Magazine Analysis

In this part, I will analyse a front cover of a music magazine. I will explain the justification of the text, placings of images (pugs and puffs), house style and colour used in the magazine as it will be a source of inspiration for when I get to create my magazine.

Here is the magazine I will be analysing - Kerrang. We can firstly see that the Masthead used is very bold and stands out but is overshadowed by the main image which comes over the Masthead slightly. This signifies that the band/artist on the front page is popular and massive in terms of fan-base. The Masthead is also repeated throughout all issues, therefore is a house-style (which will be mentioned upon later in the post). There is also a strapline which draws attention, normally offering free merchandise or competitions. Another feature used is that the font for the main text is large and of the 'sans-serif' type. This makes it stand out and look a lot more informal. Kerrang generally use a dark house-style and have their logo look like broken glass to reinforce their ideology of going against the 'norm' and pop-culture stereotypes. In the bottom right the barcode and price is already shown to inform the person what the cost of the magazine is.

The masthead for MetalHammer is easily recognisable as it's largest piece of text on the front cover. The masthead is also against a dark background like a lot text on the rest of the front cover. The main image takes up all of the front cover so this instantly shows the main feature of the magazine so the person who is looking at the magazine can see if they are interested in the magazine based on the cover image, or other text that stands out on the front cover. The colours on the main image are different to the ones on the rest of the magazine so they stand out more against the rest of the front cover.  The house style of the magazine is quite simple because only about 5 different colours are used for the images and text, this shows the main audience of the magazine and also the professionality as everything is editted in prefectly and all colours seem to blend in. Taglines are used a lot in this front cover to make the font cover seem more enthusiastic and tries to grab the readers attention.

The contents page of Kerrang is quite simplistic, with the contents of the Magazine listed on the right hand side of the page with smaller text, and a larger image with a caption to show some text why that artist/band is appearing in the magazine. The house style of this magazine is mainly just yellow and black, against a lighter gray background. This shows that the looks good which can appeal to teenagers as there are not a lot of bright colours used, or the style of the contents page isn't boring.

Fonts used in this contents page is a regular bold font which is used in a lot of music magazines. Other types of fonts used are normal and italic fonts to show a paragraph about a particular band or quoting things they have said in interviews, ect.

The contents page of Metal Hammer again is quite simplistic but has some more varying feature to it, with the contents of the Magazine listed on the left hand side of the page with smaller text on the right hand side, and a selection of images to show which artist/band is appearing in the magazine. The house style of this magazine is mainly just red and black, and white. This shows that the looks good which can appeal to teenagers as there are not a lot of bright colours used, or the style of the contents page isn't boring.


Fonts used in this contents page are not just regular bold fonts but varied stylised fonts which is used in a lot of music magazines based around Rock/Heavy Metal music. Other types of fonts used are normal fonts to show a paragraph about a particular band.

This double page spread from Kerrang magazine has a house style which reflects with the bands image, and have kept with the use of a dark colour used on the contents page. The type of fonts used here range from smaller normal fonts for the text to a stylised one for the main title. The main focus on this page is the central image which shows the band, and smaller pictures showing poses from separate band members. These poses give the reader an image to what the band and the band members are like which can appeal more readers to read this article. The separation of both sides of the pages I think works really well as it is very different yet gives a the double page a more approachable look. 

This double page spread from Metal Hammer magazine has a house style which reflects with the bands image, and have kept with the use of a lot of dark, plain colours to show that the band is simplistic, down-to-earth and honest. The types of fonts used here range from smaller normal fonts for the paragraph text to a very classically stylised one for the main text. The main focus on this page is the left hand side image and the stylised main title font. The pose of the band members gives the reader an image to what the band and the band members are like which can appeal more readers to read this article