This is an essay on a feature in music magazine Kerrang! The feature is on a music festival.
The article I have chosen to analyse is titled ‘The Summer starts here…’ and is a preview of the festival, ‘Give It A Name’. It is a series of interviews with various bands who plan to play the festival. It is written by Emma Johnston, Dan Slessor and Simon Young and is in the magazine Kerrang!
Kerrang! Magazine is a weekly music magazine that is published by Bauer Consumer Media. They are an international publishing company based in Hamburg and their worldwide magazine sales amount to 38 million magazines a week. Although primarily a national magazine, it has recently become international with copies being printed in Spain and Australia. The magazines main competitors are magazines such as NME.
The key target audiences are festival goers, in particular those who listen to Rock music. You can tell this from the article as it is about a festival and all the bands interviewed are Rock. For example, the first picture in the article is a full page black and white picture of Villie Valo, a well known Rock musician. With his black goatee, tattoos and eye liner, it is immediately recognisable to the reader that the following article will be predominantly about Rock music.
The article is a series of interviews however it also has elements of personality sketch and confession. The opening sentence in the article is ‘This weekend ‘Give it a name’ will kick off the festival season. The worlds hottest bands are on their way… Get ready!’ This opening sentence signifies the excitement that the reader will feel as they read this article. It shows that the article was written to get the audience looking forward to the festival season. Within the article there is a picture of the band, ‘ The All American Rejects’. They are mostly dressed in dark, grungy colours such as black, grey and brown. This is a signifier of Rock music. On the other hand, there is a picture of the band ‘Cute is what we aim for’. The white background and white t-shirts they are dressed in connotes peace, a contrast to the stereotypical Rock image. However the picture also sees two of the band members being carried into the air by heart shaped balloons while the third is being hung by them. This signifies death, keeping in line with the Rock and Roll feel of the article.
Festivals and Rock music is what is being represented in the article. This is shown through the interviews with Rock bands and the pictures. All of the bands are comprised of young men, in the age range of about 20-35. A quote from one of the interviews is ‘A decent hangover’s always good for our performance’. This is a bad message to be putting across as it encourages drinking. Fans will think it is ‘cool’ to drink like their favourite band. There is also things like, ‘Yeah its been fucking ages since we’ve been to the UK. We’ve just been fucking lazy bastards.’ the language, in particular the swearing, is not uncommon in these kinds of articles. They create a feeling of anarchy within the reader and gets the reader excited. The magazine represents the bands and the festival in a positive way. All the questions asked show the bands in a positive light. One picture shows a band live in concert with thousands of fans watching them. This is one example of representing the bands well.
