Beyonce-Album Advert

This advert is a bit different to the others I have looked at. It still has the front digipack cover on there, but very small and it doesn't grab your attention straight away. This advert uses two of the inlay images, both of which the artist is in very similar poses. one with, and one without makeup. This is showing the transition between the two different looks of one person, bringing out the famous alter-ego.

The colours throughout the advert are constant, with a sepia filter. Although Beyonce isn't fully in the pop genre, it is unusual for pop adverts to have one tone. They are normally more colourful to grab the audiences attention. However this could draw the viewer in as it is different to others and does actually stand out.

The font throughout the large type is the same, with the Sasha Fierce logo which is very well known. Again, drawing in the audience. On the side we see a smaller group of very simple, plain text, this is mentioning the famous songs on the album, also drawing in the audience and advertises the album successfully.

Jessie J-Album Advert

This is Jessie J's advert for her album 'Who you Are'. Is has the same image and logo as the album itself, which is a typical convention for pop adverts. Especially as their album covers get very well known. 

It has an extension on the bottom, however, different to Lana Del Rey it is not an extension of the image. It is plain black, tying in with the colour theme on the artists hair, nails, make up and clothing. This works well as the block colour stands out and the text is therefore enhanced and the audience is drawn into it to read. 

The text is a simple font, easy to read and is using the same colours as the text in the album cover, this creates a sense of consistency and continuity, and advertises her album and songs well.
Once again, the 'legal jargon' is placed at the bottom of the advert, with the logos of the record label.

Lana Del Rey-Album Advert

Although Lana Del Rey is not our exact chosen genre I decided to look at the advert for her album as it is the same as her album cover, but just extended. This is effective because the target audience are most likely to know what the album cover looks like, especially with this one as it is so simple.
There is the same font used for the artist name and the album name, this is going against our conventions for pop digi packs. However the font for the information about the release date and the songs is different and stands out for this reason.

At the bottom of the advert we see the logos of where the album is sold, the artist website and the music label.

The colour of the font and background have swapped for each part of the types-white on blue and blue on white. I like this idea, it makes each stand out separately without changing fonts.

Analysis of Pop Digipacks-Britney Spears

As a group, Bronwyn and I ad analysed the digipack of Britney Spears' 'In the Zone' album. We thought it was good to a get a digipack in real life to analyse as we could see the whole book and look closely at the detail. 

We believed Britney would be a very good example for us to use as she is a huge 'pop princess'. This is her 4th studio album so it is a bit later than the innocent school girl image she was trying to project. The pictures in this digipack are much more sexualised and grown up, as she is trying to enhance her celebrity image on another level at this point in time.

The video of our analysis is on our Wix website: http://nfgsyasminknott.wix.com/yaswynproductions#!videos/cww2

Analysis of Pop Digipacks-Katy Perry

Katy Perry

Teenage Dream

This digipack, I believe, is very typical of a pop digipack. You can tell by the colours and photos of the artist. The digipack is projecting the artists image and this is the main aim for a pop artist.

Image: The image of the artist is quite sexual, we see her naked, laying down in a provocative position. The clouds she is laying on are supposedly made out of cotton candy, sweet things are sometimes portrayed as amorous therefore adding to the sexual image of the artist. Her mouth is slightly parted, adding to the sexual connotations, however this suggests that the album is still about the music and the fact she is a good singer.

Colour: The colours in this digipack are all very similar. Pinks and reds are used, this is also quite typical of a pop digipack and the colours are portrayed as very girly. The blue at the top on the image suggests its at an actual location and makes it a bit more realistic rather than a photo shoot in a studio.


Text: The artists name stands out the most, the font is curly-also a very girly convention, it looks like it has been blown up, perhaps with bubbles or a balloon. This could also be thought of as a provocative image. The album name is made out of sweets, this a theme in the album as you can see that there are sweets used for the 'o's on the back of the album. The sweets give the album a very poppy and girly feel which makes the artist successful in want she wants to portray at this point in time. The album name also looks like it is melting, this could suggest that her 'Teenage Dream', like most, could be slipping away. 

Carly Rae Jepson-Call Me Maybe

I decided to look at this music video as it has very similar themes that we want to create in our music video. It's about a girl crushing on a guy and imagines herself with him. She has a dream in the middle of the song of them two together, we want to portray that story as well. 

Firths music theory can be applied to this as there is performance an narrative to this video. We see the artist singing the song to the audience (and the male character) but we also see a narrative where she is imagining herself with him, and also a story throughout, living everyday life ending up with the male character handing his number to part of the band. The narrative and performance also overlap a lot in the video as we see her singing as we see the story progressing.

We want to apply this to our video, a mixture of performance and narrative, with overlaps, as this is very typical of a pop music video.

Meghan Trainor-All About That Bass (Theories)

Meghan Trainor is our chosen artist so I thought it would be a good idea to look at her other work. She has recently had a very successful song 'All About That Bass'.

Theory

Applying Goodwins theory to this music video it is a very amplified video. It exaggerates the key theme and meaning to the video so much, which is the fact you should be comfortable with yourself an have confidence no matter what anyone says. This could also link to Levi-Strauss' theory that there are binary oppositions within the video. There are clear opposites in this, the main one being thin and curvy but also elements of young and old, and men and women. 

The artist herself is subjective in the video as it is her telling the story and performing rather than watching over the performance. 

Visuals

The video consists of a lot of colour, particularly pastel colours which is very girl-y. This is what a pop video should have, she has kept to the conventions here. Another convention applied in this music video is the performance, there is a lot of dancing which projects a very lively feel to draw the audience in. It often cuts to different scenes of different people dancing and different outfits and different orders, this appeals to the audience as they get to see the artist in many ways and at different angles.

Lyrics
The lyrics are very repetitive in this song, the artist looks at the camera and we see her sing to the important lyrics that she means and the phrases she wants to get out to the audience and her beliefs she wants to portray. These lyrics include one about herself, and the audience, 'every inch of you is perfect', 'I'm no stick thin barbie doll'. You could consider Steve Archer's theory for the use of lyrics in this music video. The artist in this video is the centre of attention (also typical of pop in general) there is lots of close-ups of her lip syncing and dancing, being in the heart of the video, suggesting that the feeling and moods about the song and video are more genuine.

In-Depth Music Video Analysis-Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce

'Telephone'-Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce
I have created a Prezi presentation analysing certain feature of this pop video. I decided to analyse the camera and editing, lighting, costume and props, setting and sound. I did this because I thought this would be useful and appropriate for my research for the coursework.

Pop Music Analysis-Taylor Swift

is a Pop artist who was first established as a country artist but as she has evolved, along with her image she has gone over more to the pop genre. She has been in the public eye since she was about 16 as her debut album was released in 2006. 

A lot of Taylor's songs are about boyfriends, ex-boyfriends and break ups. This is a typical convention for pop music. Her latest released album 'Red', the fourth album from Taylor Swift, had many hit single on it that were in the charts worldwide. This is a typical pop album, the songs feature themes of relationships, being young, family and love.

This video could be seen as a very typical pop music video. It contains a variety of colours, dance choreography, and the artist is centre of attention. These are all typical conventions of a pop music video. It is also a good representation of a pop video as it is all pretend with Taylor in all the different costumes and contains a slight storyline then cuts back to Tylor Swift singing as her normal self. Another typical convention of a pop video is that there is many different shots of the same person (the artist) and dance to enhance the audience's viewing. These shots have a very fast cutting rate, usually with the beat of the song. This music video is a very feel-good video and makes you just want to dance, this is also typical of pop music.

R&B Music Analysis-Beyonce

is an R&B artist who has been in the music industry since her early teens, starting with her girl group 'Girl's Tyme' which was later changed to the name 'Destiny's Child'. Throughout her whole life Beyonce has portrayed herself as a 'strong, independent woman' which is the main theme across her songs.

Throughout her professional career, Beyonce has changed a lot, especially with her new album 'Beyonce', which was released in December 2013. This album was produced with the idea that her fans had now grown up, along with her, and wanted to express her sexuality and exaggerating the idea of feminism and that females are strong and can lead and be powerful. This is probably shown mostly through her song 'Run the World', on Beyonce's 4th album '4', suggesting that women are dominating the world and we can lead. However, on this song 'Pretty Hurts', sexuality, feminism, race etc are all expressed on an extreme level.

We can see the pain on the girls as they attempt many ways to be stick thin and to look perfect. Everyone is prejudiced against Beyonce and turn their nose up at her because she is not stick thin, perhaps even because she's black. This video shows the view of society, everyone thinking you need to be perfect, and shows how people can be upset and even depressed about it.

Towards the end of the video you can see her gain power and confidence and realise that noone actually needs to be perfect. This is a typical convention throughout Beyonce's videos she naturally brings a lot of power and confidence through her music. 

Another music video of Beyonce's that represents all of these conventions but in a totally different way is 'Run the World (Girls)'. The video represents feminism, by a large group of women coming together and standing off the group of men. This also shows that women can be very powerful if they know how to be and, as the title says, girls can be leaders.

In contrast to 'Pretty Hurts' the video shows that women are strong and confident right from the beginning. They don't care what they look like and they become one, unlike the self-conscious, lonely women in 'Pretty Hurts'.




I believe that both videos give off a similar message of feminism, power and beauty but in completely different ways. This is very typical of R&B music and these themes are typical conventions.

Album Cover Analysis-Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne-Tha Carter III

This album cover is very interesting. The image shows a child version of Lil Wayne, the fact that it is a child suggests the innocence of the artist/album and intrigues the audience. The child has tattoos which is illegal and therefore shows there is an element of danger to this album, as it is very unusual the audience is also drawn to the album cover from this as well. The tattoos also show maturity and adult themes within the album. We know that this is a squeal album as it is number three, this suggests to us that the artist has been successful with his previous albums and hints that it will again be a good album, likely to be successful.

The fact that the album is a squeal is shown in a different way with the use of Roman numerals, this also adds a classic, old-fashioned theme to the album. The red and white on black background stand out a lot however it is not the first thing the audience is drawn to with this album. The red text could suggest danger, keeping in theme with the stereotypical view of tattoos as dangerous.

The back cover has the same colour theme of red and white on black but the font for the title changes, this could disturb the audience as it is quite unusual. The image on the back is $100 dollar bills, suggesting to us that the artist is rich or his songs are about money, this could also emphasise the fact that he is successful as this is his third album in this sequence.

Album Cover Analysis-Pharrell Williams

Pharrell Williams-GIRL

In the images we can see Pharrell with three girls in the picture. We can tell he is the dominant person in the picture as he is standing out of line to the others and he is the tallest and we can see the most of him out of all the people in the shot. The fact that he is the only male, black person in the shot also shows that he is dominant, this could mean he has a lot of power and perhaps holds it over these girls. The red head girl may also be considered as dominant as she is the front of the shot and on the back of the album she is the only person with her eyes in view, whilst Pharrells are covered with his iconic hat and the other girls are wearing. The image may also suggest that he is a bit of a 'ladies man' as he is the only male and the album is called GIRL, and is about the most important women in his life.

On the front cover, everyone is wearing sunglasses, hiding their eyes. This hides their emotion and could also be hiding away a secret or something the audience is not supposed to know but want to find out, this would attract the audience to the album.

The title of the album is written in bold capital letters, this shows that the artist really wants to get a message out with this album, as it is about the most important women in his life. The colour yellow is used, this symbolises intelligence, energy, happiness and creativity. One of the songs on the album is called happy so this colour represents the content of this album. The title is repeated again on the back cover in the same way, emphasising further what this title means. The other text is around the picture of the people, emphasising their presence in the album, ensuring they get all the attention and the names of the songs are not as prominent, making the audience want to listen to the album.

Album Cover Analysis-Coldplay

Coldplay-Ghost Stories
The front cover is fairly simple, with a blue, midnight sky in the background with a pair of angel wings in the front. Within the wings there are many small images that mean and represent different things about the songs on the album, this could suggest that a lot of thought went into creating the album cover with meaning and it is very important to the band to get it right. It also sends out a message about the album as a whole, that there is a background story to each song, also suggested by the name of the album 'Ghost Stories'.

The colours are simple. White on a dark, navy blue, this emphasises the impact of the wings over the sea and night sky. The use of just 2 simple colours also has an impact to feel of the album. These colours look mysterious but also create a feeling of melancholy to it as they are fairly plain and dull.

The lack of text on the front cover makes the album stand out, it makes you think what it is and what it's representing. This would make you pick up the album in a shop to find out more about it. The text on the back is very plain and simple, again making this album stand out and intrigue the audience. On the whole album you can't see the name of the band, but they are so well known it is expected of the audience to know what album it is and who it's by. This adds to the mystery and secrecy of the album.