This issue is a Valentine’s day special, which is apparent from the main cover line and mast head being red and talking about Valentine’s day. The main colour scheme is red, white and blue; red connotes love, white connotes purity and blue connotes calmness. By using these colours it creates a happy, love themed atmosphere.

The main image is a studio shot,posed picture of the band All Time Low dressed in white and covered in fake blood. This fits with the Valentine’s theme and also ties in with the cover story; “your favourite stars opentheir hearts inside!”. The lead singer is holding where his heartis and punching towards the camera, and is also further forward than the rest of his bandmembers, connoting the importance of him as the lead singer over the rest of the band. The whole band are placed in front of the mast head which means either the band aresignificant enough to be there, orthat the magazine is recognisableenough to not need the whole mast head on show.

Following the Z read theory, readers will first of all see the band’s faces, then read across to see the “Valentine’s issue!” title and finish with the “starring;” section. This gives the audience all the information they need to know to want to buy the magazine. The “10 killer posters!” title is placed on the left, as it it not to do with the Valentine’s theme. The Fall Out Boy puff is placed on top of everything as it is currently an important and well desired article.

The magazine uses personal pronouns to directly address the reader; “invites you”, “Your favourite stars”. The magazine’s name, Kerrang!, features an exclamation mark, which they repeat throughout the text; “win!”, “first interview!”, “posters!”, “inside!” etc. This creates excitement and anticipation of the magazine’s contents. The front cover also has a semantic field of killing; “killer posters”, “open their hearts” and the blood used. This subverts the expectations of a Valentine’s day themed issue.

The target audience is teenagers who will recognise the bands and music featured. All Time Low are a famous band of this genre so are used for the special issue. As mainly girls read it but boys also do, there is a mix of posers to appeal to everyone.

The contents page is clearly laid out and organised, with the articles sectioned into categories so the reader can easily find the part they want. The competition is the main feature and takes up the majority of the contents page.

The colour scheme used is red, purple and yellow; the red follows the house style of the front cover and the yellow follows the overall house style of Kerrang! magazine, as they use the colour yellow in every issue. The red was used to highlight the Valentine’s day features, as red is stereotypicallyused to represent love.

The main image is promoting the magazine’s weekly competition rather than the band featured on the front cover. The picture is of a man who conventionally looks like someone who likes rock music (long hair, jeans, band merchandise t-shirt) gesturing to a stack of CDs with an excited expression. He is focusing the audience on what they could win, and creating excitement by showing it himself. The edited background adds emphasis to him as he is in the centre.

The language used is informal and friendly, like the editor is having a conversation with the audience. He speaks casually whilst still informing us of what is in the magazine. They use the ’k’ for ‘Kerrang!” throughout the text; “Komics”, “Komeback”, “K!onfidential” to make these features personal to the magazine.

The magazine is divided into sections so it is easy to jump to the part you want to read. The “Posters” category emphasises the fact that this issue is a poster special. Saying “Queen legend” and featuring a picture of Brian May in the editor’s letter shows us the magazine producers’ opinion and creates a feeling that the readers will feel towards him.

The target audience will be used to this form of language and will expect it from Kerrang!. The competition will directly appeal to them as Kerrang!’s view of their audience is that they love music, so winning CDs is a good way to please the target market.

The main article is made up of 6 pages, with 50% of that being images of the band. The first double page spread of the feature consists of a large image of the band with a big title above them. The writing begins on the right hand side of the page and carries on over the page.

The image follows the house style of the front cover as they are wearing fake blood covered white clothes. However, in this picture we can see the guitarist holding a fake heart, which follows on from the cover line “Your favourite stars open their hearts inside”. The drummer also looks like he is trying to rip open his chest. The band follow the stereotyped conventions of a punk rock band; they have dyed, styled hair, piercings, tattoos and jeans. Even when they are all wearing the same thing, we can still clearly see what music genre the band belongs to.The photo is a studio shot, high key image where they are all looking directly at the camera. As it’s such a clear, medium shot we can see the expression and emotion in their faces; as they are looking at the camera it looks like they’re looking directly at the reader.

The main colours used are red and white to follow the house style of the front cover. Whereas before the use of the colour red might have connoted love and passion, using it as fake blood seems more like anger and evil. This also links in with the title which uses the violent word “attack”.

There is a semantic field of love throughout the written article due to it being a Valentine’s day feature; “And in the UK – where both band and fans have enormous love hearts in their eyes for one another – there is more love in the air than anywhere else in the world.” The writer says “All Time Low had us at ‘hello’, we’re fools in love with Alex Gaskarth like nowhere else” and “… our stolen moments together when they tour these shores are worth a million years with someone you don’t feel as much for”, making it very personal to the magazine writers and producers, implying that they love the band as much as the fans do.The article talks about how the lead singer and guitarist’s “x rated banter … only makes our hearts grow fonder of them”; by juxtaposing these phrases it implies that although we shouldn’t enjoy “x rated banter”, we do and it is part of the reason why this band is so widely loved.