N OA H A N D T H E W H A L E

PRINT ADVERT ANALYSIS

‘The first Days of Spring’ is the official Noah and the Whale print advert which was released in 2009. The band is a traditional English indie rock/ folk band.

Pictured in the image shown displays members of the band embracing the outdoors which is a typical feature seen within the indie genre. By displaying the band outdoors could be representing them exploring the world. A filter has been used to soften the image to create a link between their music representing their relaxed attitude within their music. The majority of the image shows the sky allowing the band to be the defined separately and doesn’t the band members to be lost within the text. The main singer has been placed at front and focused on to represent the importance and how audiences identify the band with the main singer. To define the band’s vintage and indie style an old fashioned camera has been pictured with the singer to define the individuality commonly seen within the indie genre.

This is a very redundant print advert as all the features seen within it are commonly seen in most other indie genre prints. The indie styled filter used on the image is commonly seen throughout most pictures associated with bands similar to this one, and the font is also generic to the genre.

An entropic feature I encountered on within the advert is seen with the bands name. It’s an entropic feature for the bands title to be smaller than the main text on the page. This could be due to the popularity of the band and how audiences can identify them from their images. The simplicity of the font mirrors the simplicity of the music. It shows that the band care more about their music rather than their image.

The reviews on the page are typical of most adverts, showing the star rating as bolds so that it contrasts with the background, so the viewer can see it easier. This is a redundant feature, as most adverts try and show the reviews as much as possible to sell as many records as they can, proving that the record is worth buying.

They also mention the name of the magazine, showing that if a popular magazine has made the review, it is considered more valid and not emphasized. This is why the name of the magazine is seen below the rating.

Another redundant entropic feature is the way that it tells the audience what formats the album is available in, so it doesn't’t limit people to just a CD, therefore broadening the people that could buy it.

The colour schemes are very youthful and fresh, perhaps representing a fresh and youthful audience. The bright colours and baby blue in the sky relate well to the target audience and match what would be expected. The colour scheme is also bright and sunny which mirrors the time of year that the album was released, which was the summer of 2009. Methods such as this are common and redundant of not just the genre but the music industry in general.