Double Page Analysis

The band featured in the double page article of ‘Kerrang’ magazine is a rock band called ‘Sleeping with Sirens’. The title of the band itself already implies that they are a loud band that will wake people up with their music with the oxymoron of ‘sleeping’ and ‘sirens’. This is encouraged by the image shown on the double page article; though the whole band is on the pages, the lead singer is holding a megaphone which further backs up the point that they are a loud band and they want the world to hear them. The band members appear around the ages of 20-27 and are all dressed in skinny jeans with shirts/t-shirts on. Moreover, they all have slick, gelled hair with tattoos which, overall, indicates the traditional appearance for a rock artist. It is primarily because of the ages of the band members which determines the target audience to be young people aged around 16- 25 as they can relate to the band. Also, as the band is relatively new, there fans will most likely be young kids who like to keep up to date with the rock industry. There is no specific gender that the magazine is targeting with the article as the fans of the band featured in the article vary over both sexes.

The language used in this double page article relates back to the target audience: young people. This is mainly shown through the vocabulary chosen by the writer as they use words that will be familiar with the young audience rather than an elder. Rude words such as “s**t” and the ‘f word’ show, again, how the language reflects back to the target audience of the magazine as a whole. Usually, middle-aged or elder people would look down on swearing from young people like Kellin, the band’s lead singer, and deem it ‘rude’ and ‘disgusting’. However, a younger audience would understand this and would most likely to be apathetic to this as most of today’s generation of 16-25 year olds are familiar with that type of language. Additionally, words like ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’ would also refer to a young audience as they are widely associated with social media rather than the older generation. 

The article demands prior knowledge, though the reader will most likely be part of the magazine’s target audience which means they already have prior knowledge about the band. This is shown through the band members being referred to by their first names which fans will definitely know.

Colours used on the double page article include white, purple, yellow and black, which shows that the magazine wants to keep its house style. The black maintains the feeling of rock as that type of music is often associated with darkness. However, the colour white is used in contrast to the black to brighten up the page to appeal to a wider audience.

The text used is fairly small to fit all of the information onto the double page article. The text has been laid out in columns which create space for the text whilst allowing the background images to be as visible as possible.  This is very smart of the magazine because if the text was laid out horizontally rather than vertically it would appear that there is much more writing which could disinterest the reader as too much writing crammed up isn’t attractive. Both pages have images on them. Although there is more imagery on the left page, the main image is on the right. On the left, the four band artists are protecting their ears from the supposed sound that the other band member is making on the right page with a megaphone. Also, there are black circles emerging from the megaphone which get bigger as they spread out to represent the sound being made.

The magazine is using a tone that addresses the reader as an informed & intelligent fan. This is because of the vocabulary chosen by the writer; he/she includes the names of all the band members as if the reader already knows them well.

The band is presented on the double page article as a very loud band that is going to wake you up with their music; basically implying that there music will do the total opposite than put you to sleep. Plus, this article shows you that the band knows how to have fun as the things they appear to be joking around with each other and shows that they may be a professional band but they aren't overly serious.

The article clearly matches the front cover; the person in the main image (Kellin) is the main focus on both with a megaphone and his band mates are the secondary focus. As well as this, the black circles on the double page article to represent the sound are used on the front cover to reflect a consistency throughout the magazine..