METAL HAMMER MAGAZINE

THE COVER!

This magazine is about mainstream heavy metal music but also some underground bands within the metal scene. The target audience are heavy metal fans, young or old and they are positioned to accept a prefferred representation of people in heavy metal bands in a number of ways.

The masthead can afford to be overlapped by some of the mens heads in the main image because the magazine is very popular. It is also written in a big, bold, sharp, banner style which is white so that it stands out from the darker background. The word metal written in the house style which is rough and raw and connotes the agressiveness usually associated with meavy metal music. Pugs are used in the top right hand corner which say 'POP UP COVER!'. This is placed at the top of the cover because it is the first thing the customer will see before purchasing the product along with the masthead. The main cover line is used to anchor the main image which is a crowd of male rockstars posing in an agressive yet fun way. The cover line says 'GOLDEN GODS 2007' This cover links to the splash double page spread about Golden gods.

The mode of adress connoted by the rockstars on the cover is peer to peer because it is like they are our friends and are all having a laugh drinking. They also use stereotypical metal actions and faces such as the devil horns and pointing fingers to relate to the magazines target metal audience. I also think the audience are positioned to accept a preferred meaning of the rockers being god like symbols for the audience to idolise. This is shown in the bottom left hand picture on the cover, as the mans face is shown using a low angle, close up shot to connote his dominance and the main cover line 'GOLDEN GODS 2007' is anchored to the picture.