A Brief History of Kerrang! Magazine.

‘Kerrang!’ is a British music magazine which concerns itself primarily with Rock music and it’s many subgenres, it is released weekly with the latest news of the hottest bands to hit the rock music scene. The name itself derives from the sound made when a guitar is smashed; this is to emphasis the stereotypical rock artist. The current editor of the magazine itself is a man named Paul Brannigan.

It was originally published on June 6th, 1981 by ‘Bauer Music Company’ and was edited by Geoff Barton; it was made as a one off supplement for ‘Sounds’ newspaper, a publication dedicated to the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ (NWOBM) and the rise of various hard rock acts, including AC/DC who featured on the front page of the first edition.

Through-out the 1980’s/1990’s Kerrang received a notable amount of criticism by the public for their progression through the most popular music genres at the time of each issue’s release. Progressing first through multiple main stream Thrash and Glam Rock artists such as Metallica, Slayer, Bon Jovi etc. To Grunge artists when Grunge artists began to experience rising popularity. This trend continues even now to recent publications of the magazine, where a specific emphasis on Emo and Metalcore music genres has been seen through the repeated usage of the band My Chemical Romance in the time span following the release of their album ‘The Black Parade’.

As the turn of the Millennia came Kerrang sought to broaden their horizons by developing a Kerrang radio station. It was originally developed in the year 2000 as a Digital radio station spreading its signal across the United Kingdom. However, on June 10th 2004, Kerrang! 105.2 was launched regionally around the area of Birmingham, they mainly dealt with more mainstream and accessible acts during the day; but held specialist segments at less popular times of the week for the magnitude of sub-genres of Rock.
As of 1993 Kerrang has held an annual award ceremony for aspiring artists, it was simply titled the ‘Kerrang! Awards’ and has been host to many legend of rock. From 2001 it became televised, when Channel 5 broadcasted a recording in the U.K., it was later shown on Channel 4 at late-night viewings up until 2004.

In 2001 ‘Emap’ (British Media Company) produced and launched ‘Kerrang! TV’, much like the radio station the TV channel concerns itself primarily with the mainstream side of the Rock music genre, however also indulges itself in Classic Rock acts such as Aerosmith and Metallica. Kerrang TV has now become a joint venture between Bauer Music Company and Channel 4.

Written by A. Gregory