Genre Research

Kerrang is the UK based rock magazine which follows codes and conventions to appeal to the edgy individualistic audience which I will analyse. The target audience for this magazine is rock/metal and indie music enthusiasts and appears to appeal more to the male audience. The demographic ratio is 59% male to 41% women with majority of readers being from aged 15-24 at 69.5%. Circulation42,203 (Jan-Jun '12) Readership 378,000 87% of its readers buy every issue which costs £2.20 and is weekly released. The masthead remains the same on every cover but may be coloured differently with it appearing broken and damaged reinforcing the rock genre and an exclamation mark emphasising how loud the music is and the use of all capitals also emphasises how dominant of a genre it is. All artists that feature on the magazine tend to look intimidating and directly looking at the audience as if they are speaking to them to make the reader want to read and look at the magazine. The magazine also usually has a set colour scheme of bold colours to attract people and make the article stand out on a shelf amongst other magazines.

Music Magazine Case study: Kerrang

The magazine also includes lots of magazines and items appealing to its young target audience such as posters, gigs, events and interviews. The posters will intrigue particular fans of certain bands

Current Artist; Bring Me The horizon• Bring me the horizon are a British rock band formed in 2003 in Sheffield, Yorkshire. The band

are signed with RCA Records and globally are with Columbia. The style of their early work, including their debut album ‘Count Your Blessings’ released in 2006 was primarily been described as deathcore, but they started to adopt a more eclectic style of metalcore on subsequent albums. Furthermore, their latest album ‘That's the Spirit’ marked a shift in their sound to the less aggressive rock music styles. Also releasing suicide season in 2008, ‘There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret’ in 2010 which involved classical and electronic aspects. Another major album ‘Sempiternal’ achieved Gold certification in Australia (35,000) and Silver in the United Kingdom (60,000). ‘That's the Spirit’ debuted at #2 in the UK charts, selling almost 2 times the previous album with 44,300 first week sales. They have released five albums and two extended plays with a live album. They also have there own clothing label and merchandise ‘Drop Dead’ which was established in 2005. in 2012 Sempiternal was nominated Best Album and they won Best International Band also winning Best British band, Best Live Band and Best Video. Among Bring Me the Horizon's earliest influences were American metalcore bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, Norma Jean, Skycamefalling and Poison the Well: and genres death metal, grind core, and emo have been cited by All music writer Steward Mason. However, as their sound developed the band started to take influences from progressive rock, post-rock, dubstep and electronic. Most of the lyrics and ideas come from personal experiences with the lead vocalist Oli Skykes writing most and sharing the lyrics and ideas with the band.

SLAVES•Slaves is an American post hardcore band formed in California, America in 2014. •The band currently consists of lead vocalist Jonny Craig, formerly of Emarosa, Dance Gavin Dance and Isles & Glaciers, guitarist Alex Lyman of Hearts & Hands, bassist Colin Vieira of Musical Charis, and drummer Tai Wright of Four Letter Lie.•On June 24th they released there first album ‘Through Art We Are All Equals’ and their second album was released in August 21st 2015 titled ‘Routine Breathing’.•Craig explained the name Slaves in an article on Ryan's Rock Show. "Men have been enslaving men for as along as we've had gods to hide behind," Craig said. "Every man is a slave to what we love – whether it be women, drugs, music or sports. Through art we are all equals•The band went on their first US tour in May in direct support of Hands Like Houses, Miss Fortune, and Alive Like Me, in May and June.•They released their first single The Fire Down Below through Artery Recordings on April 22. The album, Through Art We Are All Equals, was produced by Kris Crummett, and was released on June 24, 2014. The album features guest vocals from Kyle Lucas, Tyler Carter of Issues, Vic Fuentes of Pierce The Veil, as well as Jonny Craig's sister, Natalie Craig. The album's track listing was released in May 2014The album debuted on No. 53 at official Billboard 200 charts in the U.S.

Columbia Records• Founded in 1888, Columbia is the oldest surviving brand

name in pre-recorded sound. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers, instrumentalists and groups. From 1961 to 1990, its recordings were released outside the U.S. and Canada on the CBS Records label before adopting the Columbia name in most of the world. Today it is a premier subsidiary label of Sony Music Entertainment. Its roster features some of the most famous names in music history alongside some of the finest cutting edge artists in the world today. In the UK it is led by joint MDs Alison. It is one of Sony Music's three flagship record labels with the others being RCA Records and Epic Records. And stands for Colombia Broadcasting System, a broadcasting media company which had purchased Columbia Records in the late 1930s, and which had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. In January 2006, Sony BMG UK split its front-line operations into two separate labels. RCA Label Group, mainly dealing with Pop and R&B and Columbia Label Group, mainly dealing with Rock, Dance and Alternative music. Mike Smith is the Managing Director of Columbia Label Group, Ian Dutt is Marketing Director and Alison Donald is Director of A&R. As of October 2012, there are currently 85 recording artists signed to Columbia Records, making it the largest of the three flagship labels owned by Sony Music (followed by RCA Records with 77 artists and Epic Records with 43 artists. The record company started in New York Woolworth Building during 1913 with its earliest production being jazz but now has a array of artist from various genres.

Conventions of Rock Music Magazines Masthead: this is usually the boldest font across the top of the magazine in a bright colour contrasting with the other colours in the frame and is always the same so it can be recognised as the magazines logo. This may be slightly overlapped by the model or positioned away from the model depending on the issue and the editors ideas, this usually has no effect on knowing the magazine as they are usually well-known and appeal to specific audiences. Sell lines usually include the cover band on the issue and other bands to appeal to different fan groups with inclusion of posters, interviews and buttons to entice the audience to read the magazine and buy it. The sell lines also usually have a colour scheme (predominantly black and red) surrounding the issue to make them stand out and attract readers using various font styles but take an ordered format usually consisting of columns not being placed on the artists faces. The format is usually cluttered with rock magazines to appeal to the genre audience and the overall rock theme.Main Image usually consists of recognised artists within the genre and gossip of new albums and other aspects of their lives which readers will be interested in. The image on rock magazine is usually shot in dark clothing with minimal facial expressions as it is quite an intimidating genre so artists are usually not smiling or wearing bright colours usually contrasting with bright fonts. The image is usually clearly visible using direct address as the artists are usually looking directly at the audience.The magazine also usually includes a barcode so it can be brought, the price, the date and the issue number which is important for collectors as lets the reader knowhow many issues it has made or sold. They also usually include multiple images and advertisements to also attract readers following the route of the eye.