Album Cover Analysis

Album Cover Conventions
Typical Features

• Cover Art
• Album Title
• Band Name
• Track List
• Brand Style - Band/Label
• Label
• Legal/Institution Information
• Barcode
• Stickers - Review/Features/Price Deal/No1 Album?
• Parental Guides?
• Band Members/Producers = Credits

Categories

• Cover Art - Art/Photography/Design/Mixed
• Cover Subject - Band(or Artist)/Design/Other Subject (Photo/Art of something. i.e. Prodigy Crab)
• Genre - Follow Genre conventions
• Target Audience - Tied in with Genre
• Release Date - In fashion of time

Purpose

• Band image/identity - Brand promotion
• Show information
• Stand out on shelves
• Make genre clear

The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

Revolver was the seventh album released by The Beatles, and was the first studio only album released. The Beatles by now where a well established band and where superstars on both sides of the Atlantic. However they where up till this point a pop band, and this album marks the begining of the change in scene and brand for The Beatles. From Revolver The Beatles moved into a more rock and psychadelic music genre, and changed their image from young pop lads to older more mature rock band. The focus moved to the music and they stopped touring.

This album cover was really used to staple this and demonstrate it to the fans...

The cover features an art piece which uses illustration and photography put together in a collage, with pen and ink stlye drawings by artist Klaus Voorman, which uses only the faces of The Beatles themselves and does not even feature the band name, instead only the ablum title. This is due to the fact that they where already such a brand themselves. The style is artistic and the entire colour scheme only consists of black and white, this is perhaps to conote an indy, arty style. The style really moves away from their previous, pop orientated style. The reason this is so obvious is due to the huge ommission of having a large band photograph, which until Revolver had been the on going style/brand through The Beatles. The reverse of the album features a black and white photo of the band recording, again tying in with the black and white style of the front, and with the focus on studio recording and the music, which was evolving quite drastically for this album. The last thing to note about this album cover is that all the written information, is in plain, simple black font. I think this is tying in with the simplicity of the album style, and the image it is working to convey, of a mature band.

I think that the Revolver album cover is not only a very good album cover, but is also an iconic album cover. I think the style is refined and the cover is a very good piece of design/illustration.

Myspace Analysis

Lilly Allen
http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic

Lilly Allens myspace is a simple site, which has a plain black background; with a photograph of Lily and small simple white writing. I think perhaps Lilly is trying to mature as an artist, and is moving away from her previous more pop orientated style. Her site is very much trying to be all about the music, and is covered in equalizers and vinyl. She lists herself as pop / ska, and I think this is again because she wants to ease away from pop. One thing she has maintained however is her dress sense, as she still wears large colourful dresses, as her way of being individual and unique. One thing about her space is that it seems to be very peronal and she seems to have a relatively close relationship with her fans.

Her space features a large banner for her latest album and gives the options for her fans to buy it online. Her space also features lots of her latest singles music videos, embedded from youtube.com. I think this is her trying to be almost welcoming to new fans withher music in a try before you buy sense, but in no way does she not want it to also be bought after as her site is littered with banners to buy the album.

La Roux

http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk

La Roux is a relatively new aternative/electro female singer/musician, who has quickly grown popular on the back of a few pop singles, released earlier this year. Her space is full of lots of very flashy banners and applications, with built in videos and posters. She uses a bright, neon style, almost cabaret inspired layout and font, on a plain black background. This is in an attempt to seem edgy and unique. She doesnt want to seem as shallow as a pop artist, but does not want to alienate the pop audiences.
Aside from this the space doesnt seem too personal to her fans, its really an info site, and doesnt look like she really put it together or has much input on a regular basis. I think this may be as a result of her coming up in a very mainstream way, through a major label contractl; rather than a band like Arctic Monkeys or Lily Allen, Whos myspace would have been pivotal for their music careers, and who therefore have a much larger input into their spaces, and more contact with fans through it.

Arctic Monkeys
http://www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys

The Arctic Monkeys, like Lily Allen, used like myspace to launch and promote their music and band, and to comunicate and listen to their fans. So they have been using myspace for years. Resultedly their myspace seems to be ahead of other artists myspaces, and seems to have minimalised, and have moved away from the usual mass of information, and instead, has a large minimalist banner, and only gig information, and a few videos, however no band information like that an upcoming band might have. They are popular enough to do this now, as they dont need to promote as much anymore. Their new style and revamped graphic image is a black and white, artistic style, which I think is much like Lily Allen, to keep things fresh and to keep moving ahead of the pack.

The space is effective in conveying the style of the band, and being an interesting space. I think that Arctic Monkeys a definately innovators on mypace and continue to move ahead and lead the pack.

4Ps

1. Summarising in your own words what the 4Ps of music marketing are. Use the following categories:
a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
You can purchase their music, in Audio or Video form, from CD to DVD to Record to BluRay. Online content is also growing as bands allow more and more sharing of content online.
b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?
Listening is really possible anywhere and is down to audience discretion, and this includes live and non live listening. Audiences can buy the music at high street retailers, and online. there are really so many options of where to buy it online or off. Other free options include radio and myspace.
c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.
- Spotify 9.99 a month for no ads
- Itunes pay as you buy rather than subscription
- Illegal torrents and filesharing such as limewire
d) List examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).
The Streets: a crop circle was made of Mike Skinners face to promote the new album. He also gave away free songs to his fans via Twitter.


2. Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos

Frukt UK are a music marketing agency. They create and develop ideas that use music as a means of marketing.
Mission Statement:
“We’re all about music and are really very fond of it. Music colours people’s everyday lives…We help brands access the passion and the communities, the lifestyle and the artists.”

The Streets

Newest...

Oldest...

1) Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

The Streets was originally an underground UK Garage/HipHop group made up of 4 members. Originally the group set out to push the UK garage/hip hop scene in a new direction, and made a relatively quick rise to fame with their critically acclaimed debut 'Original Pirate Material'. However following the release of this album the group split leaving only Mike Skinner, as a solo artist. Skinner held on to The Streets name and has continued making music to date. The music has slowly developed into a more mainstream style and has become less garage, however The Streets still recieve much critical acclaim.

2) Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

The core audience of The Streets was originally young working class males, this is probably due to the garage genre, and due to their ability to connect withy the young, male, working class Skinner.
The branding is really aimed at attracting this audience by a way of familiarity and by retaining an earthly, realistic feel rather than some artists which very much throw their wealth at the audiences in their advertising and album covers. Skinners albums show council estates, bus stops and other mundane settings to appeal to his fans and show where he came from. Even when he gets richer he manages to keep in touch by showing that he has not changed, and the covers reflect this. They build up to him having a rolls royce, but he is still scruffy and is wearing clothes that his fans might wear, like jeans. The Streets logo and the label logo are both of a Lighter, something that is very familiar to the fans. Something that has become a bit of an icon.

3) What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of strategies can you list? (above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

• Website: skinnermike.com – it’s the official website and blog of The Streets

4) Add any relevant links to your blog, especially Myspace page/music vids/official websites etc. A couple of illustrations (e.g key web design graphics/album cover photography) would also be useful to add to your blogs
^ above^

• Myspace.com/thestreets - he posts new music and up and coming gigs etc.
• Twitter – Mike Skinner gave away 3 free songs to fans
• Youtube – all his songs are up there.
• He faked his house being re-possessed as a publicity stunt for an album launch
• There was a crop circle made of his face, again to promote an album launch.

Carol Vernallis Work

She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However, this is predefined for us by the Director - we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director's choice than we do in film - do you agree?

Not so much with her theory that we focus on different parts of the song. I think that listeners generally listen to the beat and bass fo the most, and then listen to the next most prominant part - i.e. lryics or melody or solo or whatever. I think that directors do force what they want even more on us in music video. But this I believe is purely for marketability and branding purposes, rather than them conveying something to us (other than the brand).

She says music video experience is more like listening than viewing - do you agree?

Definately. I think that few videos are good enough to keep people watching with a bad song (personal to viewer), and for this reason I believe that its not for viewing which people enjoy the music videos. Im sure they enhance listening, but its not about the video at the end of the day. (like i said there are a few videos which say otherwise)

"We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame" - Agreed?

Errr.. yes. This is true with any type of film. Im not sure to what extent this is relevant in music video. Close-ups show everything they need to, to convey music video. There is not much importance to things out of the frame I reckon. Perhaps there is more so in heavy narrative based videos.

The music video "brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us" - do you agree?

If it means that music videos tend to offer us familiarity before fully engrossing us into the video, then yes. We are clear of the artist and song before things really get going. Music videos do establish that much.

Is the viewer "sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through the editing"?

The editing of a music video has to be the most important part. It is something which can alter meanings and moods, while also making or breaking music videos. As many videos are made up of narrative and performance, the editing must find the balance it wants and portray the meaning.

Music video is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective - agreed?

Definately. Conceptual videos in particular allow the viewer to see and and understand things as they like. Analysing a musci video is a very personal thing and is very opinion based.

Carol Vernallis believes the image alone cannot tell the story - do you agree?

I also agree with this. Music which works with the story is a staple of a good film, however music which does not fit as well is a negative. The use of music is necessary to add emotion/mood and rtain the viewers attention.

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is a director who has worked alot in skateboard films, advertising and music videos, and has directed one feature film (Being John Malkovich, 1999) and is currently working on the film 'Where the Wild Things are'. He has become well known for his originality and style, and has made many very interesting music videos. Personally I love his work and it has been one of my biggest inspirations in film, and in the build up to this project.

These are two of his music videos which I think are effective and have in some way influenced me, I do not intend to copy straight from these videos but the real influence is the originality of these videos and how Jonze works as a director.

Wax - Southern California

This concept based video is extremely unusual, it revolves around a running man on fire, and that is really the only subject of the music video. It is shot in only one shit, a long maintained shot which slowly zooms out to reveal more, and it is shot in a track to the side of the subject. Then at the end the burning man runs off and the camera turns to reveal a very bored looking girl daydreaming in her car, this could be why noone particularly reacted to the burning man. It is also reference to childhood, a theme which is always present in the work of Spike Jonze.

I like the video because it is so simple, yet so powerful. I think that it shows how videos can be shot simply and edited simply and cheaply.

Drop - Pharcyde

Also concept based, Jonze films the video and then reverses it for effect, however the concept element is used in synergy with the performance aspect of the video. Again Jonze uses only one shot, cutting only to move location quickly. This video relies on the performance and to take full advantage of the reverse play editing Jonze has his performers do things which look interesting backwards.

I like this video because of the originality and simplicity, a bit like the previous video. I think that even though the video is quite repetetive and does not change much the audience is still drawn in to the end.

Spike Jonze's directing is all about subject and concept, he uses minimalistic camerawork and editing which takes a backseat and does not interfere with the audiences interaction with the subject. In terms of how we can be influenced by his style and direction, he always uses a cheap homemade look, using minimal equipement, he tends to shoot his music videos using the streets as his location with people still around and he does not use much if any narrative. All of these are things we can do, for example the way he allows his videos to interact with their surroundings and the people around is something we can do, as we may aswell work with our surroundings as we cant shut off roads or anything like that, if we decide to shoot out in the street.

Lip Sync Test

This is a lip syncing test video I shot with my group (danni & hannah) to really try to practise and get to grips with lip syncing and some editing basics. We also wanted to learn about the performance side of things, like what not to do and how to direct actors.
While I wasnt orignally happy with the song choice we went ahead with it nonetheless because it was not so much about song choice but more about practise.
We used around 5 full song takes to film the video in its entirety, and that involved 3 solo shots each of us), and 2 varying shots of the dance shots. I think that performancewise we did sufficiently to test lip syncing but I wouldnt use any of us in our final project. ( I think thats fair)
In all our test came out well and we got positive feedback and compliments for our editing and songchoice (which worked well with our group). So I think that the test was a success. We had enough variation and familiarity to make an interesting muic video.

Another video to look at...

This is the video for Run Everything by Charlie Sloth. Ive posted it because I like some of the things that have been done to make it look good. Firstly, on a production basis its extremely simple; one take, along one road (bridge) in an easy shot. However its made more interesting with a few techniques.

The first, I think, is the camera settings. I think that the fps was turned down on the camera, and that gave the video its stylised unusual feel. (Which is a kind of jerky blurred look - I think it works)

Next the performers have worn simple, brightly coloured clothing so that in editing the colours can be changed. This is important because I think every music video should work with the beat of the song, otherwise it can be left looking distant from the music.

I think that the result is a video which is easily created on a budget of zero (if you are already a filmmaker - have a camera and editing software + hardware), and on top of this is effective and entertaining. I think that this video is a good inspiration for the planning part of our production as there are elements we can be influenced by.

Some more videos...

As much as this song really annoys me, I think the video is kind of brilliant...

I remember seeing this video a really long time ago and it really shocking me. I think its really different and interesting.

I love the guy thats does the tricks on the crutches, who was recently in a Barclays advert. And i think he is a really interesting person to basea music video on.

Two good We are Scientists videos, directed by The Lonely Island (best known for their new album, Incredibad i.e. I'm on a Boat). More use of plot in these. There a more like It's a hit and After hours, and they are also on youtube.


I think here I have covered lots of styles of music video. For example videos with a strong sense of plot, videos without any plot at all and videos which are just surreal and unusual. All can be effective and I think that is demonstrated here.
When thinking about my own project I am really inspired by The Lonely Island videos, which are interesting plots, and also very nicely shot.

Wombats - Lets dance to Joy Division

Lyrics:

I'm back in Liverpool and everything seems the same
But I worked something out last night
That changed this little boy's brain
A small piece of advice that took 22 years in the make
And i will break it for you now
Please learn from my mistakes
Please learn from my mistakes

Let's dance to Joy Division and celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong but we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division and raise our glass to the ceiling
Because this could all go so wrong but we're just so happy
Yeah we're so happy

So if you're ever feeling down grab your purse and take a taxi
To the darker side of town that's where we'll be
And we will wait for you and lead you through the dancefloor
Up to the DJ booth you know what to ask for you know what to ask for

Go ask for Joy Division and celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong but we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division and raise our glass to the ceiling
That this could all go so wrong but we're so happy
Yeah we're so happy

Let the love tear us apart I've found a cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart
So let the love tear us apart I found a cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart

Let's dance to Joy Division and celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong but we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division and raise our glass to the ceiling
That this could all go so wrong but we're so happy
Yeah we're so happy

So happy yeah we're so happy....!

The song, i believe is more of a homage than a parody, to the infamous rock band Joy Division, who became infamous for the lead singers major depression, and subsequent suicide. Which is something many people found ironic due to the name of the band. Thats why this song talks about celebrating the irony. The next part I highlighted was where it says Let the love tear us apart, which is the name of single which Joy Division released.

Even though the whole song is a homage to Joy Division, it is not something I would try to incorporate to the video, as this would be tricky, instead I would use a more conventional Narrative/Performance style video.

The Idea:

The video begins, without the music, and at a bus stop in liverpool. At the bus stop there is a young trendy couple, in their early twenties, and both look very indie, much like the style of the wombats. The couple are argueing, and it is clear this is the end of their relationship. The girl pushes the boy in the chest and walks away as the music starts.

We cut to the Wombats who are just begining to perform the song, at a gig which looks very exciting and is full of lots of colourful indie kids dancing around. There is lots of strong lighting to make the mood of the gig very jolly.

Then the girl starts walking down the street sobbing about the arguement, and we cut between the two scenes for a while while the music builds up.

The girl eventually gets to the entrance of the gig where she looks in to see the exiting gig in full swing. Still looking upset she walks in. Slowly she starts to cheer up and dance and get into the mood of the gig. As she dances more and more she moves towards the front of the audience, until she is right in front of the band. The lead singer picks her out of the crowd and so she is dancing next to him as he sings the end of the song.

It has all built up to this where she looks careless and happy as he finishes the song, and this is where the video ends.

Some Music Videos I like...

These are just a few music videos i like based purely on the video itself, and in most cases these tend to be graphics and animations based. And I know its probably important to be researching live action videos. So I'll do live action research another time.

Just love this video so much...
I enjoy pretty much any Gorillaz music video because of the style.
The style of this one really works with the song.
A collaboration of loads of popular viral videos...