Ideology of Kerrang

These are all examples front covers of the rock magazine; ‘Kerrang’ and all of them display the stereotypical ideology of what a Rock magazine should look like.

In this cover, the man at the front of the mid-shot (presumably the lead singer) has tattoos covering his arms which is part of the ideology that rock seems to have a ‘dirtier’ picture than pop does because of the tattoos, the sometimes badly kept teeth and the dark colours (or house style). The fact that he is holding a chain gives the aggressive edge to it and they all seem to have this menacing look on their faces which would also add to it. They aren’t openly showing any designer brands of clothing or have appeared to make an effort with their choice of clothing which fits in the part of the ideology of pop where the artists appear to be less competent and have this ‘don’t care’ attitude toward everything.

In the second cover the band, Slipknot, are wearing leather masks that also represents the angry factor as well as maybe trying to scare the reader to give this band an intimidating/ ‘don’t mess with me’ feel to it. Through doing this it also expresses the band’s individuality and ability to make a statement because any other band doesn't usually have that sort of image.

However, the last cover in my Rock ideology shows a completely different aspect from this ideology. Rock is also thought of as having quite sexual lyrics sometimes and in this cover, the camera is being used as the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey’s theory of the camera objectifying women) and making the lead singer of paramore- Halyey Williams- look sexy in order to promote her band as well as the magazine so that issue would appeal to men more than women in this case however she hasn’t been majorly airbrushed, no heavy make up or designer clothes and she has had no plastic surgery (which is typical of most other magazines) which is showing the Rock Music is very literal and doesn’t need lots of effects to sound (or in this case look) good.

This proves that this music magazine reflects every aspect of the Rock Ideology in visual style and language.