Analysis of Kerrang! Contents Page

Analysis of Kerrang! Contents Page

As I mentioned in the previous post, for the Main task I have to create a Contents page for my own music magazine. I decided to analyze the contents page from the music magazine Kerrang! to see what features could be put into the Contents page of my music magazine.

I immediately noticed when looking at the contents page from Kerrang! there is a lot of pictures. For many of the feature articles there is a picture representing the band which is being interviewed. The biggest picture is “Dir En Grey Kyo laid bare!” This is the main article to be read. The rest are of smaller other bands which we can presume will be smaller articles. A lot of colors are used in the pictures. The colors of the pictures jump out of the page at you. The masthead of the page “Contents” is in Yellow font and is put onto a Black Background so the title stands out. The Editors piece is in very small font which is very hard to be seen. There is a quote under the word “Contents” “I’m trying to do something different…” this is in normal Black writing and is bigger then the font used by the editor. Down the right hand side is more featured articles. Each have sub-heads such as News, each of the sub-heads are in Yellow and are put onto a Black background and is big in capitals. The rest of the writing is in Black bold font so it stands out. The Page numbers are in bigger font then the ordinary text because it makes it easier for the reader to find the page they want.

The main picture is right under the editors piece of writing. The eye scans down to see the biggest picture which dominates over all the other text which is on Kerrang! Contents Page. This is so the reader’s eye is drawn to the article which goes with the picture. This is a good technique used as the target audience of Kerrang! will notice the band and immediately buy the magazine to read the article. “Dir En Grey” one of the band members in the picture is represented as a mysterious cheeky character. He is bare chested which shows his tattoo’s off making him look cool and also a rock star. He represents what we associate with rock stars. His eyes are looking sideways as if looking at the reader to see who they are. The fans of Dir En Grey which would be attracted to him and also the people who are into the music genre of rock.

Underneath the main picture are smaller images of different rock bands such as Linkin Park, each of the images represents the other articles which are in the magazine. Anyone who likes any of the pictures of the bands would want to know more so would have to buy the magazine. The pictures are put into 3 columns. Although the main picture takes up half of 2 columns. Underneath each of the pictures is the Bold title of the band name for example Linkin Park with the page number next to it in Yellow Font with a black background. The Yellow number stands out from the Black Background. The Bold title jumps out to the eye allowing the reader to know what the article is going to be about. Underneath the Bold Black title is the smallest font which is in Bold and can just be seen although it is hard to read.

At the bottom right hand corner in the 4^th column is a Red Box which has 3 issues of Kerrang! squeezed in. The pictures are small and can just be seen, however, the text underneath the pictures of the Kerrang! issues give more information. The text is in White and is in Bold. The information is bold in white; however, the telephone number is in smaller White font. So the white lettering stands out from the red box. This little box of information on how to subscribe gives people the chance to look and subscribe bringing money into the magazine.