This document summarizes and compares the styles of three music magazines: Kerrang, RockSound, and Classic Rock. 1) Kerrang and RockSound feature colorful studio backgrounds in photos on the covers, with minimal props to draw attention to the subjects. Classic Rock uses black and white photos with one accent color. 2) The magazines' logos are prominently displayed in distinctive fonts and colors related to their brands. Not all letters need to be visible for recognition. 3) Contents pages include multiple artist/band photos to entice readers. Formats are consistent with covers in color schemes and fonts. 4) Double page spreads focus on stories/photos but use large images and titles to draw

1. MarketResearch
KERRANG
On this magazinecover, the photo shoot is taken in a studio where the
background is edited to fitthe theme of the magazine. For example, colours such
as orange, red, black and white are all used in association with Halloween (which
is of this magazines edition). The clothing is definitely related to what the
magazine is aimingfor in a Halloween edition, as Tyler is wearinga skeleton
costume. In this shot, there areminimal props used as itwould take away the
attention from the main subject. The location is silhouetted in the background-
seemingly a city scape. This photo shot is a longshot, so all of the subject’s body is
included in the frame. The lighting highlights the factthat they arestood on a
road that is seemingly going forward towards the ‘city. Also the fireat their feet is
highlighted in the shot. This is another association to Halloween and mystery etc.
Throughout all Kerrangmagazines,the font is the same and the samesize. It is
situated alongthe top of the page, but not all of the time is the whole of the word
seen. For example in this particular edition,the two band members are covering
up quite a bitof the word. This shows how popular the magazine is as notall of itneeds to be seen for it to be
identifiable.Mainly,the‘K’ and the ‘!’ need to be seen as they are huge symbols in recognisingthemagazine
without readingthe entire title. The colour of the title also changes dependingon the theme of the magazine in
that edition. The colours rarely differ fromblack,white and red. The layoutmanages to capture
On this magazinecontents page, it is taken again in the location of a studio against
a white wall.The photo shows the band readinga copy of a magazine, peeking
over to see what is insideit.This is relevantto the context to being on a contents
page, as the contents page shows you what is goingto be in the magazine. For the
clothing, the band are all wearingsuits and ties,this helps to compose the bands
appearanceand then the use of Patrick wearinghis hatis symbolic as thatis what
he is known for within the fan base. Again there arelimited use of props, this is to
avoid distractingthereader from the aims of these pages. They use another
magazine in the image, but this only makes the reader want to read the magazine
more. The lighting is heavily focused on Patrick (the lead singer in the red suit),
and then the colours fadein to the blue suits with the highlighted use of the
magazine prop. The use of the white background in the column indicates thatthe
other contents is justas interestingas Fall OutBoy (the main band featured on the
page). The shot that the photographer used is a longshot to capture this picture(a
photo includingthe full bodies of the band members). The colours used, stick to the main themes of Kerrang;
blue, red, black and white. This highlights thatthese bands may be featured but the company aretrying to keep
the Kerrang associationsaliverather than copyingother bands themes.
The double page spreads in Kerrang,they tend to be full of
imagery and column based articles.They feature stories of
bands and artists journey,alongwith a photo that relates to the
topic being discussed.Initially,when you look at the page you
can see a pictureof the artists,and a headingthat captures the
eye of the reader. The use of larger images and fonts means
that the articledoesn’t need to stand out becausethe attention
has already been brought by the use of images and titles etc.
The images have a lotmore atmosphere over the ones used on
the front cover. This may be because the magazine is already
being read so the attention doesn’t have to be redirected. Also,
the language being used does not have to be as generalised
and vague as on the front page, as the people readingthe articles understand the languageassociated with the
band in the article.Useof slangand code can sometimes be used to talk about a band for those who followtheir
journey. The colours used in the DPS are represented in font colour by contrastingthe red and pinks of the
costumes to reflect the titles.It is also represented in costumes as,coloured lighting and headers.

2. ROCKSOUND
On this magazinecover, the photo shoot is taken in a studio where the
background is edited to fitthe theme of the magazine. For example, colours
such as YELLOW, red, black and white areall used in association with this
magazines edition. The clothingis definitely related to what the magazineis
aimingfor, as Fall OutBoy arewearing black.In this shot, there are minimal
props used as itwould take away the attention from the main subject. The
location is of a photo studio with a plain bluebackground.This photo is a mid-
shot so only the chest and above of the band arevisiblein the frame.
Throughout all RockSound magazines,the font is the same structure. The title is
situated alongthe top of the page, but not all of the word is seen all the time.
This time the band is behind the title. This may be because the band is more
famous than the magazine so are easily identifiable.Mainly,the ‘R’ needs to be
seen as itis a huge symbol for recognisingthe magazine without reading the
entire title. The colour of the title also changes depending on the theme of the
magazine in that edition. The colours rarely differ fromblack,white, red, and
yellow.
In this magazines contents page, there aremultipleimages used of many artists
and bands in order to capturethe attention of the reader. The fact these bands
etc arein the contents pages indicates thatthere will bearticles based upon
them. The shots are mixes of medium closeup,medium longshots and long
shots.The lightingis focused heavily on use of makeup and their faces so the
reader is further intrigued to the magazineand its contents. Again the colour
scheme is red, white, black and green/grey, follows the colour scheme from the
front cover. The languageused is justeveryday language, itdoes not change
between the articleand the formality used by the artists.Importantaspects are
highlighted over less significantparts of the writing. In the top left hand corner,
the RockSound logo is present in a red circle.
The double page spreads in RockSound, they tend to be full of
imagery and column based articles.They feature stories of
bands and artists journey,alongwith a photo that relates to the
topic being discussed.Initially,when you look at the page you
can see a pictureof the artists,and a headingthat captures the
eye of the reader. The use of larger images and fonts means that
the articledoesn’t need to stand out because the attention has
already been brought by the use of images and titles etc. The
images have a lotmore atmosphere over the ones used on the
front cover. This may be because the magazine is already being
read so the attention doesn’t have to be redirected. Also, the
languagebeing used does not have to be as generalised and
vague as on the front page, as the people readingthe articles
understand the languageassociated with the band in the article.Useof slangand code can sometimes be used to
talk about a band for those who followtheir journey. The colours used in the DPS are represented in font colour,
costumes, coloured lightingand headers. Again they followthe colour scheme of red, black,white and green/grey
from the contents page and the front page.

3. CLASSIC ROCK
Classic rock isa well-known music magazinethat focuses heavily on ‘classic
rock artists’,hence the name of the magazine. The front covers are
distinguishabledueto their logo title being easily noticeablein the magazine
industry.The logo only needs to showthe ‘Classic’partas nextto both sides
there are stars.Stars areassociated with things being legendary and are
memorable for readers for the future. With this particularcover,the title for
Guns n Roses is more noticeablethan the magazine title, symbolisingthatthe
band is a lot more common and popular than the magazine itself.The picture
taken for the cover is a medium long shotof Axel Rose who is an icon in the
rock community. All covers are generally black and white and then stick to one
other colour.There are no props used asidefromthe sunglasses and bandana
for the costume which is highly associated with Guns n Roses. The other
smaller headings areof related artists which aresimilar to Guns n Roses.
The contents pages are very basic,again followingthecolour scheme of black
and white alongwith one or two other colours.The photo featured follows
both the theme of the magazine and then of the artist/band featured. The
fonts used in the headings and paragraphs areconsistent.There is useof 5-7
images on Classic Rock magazinecontents pages. The use of certain bands and
artists in the contents is used as a mark to indicatethatthey will befeatured in
the edition of the magazine. These magazines areaimed to people who
listened to Rock music before the 1990s as the featured artists arewhat people
would say arethe ‘classics’hencethe name of the magazine. This is what
makes this magazineso different compared to recent magazines such as
Kerrang or RockSound. The reader profiles differ for the older generati on in the
Classic Rock magazine.
In this double page spread, the pictureis the most noticeable
thing you see. This contradicts thetext which is usually there
to directthe reader. The headingfor the band “Led Zeppelin”
is faint,this could be because people don’t need to know who
the band is as they areso famous.The amount of writingfor
the band shows that they are well known and people want to
know about them.