DigiPak collage analysis

What do I intend to do?Here is my analysis of some music genres and their Digipaks. I

will discuss how each genre targets their audience, through aesthetics of the digipaks. Finally, I will analyse my genre of

music video and look into what makes our digipaks stand out.

From this, I hope to gain more knowledge about how to attract my audience through the presentation of the digipak itself.

Rock and Punk!The overall aesthetics of Paramore’s Digipaks are usually

displaying their band as a whole. Their choice of clothing is relative to their genre, which is fast, and typically rock

music. Their music has changed slightly, after becoming more popular. This is shown with their second digipak,

shown at the bottom. It shows them slightly more up-close and they look less angry and negative. I noticed that not just with Paramore, but with groups that have a female member, they always place them in the centre, or slightly off. This is perhaps done to draw the audience’s attention straight to

the female, as Mulvey’s theory tells us that most audiences that watch music videos, are mostly male. Also, the hints of red within their digipaks, perhaps gives the audience hints, to the content of their music; romance, death, betrayal. An

abundance of this genre’s artists do this, so that the audience feel a better connection with the band, because

they have hinted at their relatable song choices. The reverse side of their Digipaks are usually a lighter colour than the front. This creates a really bold contrast between the two,

showing that perhaps the band’s song are versatile and not all the same. It contains the listing information, bar code,

track titles and a small image.

Techno/house music!‘Basshunter’., a marvelous man, who creates such

music worthy of clubbing and ridiculous dance moves. His music is out of the box and totally different. The typical Digipak aesthetics of his album, are always

hinted with futuristic qualities and are always a vibrant, eye-catching colour. The flashes and beams of light behind the artist himself, are reminiscent of club and party lights- hinting at the genre and it’s intended audience. The title and font remains the same, so as

to become instantly recognisable to It’s audience. Sometimes, when the artist releases new material, he places a sticker which contains new tracks and new

albums he is yet to release; I thought this was a really interesting addition to his digipak, as it means he is

constantly promoting his newer material. The back of Basshunter’s digipaks, contain the basic conventions of this genre. I have found, that from research, this

genre’s reverse side, usually has a picture or a number of pictures of clubs and people raising their arms

whilst dancing. The colours are simple and usually black or dark blues, to represent the dark clubs that

this music would be played in. In addition to this, Basshunter usually includes a small picture of himself,

like the front, but also the barcode and shipping information.

Alternative/IndieBiffy Clryo’s surrealistic digipaks are completely against the

Alternative genre. He goes against conventions of his genre, to make his albums stand out more than the rest. Most albums of the

Alternative genre, contain images of the main artist and do not hint at the contents of their songs. The aesthetics of Clyro’s digipaks are outstanding and are totally eye-catching. Clyro’s newer music has

moved away from the surreal movements, as you can see by the first album image. However, their older EP has hints of the band’s older,

raw and heavy creative style, which is most loved by their fans. Often in bands, their members are shown on the front. Biffy Clyro’s is

slightly different; he shows surreal images and often hints at the specific genre of the music involved. The bottom left image; the Puzzle, perhaps hints at something lost, because of the missing

jigsaw piece. However, his solitude and the darker area focused on by the camera, could also perhaps hint at solitude and isolation. The

CD inside follows the same image or pattern as the front of the Digipak; this creates continuity and flow. The reverse of the digipak, also does the same. In addition to the CD and the back, tracks are included on both, making the track names more memorable and

easily accessible to the audience. Finally, the barcode is included on the reverse of the Digipak.

For our genre: Here are a few images of the Digipaks I found interesting and aesthetically

pleasing.

Hip Hop/Pop Punk

Hip-Hop!

Still Motion by Natti

What I noticed about this genre’s digipaks, is the simplicity of each of them. Their text is basic and uncomplicated and the realistic approach that many have taken when it came to creating each of them individually. Most of the digipaks displayed to the right and in the above slide, contain a simple image of

someone, whether it be the artist their self, or someone helping to promote the album, by aiding the photographer in becoming an album model. It is not very often you would see an animated album cover for the Hip Hop genre, but when you do, it is bright, vibrant and completely eye-catching. This type of

aesthetic always hints at the specific content of their hip-hop music; for example, the Zombie and horror digipak to the extreme right. I believe, because our track is a mix of both Hip-Hop and Pop Punk, we will have to attempt to incorporate both the animated and realistic side of the

digipak; this way, it will appeal to both types of audiences within our target range (16-25 years), making the album more popular, because of it’s multiple-genres.

Punk!

One thing that particularly stood out for me, within the Pop Punk digipak genre, was the amount of text used. This was a vast difference between this and Hip-Hop. I found that I liked the use of titles and text much more in this

genre. I believe it looks more informative and at times, looks as though more time was spent on these above,

than the Hip Hop albums. I think this is something we should attempt to include when creating our very own digipaks.

A similarity between the two genres above, is that they both share a similar amount of animated digipaks, to realistic images.

I still think we should attempt to incorporate both theseSides to the digipaks.

What next?My next task, is to create a blog post based on basic

conventions and contents that typically appear on all genre’s digipaks. This will help me get an understanding of what is

included, so as to be sure we do not miss out on any important information that would normally be included on a

digipak.