research and planning

1. What is a music magazine?
A music magazine covers content that is for
specific genres.
Their purpose is to entertain, inform and
advertise; entertainment being the primary
purpose of music magazines.
They aim to appeal to listeners and fellow artists
of the magazine’s specific genre.

2. What content would you expect to find
in a music magazine?
• Tour dates
• Reviews of artists, events and albums
• Interviews
• Giveaways (eg posters)
• Artist profiling (artist career history)
• New popular sub genres

3. What images would you expect to find
in a music magazine?
• Artists
• Upcoming events
• Studio events/ behind the scene images
• Instruments (depending on the genre)
• Merchandise (mainly through advertising)
• Conventional brand imagery (showing brand
identity through image style)
• Exclusives

4. Identify general characteristics/
features that you would expect to find
in all music magazines
• Style: band/artist imagery
• Typography: specific to genre and age that the
magazine is trying to appeal to
• Language: genre specific; slang (informal) and jargon
(formal)
• Frequency of publication: either fortnightly or monthly
depending on quality of the content of the magazine
• Price: £2.50 - £4.50
• Paper: thin paper or glossy depending on quality and
price, As well as an online version and presence on
social media

5. Identify the features all music
magazines have
• They all have at least one artist on the front
cover
• All medium – medium long shots
• Mast head (will tie in to a certain style which
will appeal to a certain audience)
• Cover lines (tells us about the coverage of the
magazine other than the main masthead)

6. Why are these features important?
They all provide information about the
magazine, its style and what it stands for.
• To persuade
• To entice
• To relate

7. What type of music magazine?
Kerrang is a rock magazine and is based
on more heavy rock music. The use of
the typography in the masthead is bold,
simple and loud and the colour scheme
connotes rebellion and excitement. The
use of artist names and jargon in the
cover lines show the magazine is very
genre specific and is appealing to an
audience who are familiar with the
genre of rock.

8. Who is the target audience?
The magazine is appealing to a late
teen/ young adult audience.
Its is traditionally male audience
orientated but is no longer gender
specific.