Analysing album covers- The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses was the debut album by English rock band The Stone Roses, released on Silvertone Records in 1989. It solidified the band's reputation among critics, and is still rated as one of the most influential albums.

As with most of the Stone Roses' releases, the cover is a simple but meaningful piece of artwork designed by John Squire. It was influenced by an artwork by action painter Jackson Pollock titled "Bye Bye Badman", the artwork which makes a reference to the May 1968 riots in Paris. The cover was named by Q magazine as one of "The 100 Best Covers of All Time."

Squire had said:

"Ian Brown had met this French man when he was hitching around Europe, this bloke had been in the riots, and he told Ian how lemons had been used as an antidote to tear gas. Then there was the documentary—-a great shot at the start of a guy throwing stones at the police. I really liked his attitude."

Analysing album covers- The xx

'Coexist' is the second studio album by the English indie pop group The xx.

 

The album features a minimalist musical style and experimentation with tension, simple chord progression, sketchy guitar patterns, slight grooves, keyboard ostinatos, and fading motifs. Coexist is about heartbreak, loneliness, and intimacy. Croft and Sim's lyrics address failing relationships and the changes in  romance with inner monologues and metaphors.

The album's title was inspired by their idea for the cover artwork, which depicts an iridescent oil spill in the shape of an "X", a variation on the group's white-on-black "X" logo. Croft compared the mixture of oil and water to her holistic view of the group, saying in an interview:

"You see a puddle of petrol on the floor — it can look sort of beautiful with the colors that come through it. I looked it up on Google or whatever, and it said oil and water don't mix, they peacefully coexist? And that's what it is when you see those colors. I liked that idea: those two things coming together to make something more beautiful than they are. And I liked the idea of us three coming together; only when the three of us are together, that's when it exists."

Audiences

The Internet is increasingly becoming the most prominent way to reach and broaden audiences. Websites such as YouTube are the main way to gain more audience and get new fan bases around the world. Websites that sell music and also offer downloading are beneficial for independent bands and third party retailers as they provide an opportunity to expand the customer base and also increase their income. The effectiveness of a music sales website depends on many factors, such as the type of music that is sold, the variety of different styles of music available to the audience, and also the overall design, options and security that are available to the online buyer.

For those that are not on the Internet, most commonly older generations, newspapers and television adverts promote music videos, new songs by new bands, new album releases and often make them appeal to a wider audience. This is an effective way of expanding audiences as a band or new music video is promoted by more than one for of media.

Vox Pops

Here is a selection of spoof vox pops featured on the comedy show A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie. Although we laughed at what was being said, the clips are somewhat useful in showing how vox pops are shot, ie. camera angles and what parts to show.

Below are the Vox Pops we filmed. We asked questions such as:

Do you watch music videos?

What is your favourite music video?

Where do you watch music videos?

What do you like about music videos?

What makes a great music video?

From the feedback we received, we concluded that most young people watch music videos on YouTube, and the variety of genres is quite varied.

Analysing a Digipak

A Digipak can give the veiwer and/or potential customer an small idea as to the general genre and 'vibe' of the music. Generally, the Digipak matches the usual vibe that it's genre has already been using.

What is a Digipak?

A Digipak is the packaging for an album, usually consisting of a outer binding with plastic trays that can hold a CD attached to the inside. Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums. This type of packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, so it tends to show signs of wear more quickly. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s.
There are a general set of conventions that are expected to be found on it, such as:
Track list
Barcode
Record company logo
Disk impression and separate disk design
Six panels
A spine with the Artists name and album
A picture of the band on the inside.

Example of a Digipak





Example of a jewel case

Editing our Vox Pop

In the editing process we will make the Vox Pops brief and to the point. At the beginning of the sequence we will show the interviewer asking the questions then show the interviewees answering them, meanwhile the question will be captioned at the bottom of the screen, along with the interviewees name, age and occupation.