Analysis of existing music magazine titles

KERR

ANG

KERRANG is a UK based magazine and generally focuses on rock music. The name is from the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on a distorted electric guitar. I feel this is an effective magazine name as it’s powerful and reflects the genre of the music and is easy to remember. The title works well with the layout of the magazine and is layered differently each time sometimes including the main image on top of the title but the title can also be the top layer. I feel the title works well when the audience can clearly see all of the title and will be more memorable when they see another issue from this magazine and they will recognise the name. The colour scheme also changes for the title depending on the background in order to make the title contrast against the background to make the text easily readable.

VIBEVibe is an American music and entertainment magazine and it was launched by Quicy Jones in partnership with Time Inc in 1993. It was originally called Volume until it was re-named to Vibe by the co-founding editor, Scott Poulson-Bryant. The magazine mainly features R&B and hip hop music artist, actors and a variety of other entertainers. It is issued semi-monthly and has an audience demographic of mainly young, urbans followers of hip-hop. The title colour changes depending on the background in order to make the masthead stand out. I feel this title will attract their target audience as it is a short yet effective title that will be easy to remember.

Q

Q Magazine is a popular music magazine which is published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in 1986. The magazine was originally going to be called Cue to symbolise cueing a record to play but the name was hanged so the audience wouldn’t mistake the magazine for a snooker magazine. This reminds me to carefully consider that my magazine title won’t be mistaken for a different type of magazine.