Magazine Research

Front covers

Kerrang

The first thing I noticed about the front cover of Kerrang was that the black and white title is always straight along the top, and the main cover stars are quite large and in the centre of the page, and the top of their heads always cover some of the Kerrang title. The backgrounds of the pictures are often dark or set scenes, not white like typical fashion magazines; I think this adds to the quite boyish theme with in many modern music magazines of this style. Above the top of the title is always a thin strip of colour, that often either has approximately three band names on or something that readers might find interesting (for example new albums, upcoming festivals or competitions). In the centre, or towards the bottom of the page is always the name of the band in the picture, it is either in white, a light bright colour like yellow, or in the band’s usual font (as you can see for panic at the disco). At the bottom of the page, and often down the sides, these pictures are surrounded by a white border, a bit like a normal basic printed photograph might look, and they are often tilted on a slant. These pictures are often underneath a title about free posters in a medium sized, simple white font surrounded by a thin black border on a small band of coloured background. All other pictures are either surrounded by, or next to relevant text.Bright colours are often used as a theme, such as pink, purple, red and yellow, to make the magazine stand out. Black and white are typical colours used on all magazines.