Front cover analysis

Analysis of two front covers

I will be analysing two different music magazine front covers who celebrate the same music which is similar to the music magazine I will be doing. I have chosen to analyse: Kerrang! Magazine, and Rock Sound magazine, both of which celebrate rock and metal music

The strapline special offer to ‘win’ a prize, draws in the audience who are interested in this and may attract new audiences and features on most Kerrang! Mags. The magazine celebrates music that is seen as rebellious and ‘hardcore’. This reflects in the title font, as the writing looks as if it has been smashed, and it represents rebellion and the explanation mark can represent shouting, and makes the rebellious look, look more effective. The main image of a very famous heavy metal band dominates the main image and the hole of the front page. The use of a famous band will encourage fans of the band to buy the magazine, and the pose they are in almost looks as if they are looking at us which makes the picture look more personal, and this effect links up to the main sell line. This is known as direct address. The shot that has been used for the main image is a medium long shot, this has been used because one of the band members (Oliver Sykes) is crouching down on the floor, this gives a better direct address between the audience and him, like he's the main one to look at and the rest of the band standing behind him are his 'crew'. When magazines feature the whole band on the front cover, they do usually make the lead vocalist have a different pose and position to the rest of the band, this is because he is the most recognized so the easiest to spot.  The name of the band featuring on the main image is in big bold, strong letters, as well as the sell line that relates to it. The sell line actually saying 'This time, it's personal' is a strong thing to say, so the use of a strong font to represent this is a very good use of representation, it also gives the reader a slight hint and insight to what the article may be about and what is being kept personal. The use of the band name being used in a bright follow font is effective, it has been proven that yellow catches peoples eyes before any other color, so using a bright bold yellow on a strong font will definitely grasp the audiences attention. 

The main sell line ‘THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL’ is a very effective sell line and is well used. It suggests to the audience that there is a big story inside that fans will be very interested to read, they want to know what is personal and why it is so, the use of wording of ‘THIS TIME’ also means that they are changing something, OR something new is coming out. The way the band is looking at the audience also suggests that there is a secret that should not be unheard of inside. And will encourage fans to purchase, and read the article/magazine.


Barcode features in an un-important place, but it is needed on the front of every magazine that is not free and is a convention of magazine covers. 

The band covers parts of the magazine title. As a popular magazine brand and is well known among many people, they can do this and people will still know which magazine this is. This means Kerrang! Put confidence and faith in the audience in recognizing their work and is a typical feature that big, successful magazines use.

Sell lines are placed down the left of the magazine cover, this is because the western eye looks here first, so they will see these sell lines quickly. The use of clear colours and black outlined fonts ensure that they are easy to read and bold as well. They are kept simple so customers are more intrigued as to what the story is about. Also, the use of ‘Face the K! Quiz, is almost as if the magazine is challenging you to do its quiz and test your knowledge about music, and to do this you have to buy the magazine, so it will increase sales, hence making a good sell line.

This sell lines suggests a full studio report, this indicates that the main image band have a new album coming out and we have an exclusive article on the making of it in the studio, fans will be highly interested in this and this will definitely aid and prompt them into buying the magazine.

Even though sell lines are more effective on the left side, they are also common to feature on the right hand side as well. Sell lines which are not so important feature here, but they are still an important aid in selling the magazine. For example, there is a picture of a boxing fight featuring Benji Madden, fans of him will buy the magazine to see the review, but since the other sell lines will attract more people, and these ones are kept to the right hand side of the front cover.

ROCK SOUND

Rock Sound’s title is in front of the main image, unlike Kerrang! This is because Rock Sound isn’t as popular, and can’t really afford people not seeing their title as they are not well known enough for people to recognize them. 

The main sell line tells us about what the main article inside will be about, but still leaves us clueless about what story will feature. It is a good sell line because people want to know what to be excited about, and it will have something to do with the main image. People who recognize the main image will associate it with the sell line, hoping it is a story about them and therefore buy the magazine.

A smaller image on top of the main one, this was not featured in Kerrang! But this tells people buying the magazine about other bands that will feature inside of the magazine. This means that new people will go and buy the magazine, and helps boost sales to a wider range of people.

The main image shows 4 people, however there is clearly a focus on one person. He is shown in a medium long shot, he does look like a typical rock star (with the stubble accross the face, to show rebellion?) With messy hair. Also his facial expression, looks as if it is meant to be showing anger or rage, another thing that is associated with heavy metal and rock music. The effect of this is almost as if 'You HAVE to read this article, you can't miss out!!' Which would attract the audience in. 

Conventional bar code is featured. This is a convention of all magazines which are not free. The barcode being in the bottom right is typical, because it is the last place in which the western eye looks, so it will be the last thing the audience see's. They do not want to see the barcode when looking at the magazine purely because it is not important to them. 

Rock sound features a strapline as well, offering freebies. This could be a reason why some people will buy the magazine, for example they may want the free CD, therefore buy the magazine.

Sell lines are placed down the right hand side of the magazine, this breaks usual conventions, but the sell lines are band names, so it doesn’t matter where these are featured, because your eyes will automatically spot the band names if you like them.

All the fonts that are used are bold, and they stand out well from the colour of the main image, so it is easy to tell the image and the text apart from each other. However, the colour of the title does seem a bit hard to see, because it is a dark colour and the image is quite dark. I think they could overcome this by using a different colour or making the font more bolder, however maintaining the same title font and colour every issue is important for brand identity and magazines sell better when they have this, so the fact they haven’t changed the colour is a good thing, however it would be more clear if it were brighter or bolder. Using dark colors is a typical convention to rock/metal music, so the use of dark colors will reflect this. They have stuck to a little amount of colors, so there is no color overload and it looks more professional like this. This would appeal to the target audience because the target audience follows the style of rock/metal so they are going to want their favorite magazine to reflect this in their colors! If a magazine does this effectively, it will entice the audience and encourage them to buy the magazine. 

In conclusion

I think that ‘Kerrang!’ music magazine has a better front cover, because I think that it is more eye-catching, and the sell lines are a lot more persuasive. As well as this, Kerrang! Also provides more information on the front to what the magazine will be about, and I think it has a more professional look to it than Rock Sound. However, both magazines do follow codes and conventions well, and I do agree that Rock Sound have a good magazine that is appealing, I would personally choose Kerrang! Over it, because it grabs my attention more and the sell lines appeal better to me.