The document analyzes the front covers of three rock music magazines: Kerrang!, Uncut, and The Rock Sound. For Kerrang!, the summary notes that the target audience is teenagers aged 15-20, and the cover uses red, black, and white colors to symbolize aggression and danger associated with rock music. For Uncut, the target audience is older and more sophisticated, and the cover evokes the 1970s with a black and white photo and references to a band's 40th anniversary. For The Rock Sound, the cover features four band members and uses bright colors, with free CDs and competitions to attract various audiences including teenagers and adults.

1. ‘Kerrang!’ is a rock magazine. It is mainly addressed to
teenagers at the age of 15-20. To specify the age of their
Kerrang’s front cover target audience I was taking attention on the price. The
analysis cost of the magazine is only £2.20 therefore it suggests
that it is affordable for the target audience which I have
identified .The magazine attract the rock fans mainly by the
colour shame they have used on the cover; red, black and
white. People believe that rock is an aggressive music
genre therefore in this case red colour on the cover
symbolises the danger and aggression. From an extra
textual knowledge we know that Slipknot plays heavy
metal. They also have a significant style which they express
by the clothes, props they use. The key image also links
back to the meaning of red used on the front cover; it is
because the person on the image looks very aggressive and
vulgar. His hairstyle is also very messy what links back to
the genre of music his band produce. As I have mentioned
before black is one of the colours used. The masthead is in
black. The font looks smashed; it shows how rock is
spontaneous and it appeals to the target audience. The
font of the main cover line is the original, representational
font of the slipknot band. It makes the audience think that
the information they will read are up to date and taken
straight form the band.

2. On the Front Cover Kerrang! shows that there is 9 other covers
for this particular series of the magazine so the audience may
be attracted as they have the right to choose the one they
really want because they may have their own, favourite
member of the band. In the same time the publisher can be
sure that the sales will grow.
Kerrang! Also adds free poster to their magazine, what will also
help to attract the attention of the audience because they may
Example buy it only to get the poster of the person they really admire.
of 1 of 9 The selling lines on the front cover are used to attract the
different audience. By the selling lines the target audience can find out
covers. what is inside of the magazine and what can they expect from
it. Selling lines are also very helpful while making decision
whether to buy or not the magazine. If you are not interested
in what is advertised in the selling lines you probably won’t buy
the magazine as it will not appeal to you. Selling lines are also
very important because they save time of the customers as
give enough information so they do not have to go through the
All the entire magazine to find out what is in there.
9 covers. Overall, the magazine front cover is very organised, however it
is a big contrast to the expression the key image has made. The
key image is very unorganised and messy but the cover is neat
and well organised.

3. UNCUT is a Rock magazine as well as Kerrang!. However, the
target audience will be different because the magazine aims to
Uncut’s front cover older, more mature more sophisticated audience. The price
also makes a huge difference because UNCUT is worth £4.70 so
analysis the people from the higher social status are more likely to
afford the magazine as they have more disposable income. A
lot of different aspects included on the cover also inform us
who the audience could be. I will start off with the key image. It
is black and white. They have used this image to ‘bring back the
old times’ and to satisfy the target audience as that kind of
music and those people were really famous in their teenager
times. The clothing of the person on the main image also links
back to the 70’s. The hairstyle is also different to ours now, is
really messy and wild. The use of colours also appeals to the
target audience because the colours are in great composition.
Red may link to the dangerous or sophisticated side of rock.
The use of gold isn’t accidental because the magazine talks
about the 40th anniversary of the band. Black is a standard
colour used on the covers, however same as in the Kerrang!
magazine it may symbolize the dark side of rock. The masthead
is also red. The letters are big and bold. They carefully thought
about it because it also has to appeal to the older generation
people so it cannot be too outstanding.

4. The main cover line is emphasized by the red colour. It is because they want the
potential audience to know what is included in the magazine and who is it about. The
cover lines as well as the selling lines are persuading people to buy the magazine and
give them ideas of what they can find inside the magazine. Their colours are in
harmony with the style of the front cover.
The magazine offers their audience a free CD. The audience may
be attracted because that is a great occasion to buy their favourite
CD even thought they may not be attracted in the magazine. So
that will bring some extra customers.
Finally the layout of the magazine is simple and clear, however compared to Kerrang! they
included more of the features which will help the audience decide whether buy the
magazine or not. This magazine is also more bright and in my opinion more attractive in
comparison to Kerrang!..
From my extra textual knowledge I know that the Kerrang! cover is made of weak paper and
all the pages are made up from the same paper. On the other hand, the UNCUT’s cover is
much more strong and made of different material than the rest of the pages. It links back to
the price and the target audience.

5. The Rock Sound Magazine is obviously a rock magazine.
The target audience of this magazine can be a mixed group of
The Rock Sound people. Teenagers also as the adults can be attracted by this
magazine, but the price £3.99 testified that it may be more of the
magazine front adults because they can spend money. It is cheaper than the
Cover analysis UNCUT magazine, however it still a big price. Lot of things happens
on the cover. There are 4 different people on the key image. They
all have similar type of clothing and hairstyle. From my extra textual
knowledge I know that the band was formed in the 2004 so it is
just their stylization to look like the old time stars. The cover is very
bright because of the use of different colours. The masthead is a
neutral white. It is because they wanted to keep a balance on the
page and to do not make it to messy even though there are a lot of
things going on, on the cover. The main cover line is yellow same as
the text ‘free CD’ in my opinion they uses that to link those two
feature to draw audience attention. The selling lines are in the
same colour as the masthead. They inform people what they can
find inside of the magazine. If the audience is interested in one of
the bands they have named in the selling lines they will be more
attracted by the magazine.
The cover lines are in different colours, some of them are grey the
rest is blue. Even the font is small the text still stands out on the
page. It is attractive because people get the information of what
will be included in magazine.

6. The Rock Sound magazine offers free CD which I mentioned before.
The Free CD will attract the potential audience because The Cd
itself may be really expensive but when there is a occasion of
buying it for a price of the magazine they will obviously do that if
they are fans of the band; Panic! At The Disco.
They have also added free posters. Which will take even more
attention of the audience.
Something new, which two other covers haven't on them and what in
my point of view is a great way to attract the audience is the fact that
they have promoted a competition. It was a good choice because
people will just look on the page and know that they have the
opportunity to win VIP tickets for Download.
The layout of the page is kind of messy and unorganized compared to
the two others magazines. However it may be because they wanted to
give the audience something different and to show the real messy side
of rock.

7. Contents Page Analysis
This is the contents page of Kerrang! magazine. The heading
is placed in the top right corner. Is quiet different to all
other magazines because we used to see heading in the
opposite side of the page. In the top left corner we can find
a lot of writing. In my opinion it isn't so good because
people won’t spend that much time in the shop to check
what is written, however it may attract people because they
will know what they can find inside the magazine without
going through the pages. The left side of the page is mostly
filled with the images of different artists. On the other half
of the page they have placed pictures of bands, to keep the
contrast, make the page look more dynamic.
On the right side there is also table of contents. The more appealing features have been
emphasized by different colour to get the biggest attention possible. The page is laid out well
and is really clear. The background of the page is white to make all the text easy to read for the
audience. The use of yellow was a good idea because it look bright and attractive for the
audience it creates positive house style.

8. Contents Page Analysis
This is the contents page of the Rock Sound magazine. From all 3
contents pages only on this one we can see that instead of
writing ‘Contents’ they have placed a ‘Rock Sound’ and the series
of the magazine. In my opinion it was good choice because
people know how contents pages typically look and this is
something new, something fresh that we can not observe in the
other magazines; something challenging the conventions. The
page has been mostly filled up with the picture. Even the content
table is transparent so we can see what is behind. On the picture
we can see two young fighters. It represent the aggressive side of
the rock and links with the text quote on the left side. The facial
expression of those two young males also shows the aggression.
That also can help me specify more deeply the target audience
because making any of the picture I can note that the most
interested will be males in the similar age as the one’s on the
picture. The contents table is in the bottom right corner. It takes
just ¼ of the page. As I mentioned before the table is transparent
and the colour used for the text is white to make it clear and
easy to read.

9. Contents Page Analysis
This is the contents page of the UNCUT magazine. The heading
of that page fits the masthead of the front cover. It is very good
because it keeps the style of the magazine. The page has been
mostly filled by the main image. The image is black and white.
It links back to the cover because their purpose was to get to
the mature audience. He holds guitar which links back to the
genre of the magazine. On the left side there is a column with
the content. It is attractive because people don’t have to read a
lot and they still have an idea of what is in the magazine. The
use of colours is very simple. On the page they have mainly
used white and red .
Comparing this contents page to the Kerrang! magazine this one
is less chaotic. Perhaps because the audiences are different.
From all of the contents pages the one that would get my attention would be Kerrang’s
magazine one. Kerrang’s contents page is the most interesting and includes the most
features. It has several different pictures so the page looks interesting and appeal to me.

10. UNCUT’s Double Page • The guitar has a United Kingdom flag
Spread on it. It will attract the attention of the
analysis patriots. And it also links to the heading
‘Britain’s Got Talent’.
• There is not a lot of writing on these
pages. However the style of the font fits the
style of the pages.
• The headline is really bright and
catches the attention of the audience even
more than the picture does. It is also in two
different colours so it makes the page look
more attractive.
• The main image presents person
playing on the guitar, it is really attractive
because people while looking at the page
without even reading the article have an idea
what it can be about and judge if the article
will be interesting.

11. • The text on the page is white. It is a great
contrast to the dark background. The lines above
UNCUT Double Page Spread and under the text divides the pages to sections
analysis and that makes the pages look more interesting.
• The use of colours will mostly appeal to
the male audience because the colours are dark.
Picture also mostly appeals female readers because
people on the image are also men.
• The eye catching title on the page is also
white. The letters are in capital and stand out on
the dark background. The title makes people get
interested and pass them straight to read the
article.
• On the picture we can see two
individuals. They both look like they are indifferent
to each other. That may links back to the content of
the magazine. Their clothing also expresses the
style of the music they play, rock. They bring the
atmosphere from the rock video clips to the
magazine pages.

12. • The picture will mostly catch the attention of
young males. The picture shows the typical teenagers
NME Double Page Spread nowadays. They are relaxed and ‘chilled’. They also look
interesting and their dress code is really fashionable.
analysis
• ‘Need To Know’ table is a great feature, and
will attract the audience as they will be interested what
they should know about the teenager world.
• The title of the article will mostly appeal to
the teenagers as it is ‘THE TEENANGERS’. The title
catches the eye of the audience and looks fresh on the
page because of the use of blue for the background.
• The picture will mostly catch the attention of
young males. The picture shows the typical teenagers
nowadays. They are relaxed and ‘chilled’. They also look
interesting and their dress code is really fashionable.
• The use of colours will stereotypically appeal
to the male audience.