Collection of images - Showing artist interests/Fans Interests

  

magazine advert analysis

As you can see from the magazine advert, the name of the artist is Ed Sheeran, although above it does not say the name of this album, however it is his debut album and it says this in the advert.
The date of the release of this particular album was the 14th of September 2011 and the advert says that it is available to purchase from HMV, a leading music retailers and it is also available to download from Itunes. This advert also tells the reader that the album is priced at £7.99.
The advert doesn't tell the reader what songs the album contains, but this could have been an early advertisement, a form of a teaser advertisement to the target audience.
This album is available to buy in the form of CD and it is downloadable. By doing this, this makes the album much more available, in order to increase revenue.
On this particular advert, the image is a photograph that has been digitally edited. The way they have edited this has been done in very promotional way, they know that an icon of Ed Sheeran is his bright ginger hair. They have discoloured everything in the image but his hair, and they have also put his name in this colour to promote this particular icon.
Underneath the information on the album release, there is the record company's logo. This is fairly important to this advertisement, because at the time Ed Sheeran was going to be an upcoming artist so the record company are obviously going to show themselves as Sheeran's representative.
Critic's quotes have been used on the advertisement, The Times labelled it "Best album of the year." and The sun also labelled, "Simply brilliant." If this advert is seen by any member of the potential target audience, they will see what these two national media giants have labelled the album, most people will respect this opinion and will be intrigued into this album.
The set colour scheme is fairly basic, the majority of the colour is either kept plain or dark, except for (as I mentioned earlier) the colour of Sheeran's hair and the same colour for the promotion of his name on the album.

Initial ideas

DigiPak analysis - Ben Howard, Every Kingdom.

On the front cover the font for the artist name is very simplistic and easy to read the font size is very large this makes it the first thing that draws the readers eye this shows that he is trying to promote his name more than anything which is not typical for a singer/ song writer. the album name is just below the artist name with a very similar font but the size is a lot smaller this implies that Ben thinks that the album name is not the most important thing to promote on his cover. on the back cover the text of the track list is very central and is on top of a very dull background which makes it stand out a lot.  the font again is simplistic and easy to read but the size is not too big or small. but it is the first thing you read when looking at the back cover. all of the over information like the website and the logo is virtually impossible to read this is typical for a song writer because they only care about their music not promoting themselves.

The album cover is designed in a very sophisticated way this is created by using simple fonts and the album cover is created with a water colour look of a man underwater, because its not in your face and its all gentle colouring it creates a calm effect which is what his music is all about its very calm and chilled out. The only information on the front cover is his name album name and the background design.  he has done this to show that he is very calm and it is not overloaded with bright colours and information so its easy to read and you wont get confused. on the back cover it changes completely it does not keep the water colour affect but it goes even more simpler with just a plain pale cream background with the list of songs in the centre of the cover and again there is very little design and information which makes the attention all about his album and songs which is typical for a singer/song writer.

The album cover shows an image of a person (not necessarily the artist) who is diving into water, which is possibly a representation of being able to be in every kingdom. The image itself is a fairly relaxed image, where the sun is gleaming through the water and the water is clear which could be a interpretation of his type of music, which is chilled music.
The logo on the digipak shows the record company's logo on the back of the album, this image is found at the bottom in the middle. The logo is small, however it is more bold than any other images or writing on this side of the album, so it is noticeable.
The barcode is found on the back of the album, on the bottom right hand side. This is kept completely out of the way, because the record company or the designer of the album doesn't want the barcode to be the most noticeable item on the album.
The website banner is kept fairly plain, the colour of the font on the banner is black, however the background colour on the website is a plain colour, so the website banner sticks out the most and is the first thing any visitors on the website see. This promotes the artist's name.

The Lyrics for 'U.N.I'

   U.N.I

I found your hairband on my bedroom floor,
The only evidence that you've been here before
And I don't get waves of missing you anymore,
They're more like tsunami tides in my eyes
Never getting dry, so I get high, smoke away the days never sleep with the light on
Weeks pass in the blink of an eye,
And I'm still drunk at the end of the night
I don't drink like everybody else,
I do it to forget things about myself,
Stumble and fall with the head spin I got
My mind's with you but my heart's just not

So am I close to you anymore, if it's over
And there's no chance that we'll work it out

That's why you and I ended over U N I
And I said that's fine, but you're the only one that knows I lied
You and I ended over U N I
And I said that's fine, but you're the only one that knows I lied

Everybody said we'd be together forever but I know that,
I never wanna settle down, come around, break up the love like Lego now,
Never wanna turn into another like you,
Sleep with my thoughts, dance with my views,
Everything's great but not everything's sure,
But you live in your halls and I live in a tour bus,
Now I'm in a position to be another stalker like every thing I say seems to always sound awkward,
Like our last kiss it was perfect, we were nervous,
On the surface,
And I'm always saying everyday that it was worth it,
Pain is only relevant if it still hurts,
I forget like an elephant, or we can use a sedative and go back to the day we fell in love just on our first kiss

So am I close to you anymore, if it's over
And there's no chance that we'll work it out
Ohh you and I ended over U N I
And I said that's fine, but you're the only one that knows I lied
You and I ended over U N I
And I said that's fine, but you're the only one that knows I lied

Wo-ooooahhhh [x2] oohh ohh

Because, if I was gonna go somewhere, I'd be there by now,
And maybe I can let myself down, wo-oahh
And I'm thinking that I'm unaware, I keep my feet on the ground and keep looking around, to make sure I'm not, the only one to feel low,
Because if you want, I'll take you in my arms and keep you sheltered, from all that I've done wrong
And I'll know you'll say, that I'm the only one
But I know god made another one of me to love you better than I ever will

Cause you and I ended over U N I
And I said that's fine, but you're the only one that knows I lied
You and I ended over U N I
And I said that's fine, but you're the only one that knows I lied.

Change of plan...

As we progressed into the course, we came off the idea of Indie-rock genre, due to the complications of it being a performance based video and we can't organise a band or band equipment to borrow.
Therefore, we have changed our song choice from "Look Around" by the Red Hot Chilli peppers to "U.N.I" by Ed Sheeran, because collectively as a group, we prefer the singer/songwriter genre, compared to the Indie-rock genre because we feel we will have more ideas on the video and we are more passionate about the genre itself. We also believe with this particular song, we could use a much more narrative based production, which requires much more creativity, which we believe will be more enjoyable and successful.

Risk Assessment

Digi pack analysis

We are analysing the album, 'American Idiot' by Green Day, this is because the band is similar to Red Hot Chilli Peppers. We are going to discuss the text, pictorial and design.

Starting off with text, the album name is a very unique name, it does not promote the band at all because it does not relate to or remind anyone of the band. It is a short and bold title, so it is easy for consumers to remember. The album name on the digi pack is very bold, the text is white on black, therefore it stands out, it is the first thing that catches your eye on the cover, which is obviously what the designers intended. The text is not flamboyant, it is very bold and simple and easy to read, reaching to a broader range of the audience. The text is not in a lot of bright colours just white and blood red which suits the theme of their music. On the back of the digi pack there is no pictures only text with the numbers they use roman numerals this gives it a old school sort of look but as the same it is easy to read and there is no confusion when trying to find a song. On the cover it is very hard to find the website address, the producers name and the song writers name. They have shoved all of this information in the bottom corner on the back and in very small red and white font this shows they don't care about promoting themselves they think their music is the most important thing and thats all they want to get across so their album title and song names are in the biggest font and stand out the most.

The CD cover of Green Day's album, 'American Idiot' shows no images of the band, which suggests that the band aren't promoting their own image, they care more about their music and the quality of the music. This is slightly more common in this type of genre, where the artist or band are more passionate about their music instead of their image.

The logo of the digi pak is a hand holding a heart shaped grenade, which could possibly show that the image is the band's representation of 'American Idiot.' The reason for this is that again the band are much more passionate about the music instead of their image and what their music stands for.

There is a barcode on this digi pak, it is located on the back of the album, next to the parental advisory image.

The DVD logo of Green Day's album is an image of the American flag, in green. This matches their band name, to represent a type of merging between "American" and green. This promotes the band's name, instead of the band's image.

Green Day's website banner shows the band name in bright pink on a turquoise and blue background, these colours clash and the reason for this is to make their band name stand out so when the website is visited, so the first thing seen is the band name.

The front of the CD cover is dark and bold with a hand, in a sort of manga style drawing holding whats meant to be a grenade in the shape of a heart, coloured blood red, with the blood pouring down the hand and arm. The title of the album is called American idiot, so maybe the picture is representing the title of the album of a american idiot using his heart as a grenade possibly. The style of the album is dark and a grunge type of effect by just using dark colours and only 3 colours, red, white and black. The artists genre is grunge/indie rock/emo, all of these genre's are combined into one style, this would probably be a reason why Green Day are one of the most popular band's to the current day. On the back of the album cover the colour sequence carries on but only sticking with two colours, the background is black and the song titles are in blood red, next to the bar code at the bottom their is an advert, advertising Green Days website. The CD case is plastic and see through so that you can see the image clearly and the song list. The booklet inside the album has all the songs and the lyrics or the songs, also describing what instruments are used for each of the songs and who performs them.

Green Day have chosen to not represent themselves through images, they don't promote their image at all, they are promoting their music. The CD case's colour stands out as the background is dark, with a font in red and white making it easy to read, which suits their type of music. The CD cover and other elements shows us that Green day are a patriotic band, however this could be seen as partially sarcastic.

Max Perkins wrote the introduction and the first part to the analysis, Nathan Holliday wrote the second part to the analysis and the conclusion and Lorcan Lehane Cox wrote the last section to the analysis.

Photoshop Practice

Photoshop- Practice album cover

Textual analysis - Lorcan Lehane-Cox

Textual Analysis

Seether – Fake it

Age: 15-25 

Gender: Majority Males but appeals to both genders

Interests: Grunge music, calling out fakes

Location: Western Hemisphere, Europe, America, Australia, South Africa

Ethnicity: White males mainly but there is no specific targeting

The music video that I analysed is by Seether. Seether is a post-grunge/alternative metal band from Pretoria, South Africa, that was formed in 1999. The band is currently signed to wind-up records and musketeer records. Originally named Saron Gas and signed to musketeer records in South Africa, the band changed its name in 2002 coinciding with the release of its second album, and major label debut, Disclaimer. Its associated acts have been known to be with Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Evanescence, Staind, Static-X and Dark New Day.

Shaun Morgan – Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar

Dale Stewart – Base Guitar, Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

John Humphrey – Drums

This is the bands current line up, they have had 15 different line ups since the band was formed.

“Fake it” is the first single from Seethers album “finding beauty in negative spaces”. The single quickly rose to number one on both the billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks charts. It also reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, the second highest of their singles after "Broken", which reached number 20. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA.

The original version of the song was first recorded in singer Shaun Morgan's bedroom and was an iTunes exclusive bonus track named "Quirk," included with pre-orders of Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.

The music video, which was directed by Tony Petrossian, debuted on Seether's website as part of a "worldwide fan premiere" on October 23, 2007, the same day the album was released. It shows Shaun Morgan filming a music video on a plane set, with girls dancing seductively around him. It then goes on to show the band playing in a snowy area and an industrial looking arena surrounded by fans. Each setting is then inundated with various parts of the others, such as having the scantily clad models from the plane dance through the snowy area, revealing all the various music videos to be faked in some way, through the use of props, bluescreen, or computer manipulation, reflecting the theme of the lyrics.

The fact that the entire video is about how people and videos are fake, will attract others that dislike how fake the modern world has become. It also highlights how many music videos are faked and gives a simplified idea of how the process is done. This could also help reinforce the stereotypical view of grunge groups as outsiders, as they are exposing others to be fakes.

The Camera work is a mixture of medium shots, close-ups, extreme close-ups, track shots, pan shots, long shots and zoom out shots. The first 3 shots occur within the first 30 seconds of the video, but also throughout the video. This is to make the Audience focus on the 3 band members throughout the video linking them to the instruments played. The zoom out shot occurs just before the first chorus kicks in. The lighting is low key and high key throughout the video, it changes with each scene. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals are connected in some ways as the song is called fake it and everything that happens in the video is fake. The tempo of the music doesn’t match the tempo of the editing of the music and the visuals do not match all the time, but having said that, every now and again they do. The video is mainly performance based but with also some narrative based.

The analysis shows that the performance is the key part to this video as it promotes the band and their music. You can tell that performance based is what they focused on mainly because throughout the video you pretty much see the band performing all the time.

Textual Analysis

“The purpose and function of music videos in representing an artist.”

Nathan Holliday.

Alex Clare is a relatively new artist to the music industry. “Too Close” which was originally released on the 15^th of March 2011 on the Internet, followed later by being released in his debut album on the 11^th of July 2011. The director of this music video was Keith Rivers.

The artist is being represented as a man or protagonist who is having problems with a relationship or isn’t ready for a commitment in a relationship. We see this in a number of different places in the music video including the visuals and lyrics.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is illustrative of the conclusion of a relationship because for example, when the first chorus begins with the lyrics, “and it feels like I am just too close to love you” the visuals show two heavily padded athletes fighting kendo style who are closely situated together. Although we can clearly see these two figures don’t love each other, the visuals are practically showing the lyrics on screen.

Shortly after this, the following lyrics are sung, “I can’t hide no more”, and while this is sung the visuals show the camera work watching the Kendo warriors from behind a steel post as if the point of view is hiding, the camera then begins to move out away from the steel post to suggest that they can’t hide no longer, perfectly demonstrating the lyrics.

The relationship between the music and the visuals is partly amplifying because as the director Keith Rivers shows through clever editing shows the Kendo warriors through the visuals begin to up their pace of fighting when the temp of the music also increases. By doing this, they emphasize the amplification of narrative behind the music and the music itself.

Another example between the music and the visuals, which supports Andrew Goodwin’s theory of thought beats, this is shown where the warriors are fighting to the tempo of the music. Keith Rivers has edited the video to a brilliant standard allowing us, as the audience to literally watch the music.

The music video represents the artist in a fairly positive way, as the kendo warriors that are fighting represents the protagonists point of view from the relationship, and from this constant argument based relationship, he is being more mature by walking away from the relationship without trying to hurt his partner. We can tell this from the lyrics. 

In summation, this particular music video can be mostly found to be illustrative between the music and the visuals and the lyrics and the visuals, however they can be partially amplifying at times, this is mainly due to the editing work of the director. This music video also supports Andrew Goodwin’s theory. 

Textual analysis

Initial Ideas

Types of music videos

Andrew Goodwin's Theory