Competitor Analysis - Kerrang Front Page

​The main theme of the Kerrang magazine cover focuses on indie rock music. This theme fits in well with the style of Kerrang magazine which is based on indie rock music. The magazine portrays young, rebellious and fun connotations through the use of colour, design and layout, which meets the target audience’s specification. The target audience for this magazine would be young adults that went to the Reading and Leeds festivals or just general indie rock music lovers. This issue of Kerrang uses the colours red, black and yellow; this evokes the idea of rebellion and liveliness which gives the idea of festivals, which is what this issue is based on. The bright colours also show how chaotic they have tried to make this issue which reintroduces the magazines rock style. The feature article photo is of the indie rock band, You Me at Six, positioned mostly in the centre of the front cover. The low angle shot connotes that the three band members are important and are popular. They are also looking directly at the camera this could show dominance, however, there facial expressions are playful and calm, this connotes that the band do not take most things seriously and they are “fun” and “united” guys. This is also shown by their body language as they are close and they have their arms around each other. The member on the left has red hair which ties in with the colour scheme of the magazine and again shows their rebellious nature. The band member’s clothes are not the usual outfits you would expect to see in an everyday situation. For example, one of the members is wearing a punk hello kitty t-shirt and a leather jacket. It shows that they can take something innocent and change it into something fun and rebellious. The rebellious nature is again emphasised by the band member on the right has a tattoo on his hand. The masthead looks like broken glass which connotes rock and loud music. The exclamation mark also connotes loudness and it attracts the reader because it is different than any other magazines. The masthead is positioned behind the feature article photo which draws the reader’s attention to the photo. The magazine also uses denotations which helps emphasis the cover’s focus on festivals and concerts, an example being that the cover lines that overlaps the feature article photo, it clearly tells us what the main theme is for this magazine; “THE 20 GREATEST MOMENTS OF READING & LEEDS”. This cover line informs the audience that the two festivals were something to remember as it counts down the ’20 GREATEST MOMENTS’. The puff across the top of the cover indicates that there are “5 killer posters inside”, this draws in the audience as the posters might be of there favourite band. The overall layout of this cover consists of plugs in flush left which include images that give an example as to what acts were at these two festivals. The text appears to overlap most of the feature article photo and around the sides of the magazine so that just the top half of the photo is uncovered, there is also no negative on the magazine cover, its layout is deliberately chaotic but well organised to appear loud and it connotes that the magazine likes to bend the rules.​