Codes And Conventions Of A Magazine Advert

Green Day are an American based worldwide band and their status in music is recognisable. This was taken from the back page of the ever popular Q magazine. It used display advertising wherby it covered the whole of the back page, therefore it will become more visable for consumers to see and will give off that its a must-buy album due to its forseen importance of being on the back page. The composition of the advert reflects the simplistic values of any advert. The central focus point, that being the image is composed in the middle. This graphic image ties in with the colour conventions of the layout. By using a red brick will it invites our attention to the centre by standing out from the plain black background. The people pictured in the image are also wearing black, showing connotations of the bands rock image as its considered to be the dark side of music i.e rebellion, black stereotypically symbolises evil. The image itself relates to the title of the album "The War Is Finally Over" as the couple are shown to be kissing. This relates to the title as war symbolises evil and kissing symbolises love opposingly. The title of the band "Green Day" can be simplistically seen in the centre top-half of the layout. The text form is much larger and bolder than the rest showing its importance. This therefore allows consumers to visually see who the advert is advertising as such. The text form itself is produced in a bold white therefore making it strikingly stand out from above the black background. The other text forms that are seen on the page are produced in rememberance of the colourways used in the central focus point, this being red, orange, white and yellow. Another code that may album advertisments follow is through a band/ record labels unique selling point for the brand. This is usually advertising a popular single that has been released coincidingly with the album therefore promoting the album to be like that single if it becomes popular. This layout has used "includes the single know your enemy" produced near the bottom of the page. This tells the reader that this band has created the song and has become popular as they wouldnt mention it contained this single if it hadn't proved sucsessful within the chart shows. The release date of the album is just as important as the albums title. It produces the details of the albums release date to the consumer so that they know when the album is available to buy or download. This is increasingly becoming a key factor due to album sales influencing the sucsess of the artists career. A website adress is produced at the bottom therefore it gives consumers the chance to review the bands website which may contain tracks that feature on the album, therefore using cross media convergence to advertise their album release.

Bob Dylan is a legendary "folk rock" artist who has worldwide recognition with the older generation. His target audience would differ to the likes of Green Day as seen above, due to the ever changing popularity in different types of genre through the years. The poster is simplistic due to the standard form of layout. "Bob Dylan" the main seeling point for the album is pictured at the top and central, displaying to viewers the name of the artist and also giving off that his sucsessfull as he is displaying his name using the largest form. The font used for "Bob Dylan" is symbolic and could be related to his age. As the artist is approaching 68, the form of the font suggests his age as it looks aged and faded. This being a re-occurent theme throughout the text yet only in minimal measures. Red is a colour used predominantely throughout almost ever media text. The colour red has been found to cause the blood pressure and heart rate to rise, thus injecting excitement into the body. This therefore invites us towards that product and makes it visually more appealing for the consumer. The magazine cover uses red to highlight the key point within the advert, the release date. If consumers didn't know the release date then the sales of that album within its first week of being on the shelves will decrease. Below the release date it states what format the album can be purchased from, that being: CD, deluxe CD, vinyl and download. A main central focus point is used to entise the consumer towards that product, the image used within magazine adverts places just as important as the name of the artist itself due to the consumer being attracted towards the image/design. The image depicts a man and women kissing on a bed. This shows love and attraction a symbolism being related back to Bob Dylan and his love for music. With the main target audience being consumers around the ages of 40-70 the image works well in conjunction with the taget audience. As love and affection is shown as being caring, nice and could describe the personality of Bob Dylan. Artists such as the likes of Green Day use an image of lovers but portray it in a dark, evil way as this describes their bands genre, yet Bob Dylan is a "folk rocker" and therefore will write about sounds with topics evolving around love mainly. The image is depicted in black and white and could also resemble the ageing Bob Dylan and that it is working away from the hip new generation of music being brought in alongside the 21st century. It shows his music is old and still cherishable instead of using funky colours and patterns to entise an audience.

The new album Roadsinger by Yusuf is quite simplistic in the design element, sticking to basic fonts and a central image that doesn't leave much to the imagination. The artist can be seen aligned to the right hand side playing a guitair, this resembles the idea of busking in the street. The background is mainly black and contains a darkened theme throughout allowing for the street light to become more effective. The light resembles to that of the albums selling point "warming you through the night" which can be seen below the albums title Roadsinger. The light has an orange glow about it lighting up the space around the artist. This acts as a spotlight, i.e the attention is on him therefore making him stand out as the central focus point. The orange glow acts as a warming colour relating to the sub title of "Warming you through the night". A van is depicted on the left hand side shwoing connotations with the title "Roadsinger" as the van is parked and the artist singing in the street it gives off the idea his parked and starting singing, i.e roadsinger. The text uses the same colourways throughout (white and orange) to produce a simplistic design. The white is produced in bold to make it stand out from the black background, this is used for two of the most important pieces of information about the release: the titles name and also the release date. The orange is used for the artists name and also the featured track, a reoccuring theme throughout all the album covers ive researched. Above the artists name is a forefront word sayiung that Yusuf is now the new name for the former artist Cat Stevens. This gives the consumers information about the "new" artist as he was formerly known as Cat Stevens. The Roadsinger font is seen as abit rugged giving off the feeling of being on tour, for example the artist having to stay in different hotels and on buses ect would give off that particular vibe.

The Enemy's new album "Music For The People" was taken from the music magazine Q. The black background is used to make the white text and image to be produced more powerfully. The white writing used to depict the artists name and the the single featured is created strikingly. The artists name and album title can be seen at the top opf the page acting as the heading, this being what all albums follow making it a standard procedure. This therefore allows the atrists name to be easily found and also seen. A grey font is also used for other information to describe that the album can be bought in CD/Special Edition/Digital ect. Many album covers use two different colour fonts to make it more visually pleasing. Wheras using one font creates a bland design, mixing it up using two contrasting colours makes it easier to depict one piece of text from the other. Otherwise it looks like its all the same block of text. A small font is used to show the consumer their website which is pictured right at the bottom, i've found that this is usually used amongst the the newer generation artists to sort of show that they're the new generation and among the new scene of music being created. The main image differs from the other albums ive researched. This one doesn't use the band/artist directly in their image yet use a logo as their main image. The image works just as well if not better than an image of an artist. As it's colourful and attractive it would entise the consumer to pick up their product. It doesn't relate to the artist or album name directly and therefore cannot be related to what the albums about. Yet due to its colourful visualisation it can be used to basically describe the target audience for the album. Due to its vivid colours it places the album into the younger generation, stating that its music is new, fresh due to the image standing out so much it basically states that the album is different, new and exciting. This works well as an image due to it being entising and attractive and would stand out from the same standard layout that other albums usually follow, therefore it would stand out on the shelf of a music store.

This music advertisment follows a different suit to the others in which i have analysed. This appears to be less revealing, i.e it's hard to tell what its advertising if it wasn't featured in a magazine such as Q. For me it's far too basic and doens't really grab the readers attention. A simplistic unedited image of a sandune relates to the title of the band, Four Winds. Even here i struggled to source the name for the band, it wasn't clear enough and didn't sell to me. The simplistic font creates a basic over view of the advert, yet could relate to their music i.e simplistic rock ect. The page is broken into two parts, the top inserted with an image, a posters main focus point and the other is broken into a plain white background. Here it explains abit about the product that features in every advertisment i've looked at so far. Its states that its advertising a "NEW ALBUM", its available for "CD/DOWNLOAD" and the date of its release. This is shown in such small font that it gives no relevance to the reader as if he was reading the magazine an advert is produced evry 2 or 3 pages or so. The purpose of an advert is to stand out from the others, to make the reader stop and take note of what's being advertised. This is too basic and wouldn' jump off the page in my opinion. Due to the image being standardized, unedited and not layed out centred i believe this is the main reason for this, it doesn't have a background that the picture can explode out of therefore wouldn't catch a consumers eye visually.

The Kooks - Shine On The Kooks's Shine On album uses clever artwork to entise an audience into buying their product. Its the Front cover thats pinnacle to grab a media consumer to buy their album. The album frontcover is a close-up shot of the lead singer, Luke Pritchard. A common theme that runs throughout bands' album cover is a mid to long shot of the band toghether. Yet this is a much too common trait to follow and therefore the Kooks have opted for a close up of the lead singer, who resembles the band as a whole due to being the central focus point of the band. The white and grey colour restraint of the image works well with the white background to produce an antique looking shot. A collage is created inplace of Luke Pritchard's hair this works extremely well and is visually appealing to an audience. It offers more than a simplistic close up shot of a lead singers face. The image of Luke is a representation of The Kooks as a whole and the collage features the other band members around him, creating a sense that he is the main focus point, as people recognise lead singers as the band itself this works well from a consumer point of view. Luke is shot following an indirect mode of adress, as he isn't looking at the camera this is a subtle album cover and doesnt rely on a hard hitting image to capture the attention of the consumer. The form of the text can be seen in the top left and right, inbetween the central image. The text is small, yet strikingly bold and contrasts to the covers background. The text remains the same throughout and relatively small in size. This makes the album cover give off a smart, simplistic suit. Due to the images contained in the collage, the black writing remains in suit making it simplistic yet strikingly attractive.

The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What

The debut album from the Arctic Monkeys follows in similair suit to the above, The Kooks - Shine On album cover. There was much controversy over the albums cover, with critics saying it promoted smoking. Yet the band's manager Mr.Bradshaw said "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good". Yet i believe this album cover works well and is hard hitting. The grey and black image is used to show connotations of the taget audience, which would be teenagers - late twenties of a middle class. It depicts a man shot using direct mode of adress as his looking direct at the camera. This is great to capture a consumers attention due to the eyes being one of the main focus points, using them to entise emotion.
The cigarette is used in conjunction with the albums title, "Whatever People Say I Am Thats What Im Not", this plays upon stereotypical views, i.e he is smoking a cigarette, unshaven with a rough cut look. Many people would stereotype this guy as a thug or a criminal due to the ever-growing violence of youth culture and their false representation within the media. The picture has a symbolical meaning, giving of the age-old "dont judge a book by its cover". The form of the text is titled in the corner and follows suit to the image of the man by using uneven edges to give off that rough depiction that the main has connotations of. The font is seen to be handwritten, containing a scruffy image giving off to the listeners what exactly the album songs will be like. They use the album cover to entise the audience but to give an insight through visual perception as to what music they create.

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

This album cover differentiates from the other two above as it doesn't use a close-up shot of the specific artist. Whereas this co er uses a long shot to depict the shadows of the artist and a tree. This symbolises the artists love for nature and the world as he is a slow meaningful acoustic singer. With him touching the tree it symbolises this love for nature and provides a powerful symbolisim to entise the consumer into buying the product. By using the yellow background it provides a powerful stimulant which would attract the consumer into looking at the product in a store. The yellow and black contrast well and is visually pleasing, with the yellow representing sunshine and the black acting as a bold outline to the graphic pictured.

The title form is seen depicted in the top left hand corner out of the way of the image. Many album covers use this as it allows for the text form to be properly seen. As the picture's focus point is aligned to the left, it allows for the text to be seperated from the picture. This differs from many albums as the artists name and album name is made to be the central figure depending on how famous or popular that particular artist. is. The albums name "In Between Dreams" is hardly recognised due to the insignificance of it. Being an artist like Jack Johnson is the album name doesn't really relish importance yet the production of the album tries to entise consumers through their graphics and using a medium sized text form to establish the artist.

Paolo Nutini - These Streets

This album cover works well as its visually pleasing on the eye and differentiates itself from other album covers as it depicts more than one image or main central point. Paolo Nutini is a young soleful acoustic artist and this is shown through the albums cover as its fun, bright and colourful. There are four single images depicted, each with its own colour code ranging fromm white to deep red. Each image differs from the angle based on the angle in which paolo nutini is standing. The long shot capture still stays the same therefore an audience can see the difference in changes in stances much easier. The colours blend in well toghether and provides a quirky yet funky stance on the graphics. Paolo is pictured with his guitair showing his music resemblence in the album cover which sometimes is lacking from other artists. This shows that he cares about his music and has a real passion for it as he is depicted with his guitair alongside him. The text form is yet again seen to be to one side, a reoccuring theme throughout the album covers i have been analysing. It seems, through evaluation that the artists with more fame/popularity produce their name as the central focus point. This therefore stands out to consumers as they most probably have heard of their name, therefore they already have a recognisable branding i.e their name to market their album to boost sales. As for the likes of Jack Johnson and Newton Faulkner they have to rely on their imaging to appeal to music consumers if they havent heard of them before. The text form is pictured in the top left hand corner, away from the images produced. The writing for Paolo Nutini is yet again quirky yet fun as its produced in bubble handwriting to make it stand out. Its produced in black to make it appear bold against a seemingly light coloured first two colour seperations.

The Bravery - The Sun And The Moon

  The Bravery's album artwork is considered to be more in-tune with the general requirements of a bands front cover. This being having all band members appear on the front cover, something that the previous album covers haven't opted for. By using the whole band on the cover the consumer gets a feel for who the band is and who features in this band. They cop a feel for their style through the way they are styled and through the design of the album artwork. The cover depicts five band member each sitting down together, this shows interaction between them and therefore as viewers we see this as a tight-knit band. The shot is relaxed and may resemble the type of music the band play. The calm yellow and white diagonally striped background shows conntations of being sun rays through its shape and color resembelence suggesting the bands bright future. The way that the background is used and how the band members are outlined give off characteristics of pop-art culture, a modern, fresh take on art using bold colours and outlines. This works well to give off the bands youthism. All the band members are styled in black so that there aren't too many colours on display. This is a common theme running throughout and something i'd have to consider when creating my own as to what specific colours i use and how to match accordingly throughout. The text form remains black against the white and yellow background. The font for the bands title and also the albums remain the same throughout, yet the bands name is produced in larger font showing that the bands name is more recognisable and important than the albums. Yet again the text is slightly aligned to the left corner of the cover, this gives off a professional aura as its too basic to slap it in the middle.

Kasabian - Fire

This music video mainly focusses on the storyline to make it popular, there is little or no evidence of the band performing as a group or even miming the words. This makes it unique from the other videos that i have analysed and can be added to the ever-growing codes and conventions of a music video. The video starts off with a close up of the l

ead singers face's reflection in a mirror, swiftly carrying onto a tracking shot from a

 car of another band member. The set up for the video is of a bank robbery and as the band arent featured actually playing the music, there is no interaction with the characters in the story, unlike other videos we have viewed. The music video basically follows the same principl

es as a film. tracking shots are used to show movement and importance of that particular character, alongside close-ups of people or objects to show significance. For example the shot of the suitcase as seen below.

As the robbers embark on the bank there is an establishing shot of the building from a crane shot. This follows suit to the patterns of the codes and conventions of a film, therefore leading this away from a music video and more so a short film, yet it still works well alongside the song and has some great feedback on file sharing sites such as Youtube and UTorrent. When inside the building a tilt-down shot is used from within the corner of a room to replicate CCTV footage, with its colour disfigured to black and grey giving it an authentic thats recognisable as closed circuit television

This video works well from an audience point of view as it is first to be considered as a serious video, yet as they embark on the bank they are seen to be carrying guitairs for guns. Close ups are used alongside rapid cutaways to create an action seen that is almost mocking-like in a way. By using so many close ups upon the guitairs or "guns" the audience then recognises that the video isn't meant to be taken seriously and therefore can be enjoyed more. 

During a chase another set of dolly tracking shots are used to establish that there is a chase going on, this works in tangent with the prolonged pronounciation of "fire" in the songs lyrics and this can be seen as screaming from the fleeing robbers. The timing and editing is all smartly placed and works cohertly alongside the lyrics of the songs in terms of beats per minute. Yet the song opted to turn away from the recording of live band performances and produced a top class music video not specifically based on the songs lyrics but more of a feel good factor music video. This is but a few things that ill have to consider for when planning my own music video and as to wether i design a video solely based on the lyrics of the song or have it contain a mixture of both storyline and live performance recording

The Metros - Last of the Lookers 

The video starts of with a classic black and white countdown. This already forecasts the band as old school style rock and the audience can relate to what type of song it would be. Many videos use this starting set up due to it being an easy, simplistic way to start, with a countdown. This also grabs the attention of a viewer if they're watching a music video channel such as popular ones like TMF or MTV. Their attention is grabbed as the music has stopped and there is silence so there attention is grabbed as no music or sound is in place, therefore having their atte

ntion before the song/video has even begun.

Another recognisable trait is that the band is pictured in-front of a blank canvas or a white background. This works well in conjunction with the old school theme of the video as the main theme depicted from this is the idea of black and white. All the band members are dressed in black and with all the sound equipment being black also. The main man or in other words the lead vocalist is portrayed in a white polo shirt and braces, making him stand out from the others, therefore making it easy for the audience to depict who the lead singer is. The polo shirt and braces also ties in with the mise-en-scene of the music genre making audiences relate to that genre in particular. Like many music videos featuring bands, each member is given a close to mid-shot of themselves performing to establish to the audience that this person is a drummer, the other lead guitairist ect.

The video itself uses a half-hearted storyline beneath the action shots of the live music. The editing is smooth yet quick due to the pace of the beat in the music. Editing is used to good effect by mixing up camera angles used, such as tilts on the live music shots and close ups of the lead singer and his microphone, being broken up with rapid cutaways. The lead singer always uses direct mode of address to connect with the audience to get the songs meaning or point across. Yet in the video we cannot fully relate to the lyrics or the song in general a its just a feel good song which can be seen through the visuals of people enjoying themselves and having a laugh, the stereotype of the young generation, their particular target audience as such.

The ending sequence of the music video is depicted alike the end of a gig, the lead singer is going crazy and the cutaways are increasing rapidly to build a climax to the song. This is no doubt a feel good song, i.e a sing and dance song that is enjoyed where the meaning doesn't really have any true moral implications. The cutaways increase vigirously at the end and even a few shots are sped up to give it that "building up" feel. Panning shots and sweep shots are used in conjunction with crane shots to fully grasp the live music performance and all its aspects. By using these it breaks away from the simple mix of close ups and mid shots therefore making the video more fun and dynamic. 

Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On
The song that the Arctic Monkeys have produced for this music video is fast and upbeat therefore the music video has to resemble connotations of this. I think this is a great example of a music video for an indie band that produces upbeat music. The video is explaining a story, yet doesn't refract to the actual band as they dont feature in the video. This makes the video more intense, yet doesn't signfy who the band are. This would work well for a band that has recognised worldwide status like The Arctic Monkeys do, yet not for a smaller based band.
The video uses rapid cutaway editing to give the video a fast paced beat to resemble the piece of music itself. The camerawork is shaky and gives a rough edge to the film giving it that little bit extra to make it seem visibly more upbeat.

The video's storyline doesn't really connect directly to the lyrics of the song, yet is a powerful basis. It consists of the woman pictured above attempting to take her life by jumping off the building. Throwing her shoe off first a man picks it up and finds her hovering over the edge. Fast paced cuts and shaky camerawork increases when the drums kick in in the song. The lighting is grim and dark at the start of the video, symbolising the womans life due to her wanting to commit suicide. Zooms and tilt camera shots are used to add to the shaky camera work and to portray the emotion onto the woman willing to take her own life. Lots of close ups and extreme close ups are used to add to the emotion of the woman, as she is the main symbolism for the storyline. As she is saved she falls for the man and then we can see the lighting get bright and clear, the sun comes out when it was once grey clouds and colours are enhanced in her clothing, as seen below.

The video is clever in the way that the story is a continuim in that it's a never-ending cycle. As the woman doesn't get what she wants, the man, she resorts back to her grim life, therefore the lighting changes again to grim along with the weather. It then uses the same camera angles for the man on the woman as she runs up the stairs, adding to the sense of a deja-vu story. As she sprints for the edge it coincides with the added build up of the music as it increasingly gets louder creating a sense of recklessness. The woman stops to a halt at the edge timing the end of the drumming, as the music softens in the outro she then throws her shoe off again and the camera fades away.