CD cover analysis 2: Muse's 'Absolution'

The name of the artist is Muse, this connotes that are trying to inspire their target audience in a creative manner. 

The artwork can either been seen as people coming down to Earth or leaving the Earth, it's open to interpretation. Absolution means forgiveness which relates to the image as the person is looking up to the sky. This fits in to the eerie theme of the front cover which is a postmodern look. Their sound is futuristic which matches the dystopian nature of the cover.

Rapture is when god decides who goes to heaven at the end of the world. All the silhouettes have been absolved (absolution) and have left him which is what comes to mind when the target audience view the front cover. 

The font is a sans serif which typically is known to stand out more. However, the colour of the font they have used instead blends in to the background image. The logo is iconic and recognisable to the target audience as it always uses the same font has two bold lines, one on top and one below the name of the band.  

The man on the front cover is not a member of the band. This is a conscious decision from the band because they want to be seen as organic and do not want to sell their records through their image. The physical appearance of the model is disheveled, his hair is in a mess and his clothes are dusty.

The dominant image on the front cover is the gas mask held in his hand. Although the audience cannot identify the object in his hands, they can only identify it through the shadow on the floor with the eye holes and the breathing mask. This differentiates from the pattern made by the rest of the shadows which is not completely symmetrical emphasising they are all different bodies.The record labels for this album cover are mushroom records and A&E records. 

The artist fits into the genre of alternative rock or progressive metal music, which would appeal to a late teen/early adult (16-24) predominately male based target audience as they like to go to festivals and enjoy more guitar based music.

The Absolute cover is similar to the Texas In July album cover. As the image is very similar with connoting the same meanings. 

Pierce the Veil Star image

Similarly, the band members look at the camera to try and get a connection with them to increase their fanbase. Perfect Fall have their guitars over the backs and we see instruments, illustrating their an organic artists. This was important that Perfect Fall were portrayed as organic artists so they can compete with other similar artists and it is more suited to this genre.  

In the Post hardcore genre, there are screaming parts of the song and this is also normally portrayed in photoshoots. Like pierce the Veil screaming in their photoshoot, we also got Bennie to do some photos with his mouth open looking at the camera. This shows similarities between Perfect Fall and Pierce the Veil.  

Having long hair is very popular in the post hardcore genre, Bennie and Tristan in particular both have the long hair which appeals to the emo target audience.

Star image analysis 1: Sleeping with sirens

Sleeping with sirens are an American post-hardcore band who were formed in 2009 who have changed and developed during their music career. There are 5 current members of the band, and 7 former members of Sleeping with sirens. The bass, guitarist, drummer and singer all changed in 2009 and were replaced by the current members, Kellin Quinn, Justin Hills, Gabe Barham and Jack Fowler. And more recently in 2013, Nick Martin replaced Jesse Lawson in the rhythm guitarist.

Sleeping with sirens share the same genre with Pierce the Veil being in the American post-hardcore genre and started to be successful in the American market, and soon after spread worldwide as they are currently doing a world tour.

Each band member pulls a face in their photoshoot, and the audience sees this as them enjoying themselves and not too concerned about their image.

Their style is fitting to the genre, as they are wearing dark clothes, have tattoos and piercings, which are shown clearly during their photoshoot. This is showing their rebelliousness which appeals to their target audience of teenagers. The lead singer in the middle is also fulfilling the stereotype star image of the post hardcore genre by wearing a hat, having long hair, wearing all black and having tattoos. This would then appeal their target audience who aspire to be them, who also have tattoos and piercings.

Like Sleeping with Sirens, we asked to do a photoshoot of Perfect Fall with their instruments as both artists are organic bands. Sleeping with sirens have a photoshoot performing whereas the picture we took of Perfect Fall was just them holding their insrtuments. I have also noticed that in the images of artists with their instruments they do not directly look at the camera, whereas without the instruments they usually do.  

When doing the photoshoot with Perfect Fall, we wanted to recreate our artists to fit in to the genre. Perfect Fall pose similar to Sleeping with sirens, showing that they look professional and can compete in this market. Bennie from Perfect Fall also wears and has a similar coat to Kellin Quinn and they both pull it off in the same style with the collar up. This shows that the fashion style between the two bands is similar, and we have re-created the look and put it into a new and upcoming band.

Target Audience Research

When researching our target audience, there is no fixed definition of defining who our target audience are. Our target audience is 15-25 year olds who are known as goths and/or emo's. In order to be certain of the groups we are targeting, it was important to get a variety of definitions in order to ensure and understand in detail as to who they are and the interests they hold.

 

What are the main differences between goths and emo's?

 

Goths

 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a goth as "a performer or fan of goth music, or anyone who adopts a similar appearance, typically through the use of dark eye make-up and pale skin colouring, dark clothes, and bulky metallic jewellery".

Goth.net, one of the most active forums on goth culture, acknowledges the role of dark clothing but rejects the notion that goths have the same musical and fashion tastes. Central to their definition is "free-thinking and rejection of dogma".

Goth is associated with Gothic rock, which dates back to the early 1980’s as an alternative music and culture movement. Goth is related traditionally to dark themes of which Gothic architecture in Europe is cited symbolically. Both the emo and Goth movements relate art to being through personal expression methods.

 

EMO's

Emo stands for “emotional hardcore,” a type of punk rock music that evolved out of Washington DC in the mid 1990’s. Emo or emotional hardcore was an attempt by a number of bands to experiment with chaotic music patterns and personal expression in abstract and primal ways.

The OED's definition of emo is purely musical: "derived from hardcore punk music and characterised by emotional, usually introspective lyrics".

Similarities and differences between Goths and Emo's
 

While people might have certain assumptions about the way emos dress, precise delineations are not clear. They often dress similarly to goths, but the emo fashion for spiky, coloured hair and studded clothing seems to show punk influences

"Goths and emos are in some ways quite similar - they both centre upon dark themes and wear dark colours and often eyeliner. The goth style draws on horror imagery, and both sexes often favour a 'feminine' style." - Paul Hodkinson, Sociologist.

 

The Emo and Goth movements both represent sub cultures in post-industrial or post-modern civilization.

 

 

They differ mostly in the sense of expression of music and emotions. Though they both belong to the same genre of music but their expressions and cultural inclinations set them apart. Their thinking and influences on music also differ.

 

Emo rockers preach release of primal energy with abstract and chaotic sub structures while Goth are recognized by emphasis on darkness in their tone, dress, hair dyes, make up, emotion, etc.

Emo's and Goths are the target audience for music magazines such as 'Kerrang', 'Rock Sound' and 'emo'.

Overall I have learnt that in order to help promote 'Perfect Fall', we need to market it to these specific audiences. As they are an up and coming band, in order to market them to the audience we could do this through asking magazines such as Kerrang, Rock Sound and emo to interview the band and do an article on them as the readers are the same target market.
Also, it is essential that the star image of Perfect Fall will match the audiences' needs. We will do this by getting the lead singer to show his aggressive emotions as this has been done by similar artists from lead singers in the bands sleeping with sirens and pierce the veil.

Overall we have carried out both primary and secondary research into our audience which has helped us know what we need to include in our cohesive package in order for it to appeal to our target audience.   

The Iconography of the album cover

The art of the album cover includes part packaging, part advertising, and most art covers allows us to have an insight into the artists view. The best album cover art illustrates the music and links to the lyrics in a way that creates the whole product. Julian house speaks about how most of the direction for the album must be taken from the artists and this usually involves sit down discussions where the artist gives ideas, then the create people go off and present visuals. House also explains how the album sleeve is an entry point into the universe that the music is in. Special packaging with art on sells well to a specific audience. Although most music is consumed virtually, there is still a large amount of people who collect art albums which is a market niche.

Album cover art can be extremely varied utilising photos, graphics, typography or any combination of these. As a type of media text, it can be de-constructed like any other. When analysing it, we  can use the same tools we'd use to analyse and understand any media text.

It is important to think about who the audience is for any given text and how they respond to it. Album covers are made to essentially promote the album, they are made to be eye catching and intriguing and to tell us something about the artist who made the album. Artwork on an album cover is likely to attract a wider audience than it would have done previously as it will sell to more music fans in general and not only their existing fan-base. Album covers may denote or connote the meaning behind the album and the lyrics to the songs depending on the image. A sign is a representation that refers to something else and has meaning. A code means the structure of how signs are organised into systems to make meaning. They are usually divided into the technical and the symbolic, there are also written codes that included the use of language and text layout.

Composition and framing focuses on the construction of the album cover. The composition and framing considers how the light, shadow and colour contribute to the image of the album cover. We refer to conventions as established ways of doing things, for example established forms of presenting and image. It can be helpful to examine how closely any given image tracks the conventions you'd associate with it, for example a post hardcore album sleeve might conventionally use horror imagery such as skull and cross bones with dark colours.

Clothing and styling the cast

When researching other bands and what they ware in their music videos in the post hardcore genre, it is very common that band members wear their own merchandise. This helps to promote their official merchandise to their fan base which encourages further sales. We didnt want all our band members to wear the merchandise but in order to still style them in the post hardcore genre, we told them to wear dark clothes. The official band merchandise they would wear would be supplied by us, the company, and the other dark clothes they wear would come from high street retailers. We also told the lead singer to put a bit of make up too to add to the image of the band. 

Lighting

I have researched a number of different similar artists to Perfect Fall in the same genre and after watching their music videos it was important that I looked at the lighting during the performance based. most colours are dark, and the lighting is also uses back lights or filler lights only. It is rare in this genre that high key lighting is used in the performance part of the music video. It is clearly obvious that nothing too bright is used in their videos. 

Pierce the Veil

Sleeping with sirens

Pierce the Veil

All Time Low

Photographic evidence- My contribution to the group in a moodboard

Website analysis 1- All Time Low

Costume list

Below is the costume list of the two days of filming. We told our band members to come in band merchandise clothing and generally dark clothes to fit in with the genre. 

Prop list

Below we made a prop list of the following objects we needed for the two days of shooting:

Shooting Schedule

We filmed the music video footage across two days. The first day we shot the narrative, and day two we shot the performance part of the music video. Here are the following production schedules for the two days of filming.

Our shooting schedule for day 1 of filming

Our shooting schedule for day 2 of filming