bold and in-your-face colours which symbolise the loudness and violence of the music. I believe that they are attractive as they are used especially due to their juxtaposition to each other for example the contrast between the redness of 'LIFE IS LOUD' and the blackness of the 'Kerrang!' title block, making them stand out and create a contrast from other magazines on the shelf.
The main font that is used would be sans-serif because it is very informal which goes with the representation of the magazine as it is very brash and repelling, yet gives less impact than serif. Notice also how nearly every bit of text it bold and capitalised, this is also used to go with the informal and violent representation of the magazine. Finally, there are many strategies used to attract the audience, many of which I have mentioned above. An example of which a strategy is used to attract the audience would be the 'PLUS' at the bottom of the page with the list of different artist which attracts the readers eye as they are bound to see artists or bands that they like, wanting to know more therefore buying the magazine.
By Harry Luke Mulvany
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