''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
devoted to
rock,
punk and
heavy metal music
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed ...
, currently published by Wasted Talent
(the same company that owns electronic music publication ''
Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the ''
Sounds'' newspaper. Named after the
onomatopoeic
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
word that derives from the sound made when playing a
power chord on a distorted electric guitar, ''Kerrang!'' was initially devoted to the
new wave of British heavy metal and the rise of
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
acts. In the early 2000s, it became the best-selling British music weekly.
History
''Kerrang!'' was founded in 1981. The editor of the weekly music magazine ''
Sounds'',
Alan Lewis, suggested that
Geoff Barton
Geoff Barton (born July 1955) is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine ''Kerrang!'' and was an editor of ''Sounds'' music magazine.
He joined ''Sounds'' at the age of 19 after completing a journalism course at the London Col ...
edit a one-off special edition focusing on the
new wave of British heavy metal phenomenon and on the rise of other