Rock and indie magazine comparason

I am now starting my research for my New music magazine...Magazine Front cover Comparison.

These are two different magazine genre front covers. On the Left is 'KERRANG!' a heavy rock magazine, whereas, on the right 'Q' is an Indie-pop magazine. This will enable me to clearly see the differences between the two, so I can specify the elements that are seen on 'Q' and use them in my music magazine.

The front cover of 'KERRANG!' is quite busy with images, the masthead is black with white lines to give an effect it being broken, also there is an area of the masthead covered up by the image, the audience will still be able to recognise the title because it is popular magazine in that genre. Whereas in ‘Q’ magazine the cover is busy with cover lines. The masthead is in the corner a bold red square background with the title text in white inside it. This masthead is on every issue so it is a recognisable title that the readers/audience can easily identify.

 The main image on the front cover of 'KERRANG!' is of a rock band called 'YOU ME AT SIX' who are a very popular amongst the rock audience. The image covers around half of the cover, they are staring into the camera with little welcoming smile on most of their faces, then the main singer at the front is what looks like to be screaming, which relates to the loudness of the rock band and the genre. They are also all wearing black which is a colour you relate to rock music. On the other hand the cover image on 'Q' is of the leader singer in a very popular band in the indie-rock genre called the 'killers' his facial expression is yet again slightly emotionless however I would say it looked more smug as the tagline over the top of him says ' I am more rock and roll than anyone you'll ever meet' this is quite smug and confident as is his look. The camera is also positioned looking up at him, making him look superior, he is also grabbing the opening of his jacket, this is seen to be cool, especially when wearing a leather jacket.

The names of both of the bands are the main cover lines and are bigger and bolder than all the rest, they are also different colours compared to all the other colours used on the cover, such as in 'KERRANG!' the colour of the name of the band/ main cover line is in white making it stand out against the reds and blacks used. In the 'Q' magazine the name of the band is in a light grey colour contrasting against the dark blue/black leather jacket and different compared to the red and black colour theme. Both magazines also have taglines attached to the cover lines which are also different colours compared to the others used, on 'KERRANG!' it is 'Rock's new hotshots...Doing it their way!' in yellow this will attract the readers/audience as they would be wondering how are they different and what is their way. Furthermore, in 'Q' magazine there are two taglines one saying 'I am more rock and roll than anyone you'll ever meet' and the other says 'Brandon Flowers reborn' this will attract the readers as he sounds confident and they will want know how he is more rock and roll than anyone.

The colour scheme used in 'KERRANG!' is quite subtle but strong using colours like white, red, black and a bit of yellow and green, here and there to brighten it up, which all come together as slightly loud colours that are eye catching and bold, which relates to the rock music as it is usually loud and quite striking. whereas 'Q' on the left has a more of a simple  and modern colour scheme of white, red, black and a bit of light grey. They quite bold and bright colours which catch the eye, however relaxing and easy to look at, like indie-rock music is quite calm and catching.

Both of the magazines have names of other bands and artists with in the same genre featured on the cover, this is to widen the rage of bands/ artists to attract more readers as they may not like the main featured band on the cover that much however, one of their favourite bands maybe referenced on the front cover so they know there will be an article inside. Such as in 'KERRANG!' have a banner at the bottom listing different bands such as 'Enter Shikari' and 'Bring me the Horizon' which are popular bands in the rock/ heavy metal genre of music. In addition 'Q' the other artist that are referenced on the cover are 'Keane', 'Florence Welch' and 'Jake Bugg' which all fit in the genre of indie-pop and indie-folk.

All of the elements in each of these two magazines clearly define what genre they are and what audience they are targeting to. 'KERRANG!' is clearly a hard rock and heavy metal genre magazine, who is appealing to 16 - 25 year olds and maybe older in some cases who like this type of music. As for the ‘Q’ magazine the genre is clearly shown to be indie-pop and indie-folk/rock and is also targeted to young adults between the ages of 16 - 25, however they would obviously listen to this type of music.