Research and Planning - Music Magazine.

Kerrang.

Kerrang, a popular Rock and Roll magazine is one of the largest, most successful teen, Rock magazines around at the moment. The magazine tends to target teenagers, whose music taste revolves around Rock and Roll, focusing mainly on today’s new hottest Rock and Roll artists/bands. The magazine focuses mainly on tour announcements/updates, posters, exclusive interviews, merchandise sales, etc. Even on the front cover of a magazine like Kerrang, there tends to be talkie headlines, persuading the audience to read into the magazine more to find out more about interviews and exclusive chats with the artists and bands. This type of marketing is typical for a Rock and Roll, music magazine as it allows audiences to read behind the scenes, finding out information they didn’t know. The front covers for Kerrang are mainly always the same as in they always use the same house style in every magazine; this way they attract the same audience in every issue.

The masthead for Kerrang is recognisable for the audience, which is always good as they are familiar with the magazine and they’d recognise it straight away if they saw it. Also, it stands out on the front cover as it is written in bold, usually in a black font as well. A “sell” is often used on the front cover of Kerrang as it helps them promote gigs, albums, etc. Using a “sell” and promotion also allows more independent, upcoming Rock and Roll artists/bands to be noticed, allowing them more recognition. A drop shadow is nearly always used in Kerrang, not just on the front cover but also in and around the magazine, allowing headlines and articles to stand out and catch the audience’s eye.

Kerrang magazine itself isn’t just a music magazine, it’s more of a promotion tool for bands and artists, allowing them to promote their music and tours to a wanting audience. The magazine reaches out to not just the same audience every week but also new audiences as they get interviews with the newest, upcoming artists, getting information for what the audience want. Like any music magazine, Kerrang often use a splash that bleeds over the front cover, this way it attracts the audiences eye as it takes up the whole front cover.

NME.

NME magazine is one of my personal favourite magazines, yet it is less of a Rock and Roll music magazine. It focuses more on mainstream artists, looking specifically into them as artists, who they really are, backstage and behind the scenes, etc. The magazine is also very well known for it's writing and photography, which is another aspect to why audiences like the magazine. The NME magazine tends to target a wider audience than say Kerrang, as they write about more artists which are in the public eye, more people want to read about them. Although, like Kerrang, the NME magazine does focus mainly on helping artists and bands promote themselves, which is easy when you have such a wanting audience. This magazine is particular is a lot different in terms of house style and appearance than say Kerrang. The magazine is a lot more neat and modern than say Kerrang, who's house style would typically attract avid teenagers who love Rock and Roll. Yet, like Kerrang, NME magazine uses the same house style and colours in every issue, which again, makes it more recognisable for the audience. The front cover to NME will always have a sell as well, which again helps promotion for up and coming artists.

Typically for the front cover of a music magazine, a picture boost is often used to draw the audience in, interesting them into reading more into the magazine. The main attraction of the NME magazine is that it has up to date, just happened news which isn't accessible anywhere else, which is another reason why audiences want to read this magazine. The magazine tends to reach it's desired audience by delivering what they promise, which is usually exclusive material. The magazine offers not only this, but like Kerrang, free posters, tour updates and sales, so it does give back to the audience. Also, the NME magazine always uses talkie headlines on their front covers, this is again to interest the audience into reading more.

Using this kind of promotion allows audiences to feel as if they are taking a deeper look into artists personality and who they are, which again, is what the audiences desire.