Analysis Of A Music Magazine Brand

The Kerrang brand was established over 30 years ago and is the biggest music weekly magazine in the world. Kerrang’s target audience are young people, therefore, as well as music releases. The typical reader would be a young male who loves music and enjoys talking about rock music and relating it to his hobbies, leisure time, attitudes, fashion sense and lifestyle. Readers would engage with music 24/7, if not listening to it constantly then they would be watching TV, discussing rock music with friends, attending gigs, playing instruments and dreaming about rock stardom. Kerrang also provide information about film and games, mobile technology and government messages. Kerrang writes mainly about the genre of rock music. The readers are the heaviest music consumers, purchasing over 6 albums per month on average and are 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums. The readers are also 5.5 times more likely to attend a rock gig. Kerrang offer a wide range of multimedia platform such as magazine, online, radio, TV, awards, tours and podcasts. Kerrang has been used by brands such as LG, Orange and National Express in the last 12 months. LG and Orange are a suitable consumer brand to mix with as they are phone networks, which relates to the target audience of young people that are interested in music as they will most likely provide themselves with a phone to stay in contact with others and gain access to music online or through the device. National Express is also suitable as the young audience that read the magazine will be the ones likely to use National Express to travel to gigs and go on tour. Kerrang online offer links to their Twitter and Facebook. On their social media sites they have 717K on Facebook and 535K followers on Twitter. This shows clearly just how popular Kerrang is with its young audience. As well as social media links there are also links to reading the magazine online, streaming TV and radio and a ‘win’ section. Kerrang hold competitions to win camcorders, CDs and tickets to see bands live. On the website for Kerrang they advertise their latest magazine issue and new releases.

Original Ideas Statement

For my music magazine I intend to explore the genres of rock and gothic rock. The target audience for my magazine will be mainly teenagers and young adults. The majority will likely be males who love rock and roll and dedicate their lives to music. The magazine will show new artists and advertise them to the target audience as well as give information on other well-known groups and new releases. My magazine’s front cover will show a new artist and feature some more recognisable people so it attracts my target audience. Colours I will use for my magazine will likely be mainly black, white, grey and dark red as to fit with the theme of gothic rock. I will use a range of informal and formal language for my target audience of teenagers and young adults so that it appeals to a wider range of people.

Fonts Moodboard

 For my fonts, I came up with a range and experimented to see what was most fitting for my target audience and theme of my magazine. I decided to use elegant and dark concepts for fonts to match the Gothic Rock theme. The fonts I used most were CHARLEMAGNE STD BOLD and GOUDY OLD STYLE as I found these fonts most fitting to the theme as well as being most simple to understand when reading.

Colours Moodboard

For my colours I decided that dark and pale colours would be best to use to fit my theme.  As well as dark and pale colours I thought that using some bright colours to attract the audience’s attention were also necessary so I decided to use a few that went best with the darker colours I used. As an outcome I used mostly black, red, medium grey, pale pink and purple. This colours are mostly present of the front cover and contents page with more purple on my feature article to differentiate from the artist and interviewer.

Advertisements Moodboard

For my advertisements I decided on a range of different companies and shops that my target audience would be interested in. As my target audience are people of quite a young age I thought that many multimedia websites and technology devices would appeal to them most. I also considered food to appeal to my target audience of a young age so decided that places such as KFC, McDonalds and Subway would be good for advertising in my magazine. As well as this I considered my target audiences interests, such as shopping, listening to music and watch movies. From this I decided that Beats, Skullcandy, Marvel and Netflix etc would interest my audience if advertised in my magazine. When deciding on advertisements for my magazine I considered the fashion of my target audience so thought popular gothic stores would be ideal to advertise.

Target Audience Moodboard

I decided that my target audience would be mainly young men and woman who have an interest in rock and gothic rock. In this mood board I wanted to portray the different fashion sense, music taste and interests that my audience have. My target audience would be interested in popular gothic rock and rock artists as well as less popular and foreign music. In this mood board for my target audience it is clear the different settings and clothing that my target audience would feel most comfortable in. It is also clear, through different symbols, the attitudes my target audience have against the world they are in. As well as listening to rock music, there are pictures on this mood board which suggest what my target audience do in their free time with friends, such as shop and holding parties together. 

Textual Analysis