1. Researching Music Magazines

2. Kerrang! Magazine
• Kerrang! Magazine is based mainly on pop-punk / rock music.
• It is brought out with the purpose to entertain the audience it is targeted towards,
but it also provides information to them on different bands, and introducing new
bands.
• The main target audience is teenagers, young adults with the love for that music
genre.
• Another purpose of the magazine is to advertise band tour dates, which allows the
readers to find out when certain bands are touring their area and when the tickets
will be out.
• Kerrang! Has published a great number of the magazines, but they are more
noticeable in shops due to their outstanding style.
• The front cover style is always outgoing, and full of colour. The main image on the
magazines never looks serious, which makes the magazine stand out from others.
The general target audience was people who were into that sort of music.

3. Key Facts
• Kerrang! Is published by Bauer Media Group, and was first published in June 1981.
• Bauer Media Group is publisher which publishes a great number of different
media, for instance radio, magazine and television. The magazines they published
were: Angling Times, Motor Cycle
News, FHM, Closer, Grazia, Heat, Kerrang, Q, Match, Yours, Parker and Car.
• As well as being a magazine, Kerrang can also be found on the internet giving a digital
copy of the magazine. Kerrang also have a music channel on television and a radio
channel, but these do not relate to the magazine as they are based on just the music
related to Kerrang (rock to pop-punk), which are multimedia spin-offs.
• They also have their own tour every year with bands relating to their genre of
music, which is stated heavily in the magazines.
• The magazine, holds its own Kerrang awards, which is like other award ceremonies
but the readers get to pick who they want to win, usually through the website for the
magazine.
• The NRS website shows figures of the relationships of Kerrang and the number of
adults 15 and over. From October 2011 till September 2012, the average number of
readers was 387000. However, the figures for the average number of readers in July
2012 till June 2013, for Kerrang, was 294000. The figures state that there is a
decrease in the number of readers, but it is still a large number. This emphasises that
there is still a great number of the British population that read Kerrang.

4. Old Kerrang Magazine Covers
Amateur looking, a lot more colourful
than recent. The magazine is an overall
colourful magazine.
Banners are very heavy
(large).
Different camera shots
that emphasise the
props used in the image.

5. Recent Kerrang Magazine Covers
The masthead is bold but more plain.
Less colour is used, but the magazine
is more colour coordinated.
The camera shots are
relatively the same, but can
still fit and emphasise, the
whole band and the
‘Security’ top. The main
cover story is also
larger, stands out more.
A great amount of
photos are used, but the
banner is more subtle.

6. Contents Page 2003
Plain title, with the use of dark
colours on the page.
The dark colours make the tone dark.
The different colours make the page
titles stand out.
No pictures are used making the
contents more plain.

7. Contents Page 2009
Use of an editors
article, along with a
wider range of colours
use, including a white
background.
More images are used, and a main
image states the main article in the
magazine.
Banners are used to
separate different
sections of the
magazine, for instance
news and gig guides.

8. Kerrang Interview 1981
An overall dark tone is presented,
through the use of white text on a
black background.
The page is full of text which looks
boring and doesn’t attract the reader
to read the interview.
No difference in the text to
distinguish the questions and
answers.

9. Kerrang Interview 2011
A lighter colour is used as a
background providing a more happier
tone.
A title is stated which helps the
audience understand who the
interview is with.
A quote is used in a different colour
to make it stand out. The quote is
one that can be used to interest the
reader. The colour of the quote then
matches with artists hair.
Some text was in bold and attracts
attention, making a difference
between the questions and answers.

10. Rivalries
• Although there may be no websites that show the rivalries of Kerrang, there is a number
of different magazines that are aimed at the same audience, which causes rivalry on the
number of readers.
• Magazines that are aimed at the same target audience are Alternative Press, Metal
Hammer and Rock Sound.
• Another form of rivalry is the use of websites like last.fm, which can provide all the
information Kerrang and other magazines contain, like new bands, information of
different bands and tour dates.

11. Journalism
• ‘The Guardian’ has provided a number of different articles on Kerrang, both providing
good and bad news about both Kerrang magazine and other Kerrang media. This for
instance is shown a day of a reporter in the Kerrang radio, which is selling the radio to
the audience, and an article on the 30 years of Kerrang magazines which also sells the
magazine to ‘The Guardian’ readers.
• ‘The Independent’ also has past articles on Kerrang, put mainly on topics like the
Kerrang awards, which puts across the awards to an audience which may not keep up
with the Kerrang media.
• ‘Press Gazette’ has number of different articles based on the magazine.
• The use of the media spotlight, like this, puts across the Kerrang magazine and Kerrang
radio to a great number of people which may not know a lot about the magazine itself.