Genre Research

I have chosen two bands that are of a similar genre to our artist, "Two Door Cinema Club" which is of the indie genre of music. I will analyse theses artists websites and promotional material and compare them to the ideas we have for our band and how we can incorporate typical features of that genre into our material.

The first artist that has a similar genre and style as our artist is Vampire Weekend, an indie rock band from New York City signed to XL Recordings. Their latest album "Contra" is shown here:
As you can see the house colours are muted, light colours such as pale yellow, violet and white. The mixture of pale colours suggest a wealthy, vintage theme especially with the young woman wearing Ralph Lauren polo shirt that doesn't appear to be new. The large, straught edged font contrasts to the vintage look to make it stand out against the muted background. The woman fills nearly all of the space on the cover, with her eyes staring directly at the audience engaging them with the cover. However, she is set back from the text showing her lack of importance against the artists name and album name.






This is Vampire Weekend's website. They've clearly displayed the woman on their album cover again on their website, to tie the two together and establish the brand identity. They've focused on the eyes to draw the audience in again but placing the text over her face so people concentrate on what's being said. They've used hyperlinks on "click to buy", "listen" and "lyrics" to allow people to fully engage with the new album and give them as many opportunities as possible to view it before buying it, therefore gaining repect from their audience. The house colours are shown again here to provide consistency across their products, and as the image is zoomed in we can see the grainy effect of the picture, reinforcing the vintage theme.

Friendly Fires also has a similar genre and style to our artist, they are an indie-dance band and also signed to XL Recordings. Their latest, self titled album is shown below:
This album cover is very different to that of Vampire Weekend's. The house colours are considerably darker; black and dark green, however white is also incorporated here to act as a contrast to the dark colours. The typography is simple and delicate, an opposition to the striking image below it. The broken shards of the mirror seem to be reflected a natural scene, blurred through editing, with what looks like a snake behind it. I believe the idea behind this album is to allow the audience to decipher it how they wish as it's a confusing and subjective image. Maybe this is a reflection of their music?






The artists website links well with their album cover, establishing their brand identity. The same delicate font used for the logo is used again here, and the same shards of glass and splattered paint are used to relate the two together further. The dark, earthy house colours are also shown again in their website, establishing a connection between the website and album cover, one that the audience would remember and recognise as theirs.

Through the analysis of other artists of a similar style and genre to mine, i can see that similarities between both my ancillary tasks is pivotal for establishing a brand identity for the artist and also the audience im aiming my product at.

The Online Revolution

Here i will be comparing the ways in which two different artists have promoted their material. Lily Allen has used the interent to promote her music and image and here's how:

Lily Allen

Lily's myspace page is what got her recognised and propelled into stardom. She made this page on the popular social networking site near the end of 2005, and by 2006 she was signed to Regal Recordings. The style and design of the page was a reflection of Lily's personality and music which attracted the likes of teens and members of record companies looking for the next "big thing". Lily set the standard for many other artists on myspace, all vying for attention from an audience and record labels, pulling out all the stops to set themselves apart. Allen benefited a great deal from the online revolution, generating a loyal fanbase who witnessed her rise to fame and stayed with her through critical judgement. Lily capitalized on the growing concept of internet popularity and because of it has become am award winning musician, talk show host and actress.

Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol are a band with a very different success story. Their fame was achieved through tireless gigs and self promotion, in other words traditional methods of promotion, opposed to the online revolution as used by Lily Allen. Snow Patrol formed in 1994 and weren't successfully signed to a record label until 2002 with Polydor Records. Before they were signed, the band spent years doing gigs at unis, shoddy clubs and even nominated themselves for a mercury prize (unsuccessfully). After many failed attempts, Snow Patrol finally rose to fame in 2003 with their major label debut "final straw", making all their hard work worth while.

The introduction of the online revolution gives audiences and artists a wider range of opportunities. It's made the way audiences consume music more interactive, therefore engaging a wider audience within todays youth. This broader audience spectrum means a larger revenue for the artists to gain resulting in more moeny to spend on promotion. It's also a much more quicker solution to promotion than self-promotion, and allows artists to be more creative with their image and how they're portrayed.

Goodwin's Theory

Applying Goodwin's theory to my music video production means including the following:

1. Demonstrating genre characteristics, e.g. a dance performance for girl/boy band.
2. A relationship between lyrics and visuals e.g. illustrating a relationship or contradicting it.
3. A relationship between music and visuals e.g. illustrating a relationship or contradicting it.
4. A visual style, e.g. close ups of the artist ans star image motifs which occur throughout the artists work.
5. A frequent reference to the notion of looking e.g. the voyeuristic treatment of a woman in an R'n'B video.
6. An intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).

Current CD Cover Design Analysis

This is a CD cover design by the band "Goldfrapp". As you can see they've based the concept for the design solely on the artists image. The lead singer features heavily on the cover and shows that she is an important selling point for the band. The house colours are simple and natural, with white featuring throughout, which connotes purity and innocence. The two different fonts keep the cover interesting without confusion, inkeeping with the overall image theyre trying to convey. The costume gives the impression of quirkiness and individuality, making it that bit more interesting to look at for the audience - something we aim to do with our CD cover. The out of focus background pulls our attention to the artist more and highlights her importance again within the band.

This cover design is from the artist "Coldplay" for their album "viva la vida" which translates to "live the life". The image shown in the background is a painting of the fench revolution, the image connotes viloence and anger but also victory, probably the idea the band wants to convey for some of their songs. When i first saw the image, i thought the font used for the title was supposed to look like paint, but relating to the image it resembles a splattering of blood. Using white against the background makes the font more modern, standing out against the archaic image. This stands out to me against other more generic CD covers, through the use of the image and and the way the text is displayed and also how subtle bright colours, like red and blue, stand out against the duller colours of brown and green.

Branding

These are a few pictures of the solo artist Katy Perry's merchandise. They include posters, badges, stickers and t-shirts; just a few of the wide variety of merchandise available to her fans. This merchandise is available on Perry's website; www.katyperry.com and the purpose of them is to promote her as an artist and also her new singles and albums. For example the stickers on the bottom left corner promote Katy's song "Hot'n'Cold" and also her album named "One of the Boys". The design of the merchandise also reflects Katy's image of a quirky, unconventional, colourful girl, a girl that others look up to and idolise. I believe they are successful merchandise as they fit in with the image of Katy that's being portrayed to the audience and make the audience want to be a part of her crazy fantasy world.