Album Poster Analysis

  ACDC are an Australian hard rock bandThis is a poster for the ACDCs album "black ice". The poster is very clear doesn't have any song names which are in that album. The name of the band is written in the centre of the poster and it is in big, bold , red letters. This is because it is a well known band and they don't need to advertise their looks and faces to be recognised. They have used these colours because they are symbolic for the genre of music which is Rock. They've used another font for the name of the album and the font is a lot more smaller but still quite brigand noticeable.

This the ALL TIME LOW's poster for their album Spray. They have used a mid shot of the band to advertise themselves. Also they have used spray paint so audiences can recognise that is for the album spray. The poster is very clear and all you have is a photo of the band and their name. I don't think this poster works as well as the other two because I think they should of added more stuff like songs and other visuals to remind us of their band as they're not so famous.

Justin Jones an American singer. His music is described as electrified country and roots-rock. This is my favourite poster out of all. This is because it has enough information but not too much and also he is not advertising himself but he is advertising the band and the music.  I like the design because it is a visual that audience can recognise and its not just a simple photo of him. It has the name of the album at the bottom in smaller font. He has used 1 font for the entire poster which i think works really well. I think a poster like this would be most approbate for my artist as they don't like advertising themselves. This is because music is more important to them. 

 This is a poster by Joy Division for the album Unknown Pleasures. This is a very interesting poster. The font is very simple and they have used negative space for their image. The image looks like there's mountains in the middle but actually is just white lines going up and down. They have used this style because it expresses their genre of music. It is very simple but interesting at the same time. Joy Division is is and English Rock band however now days it is more post-punk than rock. This is quite an usual rock poster as they have used dark colours and very simple style.

This is another poster I really like.This is because there  is enough information but theres also images  and a design not just photos of the band.   The Script is an Irish pop rock band. The  name of the band is written in their special font /logo .  At the bottom of the poster there is a  n option where you can go to download the album after the 2nd of  September 2012. This makes it more suitable for todays generation because now everyone uses their mobile phones to listen to music  and don't really buy CD's anymore.

Digipak analysis

This is Rihanna's Digi pack for he album 'loud'. She has used herself as the the promotion visual. This is because many people find her attractive and would buy this CD because she is on it ( close-up ) as well as the inside cover is a medium shot of her. The Digipak includes 2 slots for CD's which have a photo of a Very close-up shot of a rose. This is very girly so therefore more girls and women are likely to buy this. 

This is Justin Timbarlake's Digipak. It includes similar features as Rihanna's, however, he has decided to have song lyrics on one of the sides of the digipak. The front cover is a photo of him, this is because a lot of people find him attractive and would attract more audiences. The CD slot inside looks like a mini vinyl. However it is a CD. 

Katy Perry's Digipak is very girly. It includes photos of her and a stripy red and white CD. The CD slot has a cake on it which is more significant for girls rather than boys. She has also used her face to promote her fans, The digipak includes a little booklet with song lyrics and names of songs as well as more pictures of her. 

When creating my digipak I am going to include some photos of my artists but not too many as well as song lyrics and maybe a poster for the fans. 

 This is the digiopak of the band " Muse" . They have used their desinged logo for thei front cover which I like because they are advertising their music not themselves. At the back they have a
photo of them as well as the song listing and some lyrics. They have 2 CD slotsinside which are similar to the fornt cover and behind them there is a photo of some of the band members. The colours are dark which is what you would expect a rock Digipak to look like. The photos have been very well edited and have a high contrast which I like. I want my Digipak to be something similar to theirs.

Jay-Z - 99 Problems Analysis

In this music video, the genre characteristics are making us have sympathy , black people are showed as criminals . There's also a lot of prison references. Religious connotations are being shown but at the same time they're living a gangsta lifestyle with his ' hood' . The music video has been filmed in Brooklyn. The main visuals are people break dancing, dog fighting and one of them gets shot. They are wearing a lot of chains and puffy jackets which is very typical for that area. 

The song makes references to miss treatment to authority. Women are represented as 'bitches' . There are men wearing traditional African clothing which emphasis their respect towards their culture. 

The video has been well edited and its in a rhythm with the beat of the music. They have used a monochromatic filter which represents the mood of the song. 

There are a lot of close ups which makes Jay Z look like a powerful man and like a 'god life figure'.The low shots of the women makes them less important and significant. 
The shooting at the end shows how they are being 'gangsta cool' .  

Music Industry Crisis

Is your Digi pack really going to sell ? 

CD sales are falling each year. The ' product' is now bought online as a single song or album, and exists only as an item on an Ipod, mobile phone or computer.



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1970s AD                          1980s AD                       1990s AD                         Modern
8-track                             cassette                                  CD                                 MP3

In 2009 as much as 95% of the music downloaded online was done illegally. 

Most people in modern days use Spotify or  Apple Music instead of buying CDs. This is because for example on Spotify students get a discount and they could listen to any artist or band. Therefore its more convenient.

The music industry daimed a victory in 2009 when four men behind file-sharing site Pirate Bay were sentenced to a year in jail and ordering to pay 2.5 million pounds in damages for helping internet users to download music, films and computer games without paying for them.

HMV vs Itunes 

The CD goes the way of other defunct formats such as vinyls and tapes.
HMV does not want to sell CDs anymore due to the fact of hardly any sales and having a lot of store closures, even their website couldn't compete with Amazon and Itunes.

DE-COMMODIFICATION 

A commodity always depends for its status and its value on it relative scarcity; once the production and distribution of that commodity become effectively free, then it necessarily loses that value and that status.

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's theory

THEORY

Adorno and Horkheimer adopted the term 'culture industry' as it produced music the same way as manufactures produced vast quantities of consumer goods . They argued that the culture industry exhibited an 'assembly line character' which could be observed in the ' synthetic, planned methods of turning out it's products. ' 

They liked the idea of ' the culture industry' to a model of 'mass culture' in which cultural production had become a routine, standardised repetitive operation that produced undemanding cultural commodities which in turn resulted in a type of consumption that was also standardised, distracted and passive.

Their view of cultural production has, with some justification, often been portrayed as the pessimistic lament of cultural Ellis's who were dismayed at what they perceived to be the homogeneity and vulgarity of 'mass' and taste.

Money makes the system go round thats why they pick stuff that is defiantly going to be liked by the population. Therefore anything new and different is rejected. Culture industry is the same as manufacturing industries. Products were maid according to rationalised organisational producers that were established for the sole purpose of making money.

STANDARDISATION 

Making a formula for something that is going to be very successful. Popular songs now have standards that need to be reached when making.
Hit songs are mechanical and manipulative operation purely by commercial going.

PSEUDO

Adorno and Horkheimer were every critical of what they refer to as pseudo individuality.The way the culture industry assembled producers that made claim to originality but which when examined more critically exhibited little more than superficial differences. 

 Lock and keys- they're all different but exactly the same. 
The whole uniqueness lies only in very minor modification. 

Goodwin's theory

Goodwin's Music Video Analysis Theory :
Andrew Goodwin writing in ' Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge  1992)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. For example stage performance in rock videos and dance routines in pop.
2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. - illustrates, amplifies, contradicts
3.There is a relationship between music and visuals. - illustrates, amplifies, contradicts
4.The demands of the record label will include the need of lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style )
5.There is frequently reference to notion of looking ( screens with screens, telescopes and others ) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6.There is often intertextual reference to (films, tv programmes or other music videos )



In addition to this, we need  to make sure that when including intertextuality it is instantly recognisable from the pop culture.

Time Line of Music Videos

1920's - Jazz musicians such as Bessie Smith started making short to accompany some of their most popular songs

1965- Bob Dylan- Subterranean Homesick Blues was accompanied by a segment of  D.A Pennebaker's film.

1970- The record industry discovered TV-shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists. They focused on producing other promos early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage.

1975-  Bohemian Rhapsody created a groundbreaking video released by Queen which was marked as the beginning of the video era and set the language.
The video included performance in the studio, performance while the artists are playing their instruments, editing and special effects.

1980- By the mid 1980's releasing a music video to accompany a new single had become a standard.

1990-Number of technical codes became common:

• More common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut and montage.
• Many images impossible to gasp on first viewing thus ensured multiple viewings 
• Split screens, colourasation 

 However, as the genre developed music video directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video.