Album advertisements in magazines.

This is the Gwen Stefani album "love angel music baby" advertisement in NME magazine. The artist takes main focus and the actual album cover situated in the bottom left hand corner has the same photo of her as the advertisement. The writing is big bold and stands out against the background, the colours are royal and look expensive which is representative of the album itself which features the song "rich girl". The background looks authentic as its off-white which links to the videos of the song two songs mentioned (What you waiting for and rich girl) which are set in the past which creates a threat throughout all of the advertising.

Britney Spear's album Circus.

This advertisement has bright colours to represent the album name itself, she is the main focus of the advertisement. The album cover in the bottom left corner has a different picture on the front although both have the blue stars creating a border which is a thread between the two. The isn't any writing on this advertisement except for the artist's name which implies that she is the most important and also that the album is already out as it shows no dates for release. The font is also symbolic of a circus sign linking again with the theme of the whole album.

Typical features:

Artist as main focus

A picture of the album in the bottom left hand corner

A representation of the album name or theme throughout all the advertisements through use of colour font or photo.

Album name

Date its being released

Shops where its being retailed

Digipak Analysis

Digipaks are sustainable media packs with a cardboard base and one or more trays glued to the inside.
We have chosen to do a 6 page digipak, examples of other 6 page digipaks are as follows:

This digipak is from an indie band quite similar to ours. they have chosen to keep the front cover quite simple with the girl as a focal point and the title of the band and album also in a contrasting colour to stand out. The inner sleeves are a lot more detailed as you can see they are very "cartoon" as is the CD itself. One of the sleeves features closeup photos of each member of the band-an attribute we plan to use on our digipak. The colours contrast for two of the visible sleeves with the third as two are quite tranquil with a sunset/sky scene in the background and the third features quite a loud garish scene that has a mesh of different colours and intricate drawings that shows the band have two different brand identities which would enable them to appear to a larger target audience.

This digipak is of a different genre to ours but uses a similar idea with the colour scheme of black and white with flashes of colour to draw attention to the title for example which is in contrasting colours. The main focus of the digipak is the artists face which is repeated throughout and one of the sleeves is the same as the CD itself. There is no eye contact with the photo as he is always looking away and his face is painted almost like a mask creating mystery which links with the album title "myth". The title is repeated on most sleeves which reinforces it and the pattern only changes slightly depending on the amount of space allowed for it. This digipak has a list of the songs on the CD- another idea we are using. As a digipak is a more detailed CD cover so must follow the basic structure of one of them with the song list on the back cover.

This digipak has a loose colour scheme with black white red and yet again the main focus being the artist. The photo on the front implies the mood of the album may be quite relaxed as thats what impression the artist gives off, also as he is not looking directly at the camera on either this shot or the one on the actual CD, it creates intrigue and mystery. The costume is all white which gives off connotations of innocence which will sell well in that genre of music (chilled out RNB). The name of the artist and the album are in contrasting colours to the background making them stand out. All the sleeves follow the similar colour scheme linking each of them together. 

The Kooks music video

This is a very popular Indie song and the video follows many of the typical indie conventions. For example the video doesn't link to the lyrics, the narrative is told through jump shots of the band touring and playing instruments. The mise-en-scene is different throughout as they are in many locations, they mostly feature the band members and instruments as they are the main focus of the genre and we intend to use instruments as stills for our album cover. The costume is typical of the genre and is what their fans would associate with them, the skinny jeans-converse laid back look which is slightly more relaxed than what we intend our actors to wear. The video makes the viewer feel as though they are on tour with the band which is effective as it will make them feel involved. The many different shots in different places creates interest and therefore keeps the viewers watching which in turn will increase the popularity of the song.

Arctic Monkeys Video

INDIE GENRE

Indie music stands for Independent music, which at first meant the artist didn't have a record label, but it is since changed to become a type of genre with its own recognisable conventions. Indie music is still considered to be a relatively new genre as the first ever UK Indie Chart started only in 1980.

ANALYSIS OF A MUSIC VIDEO

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw)

The music video we decided to analyse is, 'Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent'. The reason we chose to do this music video was we thought if tied in with the genre, indie. Indie is rapidly becoming the popular choice of music in britain with their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, released in early 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Monkeys). And as we are targeting a similar audience, this is the best video to analyse as the conventions used are obviously appealing to the right people.

The video follows a relatively easy story line although it doesn't link to the lyrics in the song. It is a simple video as it doesn't use any particularly difficult techniques, except the fire at the end and the most impressive parts of the video use different camera angles and lighting. The colouring seems to be tinted to give it an old, vintage look which appears authentic. The camera is hand held at the beginning which adds pace the the video and makes the viewer feel involved. There are many different shots of the characters, close up's show the facial expressions which indicate the story line, as well as the flashback and the subtitle which shows what the character is saying, there are also photographs to show the story of the characters before the video. The video is quite fast paced and uses quite a lot of jump shots to move the narrative along.
The clothing is laid-back and indie associated, which is slightly more relaxed than what our actors will wear. The other characters wear clown outfits which is obviously a link to some of the lyrics in the song- "you took a left off last laugh lane", and it also makes it easier to identify the personality of the characters. The video is effective as it keeps the viewer interested, it has a lot of action in it which will amuse the target audience and therefore they will be listening to the song and boosting it's sales.