This document contains analyses of magazine covers and contents pages from various rock music magazines such as Kerrang, NME, and Q Magazine. The analyses describe visual elements that would attract readers' attention, including prominent images of bands and their members, eye-catching fonts and colors, and previews of featured articles. The target audiences of the magazines are identified as generally male, ranging from teenagers to older generations, depending on the styles of music featured.

1. My deconstructions

3. • Even though the lead singer James Hetfield isn’t at the front of the
image, your eyes are still attracted to him because he has his arms up
in the air and is shouting out. James’ hands in the air in the ‘devil horns’
formation to tell people, who don’t already know, that this band are
rock/metal. Apart from the magazine name and the picture, one of the
first things you see is “ON THE ROAD!” this will make the reader
understand that Metallica are on the magazine because they’re going
on tour again. Also James’ hands in the ‘devils horn’ shape look as if
they are acting as speech marks which makes the reader think this may
be a song or a famous quote by a member of Metallica. All the band
members are staring straight out at the audience which will interact the
audience with the magazine. The necklace that James Hetfield is
wearing of Jesus’ cross stands out on his chest because the light
reflects off it. This will make the magazine appeal to people who like
Christian rock as well. The target audience would probably mainly be
men because of the genre of music and the colour scheme and it would
probably appeal to the older generation because Metallica are old
school and people from the 80s will know them better than the modern
generation.

5. • Immediately when looking at this image you see Corey Taylor at the
front of the image wearing a mask and then you slowly look back on
other Slipknot band members wearing scary looking masks. This is
meant to catch the audience’s eye straight away. Also you could say
Corey's face is being framed by the other members of his band to show
he is the main person. The mask of Corey Taylor is very plain so the
think your eyes are mainly attracted to is his eyes, they are meant to
look scary and strike fear into the audience. Taking all the other mask
into account it is quite clear what genre of music is meant to be
associated with this magazine because the masks look very scary and
sinister. Also in the top left hand corner, the first place an English
reading person would start to read, is the competition. The big red “win”
will attract the readers eye straight away and they will read about the
competition. If they like the prize it will give them more incentive to buy
the magazine. Also, the title of the magazine “KERRANG” is covered
mostly by the picture on the front, but also the font makes it looked
crack and chipped as if it was glass. This emphasises the genre of
music because Slipknot play very loud music and loud music is known
to smash glass. The target audience for this magazine would be more
men because of the men on the front of the magazine but also because
of the dark colours. This will also attract more the teenage and early
20s age group, maybe around 15-25 because this music is very loud
and energetic which is more associated with this age group.

7. • This magazine is clearly been aimed at younger the younger
audience because all the people on the front cover are young and
produce modern music. Jared Leto, the lead singer from ’30
seconds to mars’ is standing in the middle with a very determined
face. Also he is standing in a powerful stance but clutching his fist
and putting it on the other palm. This links in to the quote below that
says “I could be your worst enemy.” This gives the impression that
he is set out to do something and if you get in his way he ‘could be
your worst enemy.’ The shapes on this picture are very sharp which
would represent the life some of these people live and it would also
appeal to younger people as well. Another thing that would appeal
to the youth is the minimalistic colour scheme because it’s the type
of colours your associate with bands nowadays. The title to the
magazine is all cracked as if it were glass. However it is not as
cracked as the Slipknot image to show that this isn’t as heavy
music and it’s not as loud. As I’ve said this magazine would appeal
more to younger people around 14-25 because the music isn’t too
heavy also it would appeal to both genders because however it’s a
male dominated front page, there is Hayley Williams of Paramore
on one side and also there is Alex Gaskarth and both of these will
appeal to women because Hayley is a girl and Alex is an icon for
being attractive.

9. • Kerrang contents pages are very similar to their front covers because
they’re very busy and mainly photo dominated. Also they always have
large image which shows what their main story is to do with in this
edition. This time it’s Oli Sykes from Bring me the Horizon and his
picture take up the top half of the contents page to show that he is a
very important character in this magazine. The rest of the images are
smaller to tell people they’re in the magazine but they’re not as
important. The colour schemes are very bright because of the yellow
and the white. “Contents” in the top left corner is very eye catching
because of the dark blue colours of Oli Sykes’ image compared to the
luminous yellow colour which makes it easy to spot. On the bottom half
the title is “KERRANG! THIS WEEK” In the same font that it is on the
front page to make the link between the music type because of the
shattered glass effect. Also all of the sub-headings to the contents of
the magazine are all in bright yellow as well so they are easily readable
but also linked into the overall colour scheme. These sub-headings are
there to tell the reader about what page of the magazine some things
will be in, such as feedback, news… etc. This should interest the reader
further so they want to read on more. In the bottom right hand corner of
the page there are 3 Kerrang magazines which have details of ways to
get them delivered to your door. On the other side (the bottom left
corner) there is an article about Kerrang written by one of the editors of
the magazine.

11. • This is a very typical contents page because of the
big image about the main article of the magazine and
then all the other stories around them. The second
thing I saw when I looked at this contents page was
the big banner title up the top that says “contents”
with the little red big with the white “Q” in it. The
colour scheme proceeds throughout the whole page
because the ‘Features’ and the ‘Every month’
headings are both written in a white with a red both
surrounding it this will catch the readers eye. There is
only 1 more image on this contents page which is just
below the picture of The Courteeners. The picture of
Nick Cave has been placed in the ‘Review’ section
which points out he is either involved in one of the
songs being reviewed or he is reviewing them. This
section also follows the same colour scheme. The
Courteeners are an indie rock band whose main
audience are teenagers which suits Q Magazines
mainly male dominant market of teenage indie rock.

13. • This NME contents page is very minimalized because the
picture of Blur is taking up almost the entire page. On the image
of Blur there is a column about them titled “(Movie)star Shaped”
because, to those who like blur, will know Starshaped is one of
their singles. Also it has two meanings because it’s there song
but also they’re on a red carpet which could also mean they
might be in a movie. Also there is a little article about them
which isn’t usually found on the contents page so it’s probably a
teaser so it makes the reader want to read more about the story.
On the left hand side of the page there is all the things going on
in the magazine in very small writing with what page number
they are on. These are so small because Blur is clearly the main
part of this magazine and will take up a lot of space. On the
bottom there is an advertisement for a sale which also will
attract readers because the people that read this magazine will
probably like what is on sale so they might want to buy the stuff.
Blur are quite and old band so this magazine will probably be
aimed at the older generation and people who like Blur’s music.
Also Blur usually have male supporters but also this magazine
could be aimed at women too.

15. • This double page spread is mainly taken up by the image
of the band ‘Paramore.’ The members of the band are all
in black and white except the lead singer Hayley Williams
who stands out because of her brightly coloured hair and
her white shirt. This is to emphasise that she is the most
important member and the others are just faded into the
background behind her. Another very eye catching thing
about this double page spread is the diagonal
“PARAMORE” on the left hand side because it is in bright
yellow and in contrast to the black and white background it
stands out a lot. There is very little writing on this page
which gives the read an insight of the interview the
reporter had with the band which will make the reader
want to read on about the rest of the interview. They are
all staring out at the reader and also they’re looking down
on them which makes the reader feel as if they are
possibly worshiping the band but also they look up to them
because they might want to be them. This magazine
appeals to the section of the teenage age group that like
punk rock and alternative rock. Also it would be a male
dominated magazine but because Hayley Williams is in it,
it might appeal more to girls.

17. • The All American Rejects lead singer Tyson Ritter stands
out against the rest of his band because he is in very
bright colours whereas the rest of the band are dressed
quite blandly so you don’t seem to see them as much.
Also Tyson is in the middle of the image so your eyes go
straight to look at him anyway and also he is in front of the
rest of his band members to show he is the front man. All
the other images on this page are in black and white
which links to the colour scheme used for the rest of the
page which are also black and the writing is white. Also
Tyson Ritters hat links into the title because the ‘secrets’
part of ‘dirty little secrets’ is in is the same colour red and
also so it all the sub-headings throughout the text. Also
having the word ‘secrets’ in a different colour and font to
the rest of the title will tell the reader that the interview
might bring out secrets in the band and this will interest
them to read on. With all the bright colours and the young
people in the band I'd say this will appeal to teenagers
more than anything else. Also it will stand out to both
genders because the music is soft rock which can be
associated with both genders.

19. • The very scattered layout looks as if this page was just randomly
put together and it’s disorganised. The page is mainly full of images
of Avenged Sevenfold (A7X) playing live gigs. This will make reader
be able to capture energy from the images and if they’re a fan of
the band it will give them more incentive to go and see them live.
Also the biggest picture is of M Shadows who is the lead singer of
A7X, this might tell the readers that he does most of the talking
because he is the most important person. Also it will hint to the
genre because of all the dark colours and the tattoos on M
Shadows arms. On the top right hand side there is a picture of M
Shadows standing with his arm around Matt Tuck from Bullet for my
Valentine. This image is of the two lead singer of maybe the two
biggest metal core bands around at this time and this will make the
audience want to read on about what they are doing together.
There is very little writing on the left hand side of the page because
most of the page is taken up by the images so this means the
journalist thinks the reader can get enough information about the
band from the images shown on the right of the page. The dark
colours and the little amount of writing would mean that this DPS is
more for the younger population, around 15-25. Also because of all
the guitars and all the music will be for that age group because lots
of youths try and make it in a band and they would like to read
about how A7X did it. Also it would probably be for males however
A7X have a large female support so it would appeal to both
genders.