Real media artefact 3 - Kerrang front cover

Kerrang is a rock magazine that is released weekly it's first issue was 7 June 1981. The name of the magazine 'Kerrang' is an onomatopeia, as it creates the same sound that an electric guitar makes when it is strummed. Readers of the magazine will appreciate this as they will listen to rock music where electric guitars are played alot and are a dominating instrument. This sound is almost represented through the font of the text aswell as it is cracked and shattered in black bold writing. The shattered effect of the text would remind the audience of how glass is shattered when a loud noise, such as an electric guitar on an amp, is played.

The layout of the magazine front cover is quite busy and cluttered. This could portray the idea of rock artists being quite messy and not orderly in what they do. It has captions across the very top of the cover and then a pug in the centre of the page saying '150 Killer tracks as voted by you.' The '150'also has a cracked effect and almost looks burnt and reminds us of the anarchic attitude rock stars are portrayed to have. Also by using the term 'Killer tracks' rock stars do have connotations of viloence.

The main image of well known artists is wrapped around this pug. The use of different well known artists shows how the magazine is established and focuses on big artists rather than less known up and coming artists. This could increase the market as they can target people that aren't just interested in rock as people will know these well known artists because other types of media coverage.

The main colour of the magazine front cover is blue on black. From looking at other Kerrang front covers it seems that they do not follow a specific colour, but the scheme of colours do seem to mostly be primary colours. This could be because it is reader friendly as they are colours that would attract both male and female and of a range of ages as they have friendly connotations.

All of the cover lines on the front of the magazine are just names of artists this shows how Kerrang have confidence that they have selected all the artists needed to attract an audience without having to advertise the actual article. This could be due to market research in which the market are just happy to have content on those artists. However they do mention at the top 'Exclusive interviews inside' this could be to help attract new customers of the magazine.