Analysing the Front Covers of Three Existing Rock Magazines
After studying six genres of music and
magazines that represent them, I have chosen to base my coursework on the genre
of Rock music, because I enjoy this genre and also, after some research of
circulation and readership figures (shown below) showing a decline in two of
the three magazines I have chosen to analyse, it would seem that a new magazine
of this genre would be commercially viable due to giving the people who previously
bought the magazine a new magazine to buy, and therefore it would be
profitable.
The three publications I have chosen to
analyse the front covers of are Kerrang!,
Metal Hammer and Classic Rock
because these are leading competitors in the rock magazine market and Bentley’s
theory (1997) states “The
making of the new though the rearranging of the old.” This means that you should use new,
unique ideas, but following the common conventions of the genre, as seen
before, and making sure that all of the needs of the target audience are
catered for in order for the product to be viable commercially.
The first rock magazine cover that I
will be analysing is for Kerrang! Magazine,
which is a very well known and popular music franchise with many publications and
broadcasts including a radio station, a television channel, a website, online
features and an annual awards evening, as well as the magazine. The target
audience for the magazine is British rock enthusiasts of both genders, and all
sexualities and ethnicities, between ages 15 and 35, and this is shown through
the professional look of the magazine, but with colours, themes, information and
images that appeal to people within this group. It think this is the audience
because the popularity of rock is constantly growing within this age group
especially, and therefore the need for a publication that appeals to this group
of people was especially high before the brand began. The cover I have chosen
is from August 7th, 2010:
This cover highlights the main
story of the magazine and this takes up most of the cover, with image and text.
Around this, the masthead sits at the top, which is a convention in the layout
that Kerrang! uses as a sign of
recognition to the reader. Above the masthead sits a thin banner that
represents an important part of the magazine, however is not as important and the
feature and therefore isn’t as big or easily seen. The same goes for the
smaller image and caption at the bottom left of the page because the image
doesn’t catch the attention of the reader straight away, however it is used to
attract different audiences by appealing to their needs, in this case, heavy
metal listeners who are, or aspire to be, festival goers within their preferred
genre. The foot banner is also recognisable as a Kerrang! Magazine convention, featuring another way to try and
attract a larger range of audiences within the rock genre, by briefly
mentioning other bands that have articles in the magazine, in an attempt to
draw the attention of people that like these bands, to try and fulfil their needs
and thus the reader will buy the magazines. Also on the cover, around the main
feature, are smaller teasers, used for the same reasons as aforementioned and
shapes such as the red splatters around important teasers are used to make them
attract the attention of the reader and also reflect the conventions of the
genre eg rebellion, which I will discuss further later, and a barcode is used in
the bottom left corner, which has information that the reader may be interested
in, ie the price and publishing date and shows that the magazine is for sale.
The masthead sees the well known,
unique design for Kerrang! That is used across all of the brand’s platforms,
for recognition of the brand and connotation of the genre that the magazine
represents, in this case the masthead looks damaged and defaced; stereotypes of
the genre, rock. This appeals to the target audience because it gives the
magazine an original sense of rebellion, which is what the genre is typically
about and abides to Hall's youth theory of youth as rebellious.
The main image used a medium shot of
three people, who will be recognised as the front men of popular British bands
by the target audience, and this will encourage a lot of people to purchase the
magazine due to the large amount of people in the audience of the these
particular bands. The mise en scene of the image indicates a message of ‘British
rock brilliance’ being a theme in the magazine, due to the use of the Union Jack
being shown and also the colour scheme – note that the colours that the band
members are wearing corresponds to the overall colour scheme, making it look
clean and professional, and no over-crowded with colour.
The colour scheme of the page
represents the theme of Britishness throughout this edition of the magazine,
which is actually unique from the usual colour scheme, replacing yellow with
blue, and using more red than usual, and switching the black and white around
so that more white is used than black, opposing the usual look. This represents
the colours of the Union Jack, modelled in the main image, and attracts the
audience, or just anybody who sees it on a shelf anywhere in Britain, because
everyone can relate to these colours due to them representing the place in
which we live, and therefore people want to know about all the good things
happening in the nation, ie the main article about three British bands being
chosen to play in the biggest rock concert tour of the US. This abides to the theory of Andrew Higson (1998) when he said that; “Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalized inhabitants of a particular political-geographic space – this can be a particular nation or region.” because it is using British identification to advertise to British citizens. Also, inversion of
black and white is used a fair amount in order to make the typography stand out
from the colour used by not using colour, but also work with the colours used.
The teasers used are short, but give
enough information to entice the reader but make them need to read the full
articles to find out the whole story, thus making them buy the magazine. They
use words such as “exclusive” which connotes that this information will not be
found anywhere else, so this is what they should buy to find out lots of
exciting and unique information. Furthermore, the typography used is the same
the whole way across the cover, but with different colours, apart from a couple
of key buzz words eg ‘Plus’ and ‘Bloodstock’ which use similar but not the same
typography as the masthead. This works to further the professional and clean
look of the magazine, whilst also giving clarity between stories and making certain
important features stand out. Furthermore, the language used is fairly simple,
to show the range in the target audience and therefore the simplicity appeals
to everyone, not making the language to difficult to understand therefore
focusing more on the music.
Some figures that show the audience of Kerrang! Magazine are as follows:
This shows that the main audience does
fall into the target audience and therefore the magazine is obviously
successful in producing a magazine that fills the needs of their target
audience.
The institution of the Kerrang! Franchise is Bauer Media, a large media company that creates
many brands of publication, including magazines for other music genres. The
price of each copy of a magazine, in general, really just covers the printing of the magazine, and
therefore advertising is used to pay off everything in order to create the
magazine ie studios and staff etc, and then make a profit on top of that.
Important figures for Kerrang! Magazine
are:
These
figures complement the audience figures above in that the magazine is obviously
successful in producing the correct publication for the targeted audience and
therefore hundreds of thousands of copies are sold every year. This means that
the brand is successful and thus can be continued; bringing more and more
profit to the institution in this brand alone.
The second magazine I will analyse is Metal Hammer magazine which is a rock
magazine that focuses on the sub-genre of heavy metal. Metal Hammer
Is very much online based apart from
the monthly magazine, and aims at a British audience of “metalheads”, typically
heterosexual males, aged 20-35, however a female audience is included. The
cover I have chosen is from April 2011:
This cover follows a lot of the same conventions as the Kerrang! Cover, it has
a lot of information on it (in fact more than Kerrang!, this could be due to Kerrang!
being weekly and Metal Hammer being
monthly, therefore it has more exciting information to entice the reader with
in one go) surrounding the main image, and with the teaser for the main image
over the image itself, very similar positioning and the use of a banner and a
barcode. This indicates that all of these features are the common conventions of
a popular rock magazine. The cover features a main image, taking up a lot of
the cover, with a banner at the top, highlighting information about a key and
popular band within the genre and also a new and increasingly popular
sub-genre, which seem to be quite clear against the rest of the cover, making
these articles seem important to the whole magazine. Just below this banner
sits the masthead, which is large for easy reading and identification; however the
middle is covered by the main image, so it may not be clear to new readers what
exactly the brand is, unlike the Kerrang!,
which although is slightly covered up, it can still be recognised. Just
underneath the masthead there are two red shapes, similar to the ones on the Kerrang! Cover, with red seemingly
dripping down from them, like blood, which is also represented in the main
image. On the right side there is a barcode which has information that the
reader may be interested in, ie the price and publishing date and shows that
the magazine is for sale. At the bottom of the cover are some teasers and,
unlike the foot banner on the Kerrang!
Cover, there is a circle containing the same information, showing originality.
The Metal
Hammer masthead is both similar and different compared to the Kerrang! Masthead, due to it being large
and recognisable, however, I think there are less connotations of the genre
represented in the typography. Although, it does look like a visual metaphor in
that the word ‘Metal’ looks like it has been chiseled out of the word ‘Hammer’,
which would use a hammer.
The main image is the front man of a
popular British band (which, coincidentally, happens to be one of the men on the
front of the Kerrang! cover above),
with arrows through his body and into a wooden pole. This abides by Hall's youth theory of you as criminal by connoting danger and
violence, stereotypes of the genre, and also a religious theme that seems to
run through the cover, which I will come back to in a second. The minor images
on the cover take the form of cartoons that relate to some of the stories. For
example, Beavis and Butthead are at the bottom of the cover, with the teaser of
their return, and surrounding the information about a festival on the sea,
there is a cartoon anchor and some octopus tentacles. This connotes fun and
entertainment, which fulfils the needs of the reader who reads magazines for
entertainment and information.
The colour scheme used is fairly broad,
using colours like green around but not very much to make things stand out, but
the main palette uses black, red, gold and brown, which are dark colours which
stereotypically connote the genre and a common misconception of Satanism, which
leads into the next point...
A religious theme is implied throughout
the cover as there are many things on the cover that denote the importance of
religion, especially Christianity, in the genre, and how that is reflected in
the music and also the way the audience react to the music and each other, opposing
the stereotypes. Signs of religion are buzz words “Saints or sinners?” and “Golden
Gods”, the use of crosses as t’s in the words “temptation” and “amarth”, the
use of a cross in the letter ‘o’ in the phrase “Saints or Sinners?” and the
impaling of Oli Sykes to a post with arrows could represent the death of Christ
on the crucifix, due to the caption saying “Saints or sinners?”. Moreover, the
two circle over Oli’s shoulders seem as if they could represent his conscience,
which connotes the morality of the genre.
A range of typography has been used,
with the words ‘Iron Maiden’ being in the logo font of the band itself and
different things around the cover using different fonts. Similar things, such
as the two circles by Oli’s shoulders, use the same typography, and therefore
continuity helps it not look too overcrowded, and the variety makes it look
more exciting on the eye. On other magazines, I think this amount of different
typography would ruin the look of it, but on this cover I think it actually works
well and also connotes the messy, rebelliousness of the genre. I think you can
tell that the target audience for this magazine is slightly older than for Kerrang! Magazine because the language
used is a slightly harder to understand, for example the word “heretics” which
I don’t actually know the meaning of myself, currently.
The institution of Metal Hammer magazine is TeamRock
whom is made of rock music enthusiasts who make the magazine for the audiences,
about what they would want to see in the magazine whilst also making money. The
circulation figures below, with reference of the pdf above, demonstrate that
the magazine is appealing to the target audience and therefore a lot of copies
are being sold, though not as many as Kerrang! Magazine, which seems more
popular based on these figures, from the same year.
The
third and final rock magazine I am going to analyse is Classic Rock which has a target audience of males aged 30+ due to
its focus on bands that are many decades old as opposed to more modern music
which is more focused on by the previous two magazines. Furthermore, this
magazine is like the “older brother”
to Metal Hammer magazine, as it’s
produced by the same institution, but aimed at an older audience. I can’t
actually make out the date publishing date of the cover I have chosen, but here
it is:
Compared to the previous two
magazines, this cover is very minimalistic in order to appeal to the target
audience, and this obviously works, however it follows many of the same
conventions as them. This cover features a masthead at the top of the page, a
central main image with its caption across it, teasers on either side of the
main image on the bottom half and a barcode in the bottom left corner. This
simple layout makes it very clear and precise with what it wants to tell the
reader before they open the magazine, which appeals to the target audience
because they will be more patient and are more likely to buy the magazine
anyway, compare to a younger audience who may just buy a magazine for a
specific band, for example. The layout appears almost symmetrical, which is
very appealing on the eye, and particularly here, works with the minimalism to
make it look fuller than it is.
The
masthead is very easy to identify and you can tell it has been designed to
appeal to the target audience because they way that rock music has evolved from
the earlier music, featured in this magazine, to very modern rock and the many
sub-genres that have now been created, featured in Kerrang! and Metal Hammer
magazines, demonstrates that the younger generations enjoy modernising, in
design and in music etc, whereas the older generations like to keep things very
simple, pure and straightforward. Furthermore, the slogan for the magazine
appears in smaller type just underneath the masthead and to the right, this
gives continuity to the branding and seemingly fills a lot of empty space even
though it doesn’t take up much room.
The
main image, which is also the only image, features a full shot of a popular
band, which is obviously the second most important convention of a rock
magazine, following the masthead, and this particular band, after all their
years, are still around and playing shows to huge audiences, proving that this
magazine is very successful due to the amount of enthusiasts within the
audience. The colours that the band members are wearing actually clash with the
rest of the cover, but not so that it looks bad. I think this could be due to
the fact that this magazine doesn’t care so much about the small details like
that, because the bands are so powerful and have had such a massive impact on
the target audience as they have gone through life to where they are now that
the creators don’t care as much for the perfect design, its most about what’s
there on the cover, and the fact that a band as huge as Rush is on the cover is all they need. Classic Rock tends to be aimed at people of social grades B-C1 and therefore this abides by Gandal's social theory of people of this social class being the "social norm".
The
colour scheme is simple, with five colours used; blue for the background, orange
for the word ‘RUSH’, white for text, red for heading backgrounds and black for
the circle shape and in the mise en scene, with brown also making an appearance
here. It’s so simple, but does exactly what it needs to. The word ‘RUSH’ being
orange is an interesting choice, especially on top of the brown on the front
man’s jacket, but it definitely makes the word stand out from everything else on
the cover, as if to attract the attention of the reader to the band, just in
case the image doesn’t achieve this.
The
typography is probably the least simple thing on the cover, but it’s still
simple. Each aspect has its own font; not including the masthead and slogan,
there are six different fonts on this cover and that seems to give the cover
more depth than it would have if the same font was used throughout. It makes
the use of many fonts look professional instead of looking amateur and tacky
like it easily could do, which takes skill.
As
formerly mentioned, the institution of Classic
Rock, like Metal Hammer, is TeamRock, and they know what their
target audience wants and needs and they create it, because they are their own audience,
which is a quality that a large, non-specialised company like Bauer Media may not have, and this is
evident when you look at their circulation figures:
These figures show that the circulation
beats both Kerrang! and Metal Hammer by over 20,000, proving
that this audience, not only are a key audience within the genre, but also that
this magazine obviously understand the audience so well that it’s one of the most
popular music magazines that there is.
In conclusion, the common conventions
of rock magazines are; an original, stand out masthead, a large main image of a
band or band member(s) with the caption for the main feature across the image,
smaller teasers around the main image and a barcode in the bottom right corner.
These conventions demonstrate the genre of rock by using large, eye-catching features
with four to five colours spread across them, and basically designing a page of
organised chaos, which represents the genre very well. The genre is created
through a subtle negotiation between the institution and the audience,
therefore, to create a popular magazine, you need to truly understand the needs
of the target audience, and the best way to do that is to be in it.
Form: The layout of the
page reflects the rebellious and messy connotations that comes with the genres
represented within the magazine in that boxes and images are overlapping,
however, the layout is easy to understand with the images in one column for
about ¾ of it and main contents list in its own column, in sections that can be
easily comprehended. This makes it easy for the audience to navigate to the
part of the magazine that interests them the most, whether that’s a particular
band or whatever. Also, as part of the layout, a small section written by an
editor of the magazine, James, sits in the bottom left corner of the page,
which is a feature that is continued through each issue with the same editor,
and this contains a small picture of the editor along with the short paragraph
on the contents and their opinion of the issue. This is a good feature to have
in a popular magazine like Kerrang! as it gives the reader an insight into who
the editor is and how they feel about the contents. Finally, in the bottom
right hand corner of the page is an advertisement, which shows, in order to
make a profit and cover all costs of producing the magazine, the institution,
Bauer Media, uses advertising within their publications, eg Kerrang! magazine
to make money. 
