Magazine Music Adverts- Research

As part of our marketing package research I analysed two magazine adverts advertising for a release of an album. I was unable to find an advert with the genre of music being advertised the same genre my band full into Ska- so I analysed two contrasting adverts. This is my first advert that I textually analysed, advertising the album '9' by Damien Rice. The advert features reviews from a range of sources- newspapers to magazines, this maybe communicating that this album is critical acclaimed by a range of reviewers. The advert also features the conventions of a website and record label logo- for the audience to find more info about the artist if they wished. The colour of this advert comes across plan but sophisticated showing that the sound of the album might be mature and easy listening. There is an image in the bottom left- this is the front cover of the album by Damien Rice. The front appears like it has been hand written- communicating that Damien might be a singer songwriter who has wrote the song on his album. I feel the advert is effective as it appeals to its target audience of easy listeners, indie/folk rock and mature listeners.

The Veronicas CD Covers- Research

A personal influence when planning my marketing package were the female pop rock duo The Veronicas. I decided to personally research into their marketing and in particular their albums artwork, and from their album artwork I have gain influences from and ideas for my marketing package. As you can see The Veronicas have a checked squared theme running throughout all their album covers and back covers this is an influence from the Ska and 2Tone genre, so it shows how influences can be brought to the mainstream modern audience and genres are constantly challenging themselves. Also I find the use of colour effective as all the covers are dark but with light colours and some with neon colours. I want to carry the neon colours and checked square theme throughout my marketing package and I want to target an audience like The Veronicas target audience. I will be conforming to Ska conventions however I will be challenging them as I want to revive the genre for a new modern audience in particular a female audience.

Ska CD Cover- Research

The last Ska album I have decided to textually analyse when undertaking my research is a Ska compilation album. I have decided to analyse a compilation album because I wanted to see how the conventions in the genre and different artists/bands would be brought together. As you can see the use of black and white is a clear convention of the Ska genre. This album has also used another colour- orange in its package- this could be showing a slight modernisation to the genre or a progression in the genre. I am attracted to the use of font that they have used for the word ‘SKA’ in the title and I would like to find a font similar to use in my album design. The main image of the cover features a black and white photo of a man playing an instrument which is commonly used in Ska music; the audience can also see the costume that is associated to the genre.

Ska CD Covers- Research

This is the second album cover/back cover I have textually analysed when researching into the Ska genre to gain inspiration and be made aware of the conventions to this genre. Once gain there is the running theme of the use of black and white, however there is a use of red font colour- this might be because they want certain information to stand out or to show a progression in the genre or to show that this band ‘The Specials’ is doing something original with the genre of Ska. There is another silhouette used in this album cover telling me that this is a common convention amongst the Ska genre. The black and white checked squares are used again on the back of the cover- along with the common conventions of an album back cover. There is a main image of the band on the front cover once again suggesting that they want to be original and different with the genre as most Ska genre albums don’t feature an image of the band. I find the integration of black and white effetive on the front cover suggesting that all races are equal and ‘The Specials’ welcomed black people into Ska.

Ska CD Cover- Research

I have begun to textually analyse the genre of Ska/2Tone artwork for the artist/bands album covers and back covers, to gain an understanding of the conventions from this genre to use when creating my marketing package- mainly my DVD cover and back cover. As you can see I have decided to analyse The Selecter’s album ‘Too Much Pressure’. The genre of music is directly told to the audience through the use of the symbol in the left hand corner on the front cover ‘2Tone’. The colours of only black and white are used on the back and front cover of the album- which is a common convention for the Ska genre. Another convention of the Ska genre and a convention which I want to use is the checked square- there are black and white squares running throughout this marketing package. I find the silhouette on the back cover effective and I would like to gain inspiration with the use of silhouette from this album, and use it in a different way/style for my band. There are the common conventions to a back cover of an album- record label, track listings, website etc. I feel this album cover is effective as the audience will know the style of the music from the conventions, with it sitting comfortably in the Ska/2Tone genre.

CD Covers- Research

During class time we textually analysed the music artist Jay-Z's current album 'The Blueprint 3' shown beside, we also analysed his previous album covers over his career to see the change in Jay-Z image and representation as an artist. Studying this artwork we as an audience can see a change in reputation as a mainstream artist, at the start of his career where he has very little control if not any say in how he is representation- he is portrayed with a thug look and close-ups of him, this makes the audience feel slightly intimidated by him. As Jay-Z becomes more successful as a recording artist we see his albums and image develop. This latest album becomes less about his image and more about his music! This is because Jay-Z has more of a creative control over his music and representation. He has become more mainstream and popular showing that what Jay-Z is doing is sell-able. Jay-Z seems to have more control over this now rather than at the start of his career where the record label had all the control. Jay-Z has become a producer not only for himself but for other artist and is more creditable in the music industry than ever before. Is it obvious that Jay-Z wants to bring it back to basic to the music, he wants the audience to forget his image for a second and focus on his sound his music. I feel through this album Jay-Z has gained more respect as an artist.

This is successful and effective for Jay-Z but will be hard for a new band or artist to achieve with the audience having little awareness of who they are. I want a mix of image and music representation for the overall marketing package of my band 'The Madettes'.

Record Label Choice

The chosen record label for our band 'The Madettes' is Island Records UK part of the Universal Music Group. I was attracted to the chose of this label as one of my influences for the bands image in signed to Island Records and that is VV Brown. There is a range of diverse music genres on this record label which influence my chosen genre of music- Ska/2Tone, this record label is also a mainstream record label so it would be able to help with the marketing of my band. When personally researching into record labels I found out that this label was founded in Jamaica just like my genre of music Ska. I felt this direct link and my influences is a successful choice of record label for 'The Madettes'.