Kerrang! is a weekly magazine focused on heavy metal and rock music. It began as a supplement to Sounds magazine in 1981. While initially focused on heavy metal, it has evolved to include pop punk bands. The magazine has a youthful target audience of 18-24 year olds interested in music, fashion, and culture. It uses a visual, image-heavy style with red, black, and distressed fonts. The informal tone aims to connect with readers as friends sharing a passion for rock music. The magazine is owned by Bauer Media, a large UK media company known for successfully managing niche magazines and cross-media brands.

1. A CASE STUDY

3. BACKGROUND DETAILS
• First published June, 1981.
• It was initially a supplement to a weekly
music tabloid newspaper called Sounds.
• To begin with, it was designed to focus on
heavy metal and rock music, but over
time the magazine has evolved with
metal and pop punk bands now
featuring.
• However, the magazine remains a genre-
specific offering, refusing to move outside
the metal/goth/heavy rock spectrum.

4. Kerrang was initially a supplement that came free with Sounds magazine

5. KERRANG! IN JUNE, 1981
As with today’s
Kerrang, the
colour scheme is
dark, with red
and black
featuring strongly.
The main image
presents typical
heavy rock
iconography.
The artists listed
are heavy metal
and rock artists.

6. BACKGROUND DETAILS
• The name of the magazines is
onomatopoeic, as it mimics the sound
made by a power chord on an electric
guitar.
• The magazine has achieved variable
success over the years with sales rising
and falling.
• It has tended to adapt to accommodate
new sounds on the rock/metal scene. This
has helped to increase sales in dark
times. However, it has received criticism
for this.

7. KERRANG! TODAY
• Issued weekly.
• Costs £2.20 per issue.
• Consists of approximately 70 A4
pages, produced on glossy, full colour
paper.
• Follows a standard magazine
layout, combining full colour images with
bite-size snippets of text on some pages
and full colour articles that combine
image and text on others.
• Kerrang! Has its own website, radio
station and TV channel.

8. INSIDE KERRANG!…
Full colour articles that combine
image with text for a more
visually appealing look. It is not
unusual to see full length
images of artists or to see them
performing…

9. TARGET AUDIENCE
• 18 - 24 years old.
• 65% male, 35% female.
• Active music enthusiast and purchaser.
• Interested in fashion, computer
games, film and TV, skate culture.
• Loyal to their friends and favourite
bands, passionate about music, an
individual who refuses to follow the
crowd, youthful and fun.
• Sees Kerrang! as an authority on rock
music and an educator.

11. CONTENT
• Content is entirely devoted to music
with music/band news and
articles, album reviews, gig information
and gig guides. Quizzes and Letter
pages are present too.
• Bands that commonly feature are:
Green Day, 30 Seconds to Mars, My
Chemical Romance, Bring Me The
Horizon, Slip Knot, You Me At Six.
• The magazine offers free
posters, reflecting the largely youth
readership.

13. STYLE
• Kerrang! features a lot of iconography
associated with metal/rock and the
scene that surrounds it, e.g.
tattoos, piercings, dark make-
up, electronic guitars.
• The magazine is visual, image-heavy.
• The magazine features a lot of
uppercase text in a distressed font.
• Red and black feature most
strongly, along with primary colours like
yellow and blue, creating at times a
vampiric feel and certainly suggesting a
male readership.

14. Black, red and
yellow feature
strongly…
Content is related to
metal/rock music
and bands…
The magazine is
visual and image-
heavy…

15. MODE OF ADDRESS
• Casual, featuring informal words and
phrases that the TA might use.
• The tone of expression used by a young
fan of metal/rock is established.
• Friendly and down-to-earth, suggesting a
good, friend-to-friend relationship
between reader an magazine.
• The language suggests that they ‘get’
rock, take music seriously and that they
understand all about rock/metal music
and the scene that surrounds it.

16. MODE OF ADDRESS…
Friendly, informal
mode of address…
Exclamatory
phrases to create a
sense of excitement
that the audience
can share in…
Abbreviated words
to create a more
casual, relaxed, sna
ppy tone…

17. MODE OF ADDRESS
Examples of mode of address:
• ‘When you went as a fan, did you have
any mad campsite experiences?’
• ‘Why Leeds rules, why Reading rocks.’
• ‘Folk-punk party boys from Cornwall.
Ooo-arr!’
• ‘...thrash is the key metal movement
since the New Wave of British Heavy
Metal. It’s essentially an American
update on that British sound, but with the
flowery bits replaced by a hardcore punk
intensity and speed, and influenced by
Motorhead’s Ace of Spades...’

18. OWNERSHIP
• Owned by Bauer Media.
• Bauer is one of the UK’s leading media companies and owns
a whole range of magazines and other media, such as radio
stations like Magic 105.4.
• Q, Mojo, Empire and FHM are owned and distributed by
Bauer.
• The company also owns and distributes a number of
magazines aimed at audiences with niché interests, e.g. car
enthusiasts and those into fishing or photography.
• The company claims that it has the most ‘influential brands in
UK media’, brands that are ‘relevant, valued and trusted’
above all others.
• 6 out of 10 of the most influential magazines in the UK belong
to Bauer.
• Bauer’s radio and TV channels are consistently successful, with
their TV channels attracting a larger audience than MTV.
• Bauer promises to deliver magazines that are
authentic, fresh, informative, entertaining and that promote
action.

20. OWNERSHIP
Being owned by Bauer is a good thing for Kerrang!
for the following reasons:
• The company is successful and experienced and
knows which strategies to employ to increase sales.
• Bauer owns a number of niché magazines, so
understands audiences with specific tastes and
interests.
• With Mojo and Q amongst its repertoire, it knows how
to successfully manage music magazines.
• Bauer also knows how to appeal to male
audiences, having successfully launched titles like
FHM and Empire, top-sellers in their respective fields.
• Bauer is the grandfather of cross-media
synergy, owning a number of magazines that have
sister radio, TV and web platforms. It understands how
to make this work in order to maximise its own success
and the magazine’s success.