Language: Medium close-up with the emphisis on the face and the hand gesture. The connotation of his hand gesture is that he's tough and angry. The mise en scene of his costume is to connotate that he has a dark side and is effectively evil. This is because the colour black connotes this. The costume is also that of a military nature which further connotates that he's evil. The cover model is also stood in profile, which is used to connotate fights and engagements, and his eyes look like they're glaring. The Main Headline '30 Seconds To Mars" contrasts the black costume, and is coloured red. The colour red has connotations of danger and violence and is often associated with blood due to its colour. This goes with the mood of the magazine front cover. The mast head is situated conventionally at the top and consists of an exclusive article, featured in the magazine, and the title of the magazine. The magazine often features dark, depressing bands and the title of the magazine, and the way it's represented (the dark colours and the ruggidness and scruffiness of it) reflects that. The front cover also uses the colour scheme of black, red and white; mostly quite dark colours to represent the content of the magazine. The title of the magazine "Kerrang!" is situated at the top of the cover as part of the masthead. The text is very rough and has lots of rigid, roughly cut lines going through the text which gave me the impression of barbed wire. Barbed wire isn't a very nice type of wire, and therefore this connotates that the magazine is also going to be nasty and not cute and cuddly. "Kerrang!" is also onomatopoeic and represents the sound which comes from an electric guitar when it is strummed. This connotates the genre of the musc associated with the magazine as Hard/Heavy Rock, standar Rock and everything associated with Rock.Institution: Kerrang! Magazine is published by the British production company 'EMAP'. This has effected the magazine. I say this because Kerrang! magazine only features bands what the publishers like, or what they expect their target audience to like, and with their target audience being British male and female teenagers, it is not likely to feature foreign bands singing in a foreign language. EMAP is owned by a conglomerate called 'Bauer Media Group', a large german
publishing company, which operates in over 15 different countries worldwide. The conglomerate company has effected the magazine in terms of finance. Due to Bauer's success, they would be able to fund Kerrang! magazine more and allow EMAP to interview, research and take photos of massive bands (such as 30 Seconds To Mars) and feature them in the Kerrang! magazine. Kerrang! is a brand name and is used for Kerrang! TV and Kerrang! Radio. It also has a website which is mentioned on the barcode. However, there is no mention of the conglomerate just yet...
Ideology: The cover model is the lead singer of the successful band '30 Seconds To Mars' and due to his featuring as the cover model on Kerrang! magazine, they're ideolised as a good band who are worthy of your listen. This is, technically, a form of advertising for the band, but it's ironic as they would have probably been paid in return... However, it also advertises the magazine. Also, a sub-heading, featuring an image of Alex Gaskarth of the other successful band 'All Time Low', includes the quote "NEW STAR LAID BARE!" This has the idology that he is very successful, maybe sexual(?) due to the 'laid bare' (targeting the female part of the target audience) and, as with Jared Leto, his band is talented and worthy of your listen. On a similar note, the Paramore video article, featured on the front cover, is connotated as worthy of your watch as it has made the front cover of Kerrang! magazine, and therefore must be something special. I know this because when I bought this issue, I set out to watch the video, thinking the exact same thing.
Audience: The target audience of Kerrang! magazine are both male and female teenage british folk; most likely in their late school or college years. It is primarily aimed at the average person with a moderate to low income as the price tag states that it costs just £2.30.
Representation: Cover model is portrayed as evil and nasty, a persona as previously discussed (above) during mise en scene (Language). This is because of the costume colour of black, which connotates evil, and the profile stance in which he's standing. Also, the hand gesture of punching the palm of his hand whilst glaring directly at us. These facial expressiions and gestures go with the headline, as the cover story, featured inside the magazine, is about how Jared Leto has changed and is revealing his 'dark side' for the first time ever. This represents 'emo' people as angst ridden and angry inside. I say 'emo' because Jared Leto is well-known as being an emo, but on the front cover his hair has been cut. This also connotes that he's changed. The magazine also leaves out 'chavs' to narrow down the target audience criteria. This social group has been left out in particular as it would clash with the overall features of the magazine.
