Analsysing Contents Page- Kerrang!

This is the contents page for ‘Kerrang!’ magazine, published on 1/11/08. It consists of just one page which tells the reader what they can expect to read about when they purchase this magazine. However, as with all ‘Kerrang!’ magazines, they keep to a certain house style, and the layout of the page will nearly always be the same or similar, and will have the editor’s note and thumbnail of the cover in the top left corner, as well as 8 or 9 pictures from the most interesting parts of the magazine. As well as this, it will have the writing down the right-hand side of the page.

The colour scheme stays in unity with the front cover, which again stays with the house style of the magazine. The main colours are white, black, red and yellow, other than the pictures. This is the same on the front cover, except there is a lot more yellow on the contents page. The font of the writing will also stay the same for titles, and right-justified cover lines etc., as it does in the contents page.

The images are also very similar on the front cover and the contents page. Most images are a mid-shot, taken from a low angle, which could show that these celebrities are supposed to be seen as superior to us. The main image in the contents page is near the front of the magazine, in this case page 6. This may be so that when readers see the magazine on a shelf, they can flick quickly to page 6, read a small part, and then be more tempted to buy it.

There are no audience contributions on the contents page, such as photos or e-mails. However, the audience would have influenced what are the main stories/articles in the magazine, due to how many records of the certain bands/singers were sold. The more famous bands/singers tend to be earlier on in the magazine, and have bigger pictures, in this case, ‘You Me At Six’. This makes the audience initially passive, but when looked at more detail, you can see that they are active, as they have a subconscious input into who/what is in the magazine.

As is common with ‘Kerrang!’ magazine, there is an editor’s note, which is in the top left corner of the contents page, along with a thumbnail of the front cover. Within the editor’s note, Paul the editor talks about motivation for the week’s magazine, some bands that are featured in the magazines, and some bands that he recommends. As is typical of an editor’s note, he signs it, and states that he is the editor of the magazine.