Main Task: Complete analysis of a music magazine

I have chosen to look into the magazine ‘Kerrang!’ in more detail.

History

Kerrang!, the world’s largest weekly magazine, began publication of 6^th June 1981 as a monthly magazine. As it became more popular, the magazine became a fortnightly, and then a weekly publication starting as of 1987. During the late 1990s, Kerrang! was introduced in Australia and by this point was also published in Spanish and German. Post 2000, as bands such as Slipknot and Limp Bizkit were becoming more popular, the magazine rose further in interest - the history of the magazine ties in heavily to the wide range of music genres it has covered in its lifespan. In 2008, Bauer Media Group became the owner of the magazine.

Genres of music it covers

Kerrang! started its fame covering thrash and glam metal (which was later discarded in favour of bands such as Nirvana as musical genres evolved; the magazine is often criticized by readers for repeating the same process of replacing musical trends each time a new one becomes popular). Later introduced were the trends of emo, metal core and genres alike. This became a large interest to Kerrang!’s eye, which was not welcomed by everyone who read the magazine. However, the magazine only grew more and more, with an Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) record of 80,186 copies sold, entering its most commercially successful period.

Target audience

As the UK’s most popular youth media brand, Kerrang! is read mostly by people of ages between 15 and 24 (judging by results from 2012).

As shown by the graph above, it appears that Kerrang! is not far off a 50/50 split concerning the gender of readers, however, males dominating. It can be argued that, in this case, the magazine appeals more to males, but the percentage is so close that this would be an unfair judgement.

Multi-platform

Website

• ·         So far, the official Kerrang! website (www.kerrang.com) has welcomed over 172,600 unique visitors, and over 505,900 page impressions.
• ·         The website was launced in 2001 by Dan Silver.
• ·         The website is mostly centred around information on the magazine, featuring latest information on upcoming events and current bands.
• ·        The website hosts an online shop, podcasts, TV and radio, message boards, an online forum featuring a ‘rants and raves’ section. Because of the diversity, merchandise was given a wider opportunity to be sold.

Radio

• ·         Kerrang! debuted its digital radio station life in 2000 in the UK.
• ·         The primary focus and point of the radio station was playing rock and alternative music back-to-back.
• ·         In 2004, it became a regional radio station, featuring a number of specialist programmes of rock and subgenres of such.
• ·         It once again became a digital radio station in 2013, now with its own radio app.

TV

• ·         The Kerrang! TV channel is a joint venture between Bauer Media Group and channel 4, covering many mainstream rock musical genres.
• ·         It also features classic rock bands (such as AC/DC and Aerosmith), along with more classic heavy metal bands (such as Guns N’ Roses and Metallica).

Tour

• ·         Kerrang!’s tour features a wide assortment of rock music concerts in the UK, with bands such as Good Charlotte, Bullet for My Valentine, Coheed and Cambria, Sum 41 and many more.
• ·         The tour is usually announced in October of the previous year and is held throughout January and February of the year of touring.
• ·         Relentless Energy Drink has sponsored the tour of several years.