The band Example are an energetic band with upbeat music. Their music struggles to fall into a specific genre but is best described as falling into the ‘grindie’ genre which was developed in 2006 and is a mixture of indie and grime music. Most of their songs involve rapping and singing with indie sounds from their instruments. This unusual genre and upbeat music is reflected in their style and their album cover. This album cover is bright and colourful and this use of colour makes it seem lively which mirrors the bands style and tempo of music. The range of colours used in the cover gives a sense of fun which is what the band will want to portray to the audience as this reflects the style of their songs. This light-hearted imagery will attract a younger audience which is the main fan base for the band and therefore, the target audience for their albums. The white background of the cover helps make it look fresh and also makes the colours in the clothing stand out. The white is also used in the text which creates contrast to the black background and makes it stand out which gives a clear message to the buyer what album it is.
The images in this cover are all photographs of the lead singer from the band, this celebrity endorsement and band connection has been used in both of the two other covers I have studied. I believe this is because the artists are proud of their music and want an involvement in the creativity of their album cover. In this case it is also a chance to show the personal style of the artist that also links to the style associated with the genre; this is similar to the Akon cover but different to the kings of leon cover which didn’t show the bands personal style at all. This is because the message they wanted to show was different.
The mise-on-scene in the images is aimed at a fairly young, fun loving target audience which is shown through props, costumes and the actions of the artist. The outfits he is wearing are mostly following the trend of the ‘indie’ style which is a trend that a large majority of the audience will follow or aspire to look like. This means that the audience will look up to the artist and also relate to him as he looks like an ordinary fashionable ‘indie’ style man. The fact that the clothes are also bright in colours also adds to the lively, young style of the cover which will appeal to the target audience and reflects the bands style of music. The props in the images on the cover help to show a fun side to the artist, that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, this is a huge contrast to the other two covers I have looked at as they both had meaningful imagery and looked more sophisticated. However, the main fan base of all three albums, are around a similar age. Perhaps this artist wanted to create a persona of a ‘jack the lad’ character which he has based his songs around as they would fit that description, or perhaps the songs are written about his own past experiences which is why all the imagery is of him.
The typography used in the cover is very bold and easy to recognise, this is a great contrast to the Kings of Leon album that I studied but similar to the Akon cover. I think the reason for this is that Example are a band that are fairly new to fame and recognition and they are still trying to establish their name and image, where as a band like KOL do not need to do this as they are well established and have a huge fan base and recognition. Akon however, is established but the reason he has his name in large writing is because his genre is hip hop where a persona of wealth and celebrity status goes hand in hand with the music. The black background of the text is a stark contrast to the writing and the imagery which makes the text stand out. This is not only used to establish the bands name but also to attract the attention of buyers. Another way in which the text stands out is that it blocks imagery behind showing its importance and dominance over the cover. The other text in the cover is the album name which is incorporated into the photographs and is used as a prop, this doesn’t stand out as much as the band name as it is not as important information. This is the first time I have seen the artist displaying the album title as part of the mise-on-scene and is not a typical convention, it shows the personal connection with the creation of the album.
The layout of the images is in a bloc pattern which may represent the many different sides to the personality of the artist or character. This technique of using a split screen and tables is also used by the band in their music video for the song titled ‘kickstarts’ it is used to show other characters and compare them directly and is also used to show two sides of the story within the narrative. It could be used in a similar way in this album cover to show the many sides of a personality. The use of split screen was also used in the KOL album cover that I studied but created a very different effect as it was to show the coming together of individuals to form a group that was strong and powerful, where as this album cover uses the split screens to show different sides to one character which creates a playful naive persona as opposed to a powerful one.
The cover shows representations of youth culture and also indie music culture. It does this by the mise-on-scene in the imagery as the bright colours within the clothing show a lively young style which conforms to the stereotypes of indie fans and their styles. This is similar to the Akon cover as his clothing represents a desired lifestyle associated with hip-hop. They both also conform to stereotypes of artists as indie artists are often young for their age and lively spirits where as a stereotypical hip-hop artist is very sure of themselves and flaunt their wealth (eg. jewelry and clothing).
Overall this cover contains fun and lively images that do not seem to resemble deep and powerful meaning like the KOL album, but instead shows a fun band and makes people want to listen to their lively music and be involved in the fun experience.
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