Analysing the Front Covers of Three Existing Rock Magazines

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 7^th, 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.

(Figures from http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/kerrang)

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.