Textual Analysis of Magazines

Robert Drew

The magazines I will be analysing are Kerrang! Issue 1350 (February 2011) and MOJO Issue 106 (September 2002).

KERRANG! MagazineFirst issue: 6 June 1981

Circulation: 44,013

Readership: 396,000

Kerrang! will ensure that we are constantly appealing to our spectrum of readers. From the younger teenage readers who are more open to different genres of rock music – from emo to thrash etc, to the readers who respect Kerrang! as an authority when it comes to our scene’s heritage bands. Each issue will include a balance of bands and scenes to guarantee that we’re providing for our readers’ need for variety and their passionate appetite for their favourite bands as well as their desire to be introduced to new music within our world. We will focus on the biggest things that are going on in our world each week, as well as guaranteeing that we are giving our main base of younger readers everything they need to get into, on top of this the interest in older, harder bands, cementing our role as an educator - MISSION STATEMENT

Jim, 22, lives and breathes rock music: it informs his choice of friends, his hobbies, leisure time, attitudes, fashion sense and lifestyle. Above all he is fanatical about their music. He engages with music 24/7, from the minute he wakes up ‘til the minute he falls asleep: when he is not listening to music or watching music TV, he is talking to his friends about music, attending gigs or playing instruments and dreaming about rock stardom. He is plugged in, sharp, has a strong moral code and rejoices in his individuality. He is a fashion trend setter in his peer group but he is heavily influenced by musical icons and scenes. Like the bands he supports he is extremely loyal to the brands he trusts.The way he looks and the clothes he wears is integral to communicating ‘his identity’ to the world - READER PROFILE

The mission statement shows that Kerrang! Magazine is targeted at as wide an audience as possible, thereby increasing readership and circulation as a larger and less specific number of people would buy Kerrang! as a result. The reader profile shows that the typical of reader of Kerrang! would follow rock music, meaning that this should be the typical content of the magazine.

Kerrang! Magazine is produced by Bauer Media, who also produce Q Magazine, and also own music radio stations like Magic 105.4 and Kiss 100. The Bauer Media Group (Bauer Verlagsgruppe) is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV and usually shortened to H. Bauer.

Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week.

MOJO Magazine

First issue: 15 October 1993

Circulation: 98,484

Readership: 100,507

Let MOJO take you to the heart and soul of music with unique depth, insight and passion. The Beatles to Battles, The Ramones to Radiohead. Classic sitting comfortably with cutting edge and quality being the one constant - MISSION STATEMENT

Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominately male (72%) and affluent (36% AB). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality - READER PROFILE

The mission statement shows that MOJO Magazine tries to exhibit what they see as ‘quality music’. However, this may affect people’s opinion’s of the magazine, as what MOJO may think is good and puts in regularly, it may sit otherwise with an audience and therefore they would be hesitant to buy it. The reader profile shows that male MOJO readers outweigh female MOJO readers by a ratio of 2:1.

MOJO Magazine is also produced by Bauer Media, who, as afforementioned, produce Kerrang!, Q, and other magazines such as EMPIRE (a film magazine), FHM (a men’s magazine) and Heat (a women’s gossip magazine).

KERRANG - Front Cover

The colour red is quite dominant on this front cover, which is a conventions of this genre of music magazine, as red is bold and is representative of the sort of music the magazine contains (rock). Most of the fonts on the cover matches, and are also bold. They are also bright yellow. This is because these coverlines are the parts the producers want the audience to see, and if they were small and a similar colour, then they would be rendered practically indistinguishable, and that would be pointless. A couple of the coverlines sit on top of Gerard’s shoulder, which is really effective as it eliminates blank space which would be ineffective on this style of magazine. The artist on the cover, Gerard Way from the band My Chemical Romance, is used effectively, as the band is popular within the target audience, and so seeing the artist on the cover would entice the audience to buy the magazine, as they would want to read what the magazine contains about the band. Gerard seems to be shocked by an unknown entity, which ties in with the main coverline, which reads: “The People Vs. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE: This Is Really Scary!”. Gerard is positioned along the top line in the grid as is the rule of thirds; therefore the eye is naturally drawn to this area first, rather than the centre of the page. My eyes are first drawn to his eyes, as they are an outstanding feature on the cover.

KERRANG - Contents Page

This contents page features a very large main image, which is good because it is the first feature to draw the eye, therefore the reader would want to find out what the image is about. There are different groups of contents such as NEWS and FEATURES, which is effective, because it simplifies the contents page for the audience. The main colours are black, white and yellow, although a lot of elements contain a sepia tone. This ties in well with the genre of the magazine because it connotes the genre of heavy rock by using a lot of conventional colours. The editor’s note runs down one side alongside the contents. The reader would know that it’s the editor’s note and not more contents as it is written in a different font. The masthead lies on top of the image: however it doesn’t obscure the subject as it only covers the background.

KERRANG - Main Feature

The double-page spread consists of the body copy and an image on the left page, and the right page is pretty much the main image. This is done to attract the eyes to the main image first, which is effective because the main image also contains the masthead. However, the masthead is only visible if the reader looks for it, so I won’t do this. Reading a magazine shouldn’t be a searching game. There are only three colours on the spread: red, black and white. According to the AS Media Handbook, these are the best three colours in a colour scheme for designing a magazine, and so I will probably use these colours too, although not in the same style.

MOJO - Front Cover

When I first see this cover, the first thing I notice is: it’s the same three colours as the double-page spread from Kerrang! Magazine. This confirms that these three colours are often used in magazines, as they are an established colour scheme that works well in this genre of magazine. The main coverline is part of the main image, which is effective as it is stylised and therefore attractive. The barcode is in an unconventional position as it ‘juts out’ from the side of the page. my personal opinion is that it’s a bit distracting. The other coverlines are in the strapline, which is effective, as it separates them from the main coverline and image but still addresses them by making them clealy visible at the bottom. The masthead is behind the man’s head. When you first think about this, it sounds as though the man is blocking the masthead, which is bad, but when you look at the magazine, it doesn’t really matter, because I can still read that the masthead says MOJO. This is another theory coming into play - if a reader already knows that a magazine is called PULSE, for example - part of the word could be obscured but as long as the basic shape of most of the letters is distinguishable, such as PUL E, you would still recognise the name, because you recognise the word as a whole, not the individual letters.

MOJO - Contents PagesThis contents page is different because it takes up two pages. This allows room for many more images to be placed, as they have on the right page. This is effective because people can recognise many different artists. The captions underneath are effective as they are linked to each individual image and tell the reader what page each feature is on. It’s more visual, compared to textual. However, there is also a list of contents on the left page, which is good as it offers another set of contents, which means twice the amount of contents and it’s still not a really long, boring list. The masthead is also clearly visible above the contents. The font for both masthead and contents are black, which is effective as because it’s on a white background, it’s clearly visible and therefore NOT disorientating.

MOJO - Main FeatureThis double-page spread is consistent with the front cover of the magazine. The same colours are used, which is good as it helps the reader understand that the article is about the artists on the cover. The main image completely takes up the right hand side page, which is effective. Imagine you were flicking through a magazine. You always look at the right-page when scanning through as this is the visible page, and if you saw this particular page, you’d recognise the artist and read the feature. The feature itself consists of a body copy and pull quote. The first paragraph consists of a larger font and large drop cap, signifying that it is a general overview of the feature, as this is a common magazine convention. There are also drop caps signifying new sections, which is good as it shows a new subject of the biographical piece, I believe. The pull quote is centred on the left page and this is good because it is easily seen. It is surrounded by a box, which is good because this separates the body copy from the pull quote, so the reader doesn’t get confused. What surprises me is the lack of masthead. The only possible explanation for this that I can come up with is that the main image is enough for the reader to know what the article is about - a masthead is not needed.