Digipak Example 4

The above image is Rihanna's third studio album known as good girl gone bad which is also a track on the product. This album was believed to have more of the artists own influences and personality than the previous two albums that she had produced as she was coming into her own and able to add herself into her songs while fine tuning or playing around with various beats and styles that she could incorporate. The artist herself stated in an interview with MTV news "They just put me in the studio and I started recording and recording, and it showed the direction of who I became as an artist. We figured Good Girl Gone Bad was the perfect title because it showed people I'm my own person now. Not doing what anyone wants me to do. I'm not the innocent Rihanna anymore. I'm taking a lot more risks and chances. I felt when I cut my hair, it shows people I'm not trying to look or be anybody else. The album is very edgy. We have some urban records & some really pop records" She also explained the change in her music and why it didn't include a reggae type style that her previous albums had as well as showing the audience why she chose the name of the album explaining that it was about her changing just as much as it was about her style of music. "I basically took the attitude of the bad girl and I really got rebellious and just did everything the way I wanted to do it. I didn't want to listen to anybody. I didn't consult with anybody. I just want to have a little more fun with my music and be a little more experimental in terms of my image and my sound. I just reinvented myself. A bad girl, it's all about the attitude that you take toward things, I'm not being careful, I'm just having fun. I'm taking risks because bad girls take risks."

The album cover i feel shows the contrast between the good girl gone bad with it's colour scheme and how Rihanna is positioned leaning across the front while staring at the audience from within the case. The only colour that she really uses is the light blue for her own name which makes it stand out from the dark/light tones of the artist and the actual cover. This makes her stand out which i feel suggests that she wants people to see the real her as she is now showing herself within her music thus when the audience sees this they can see that she is really trying to show herself off unlike her other albums where her name had either been white or matched the title cover of the digipak. The way that the album is lite also suggests the good girl gone bad theme, as the background is darkly tonned showing the bad girl while the light tones show the good good which is fading out into the darkness thus turns into the good girl good bad. This is because sterotypically dark figures as seen as bad characters while people wearing white or bright colours as seen as good. For example: Nightmare on elm street with the villian Freddy Krueger seen here below as a dark figure.

The image has the male encased in darkness suggesting his malice and lack of humanity as well as the claws that are seen on his hand. This ties in to Rihanna as she is turning this way and like she said herself going to be who she is so almost in a similar fashion to Freddy, is going against society and letting herself be who she is instead of being what people think she should be or how her music should be. Thus i feel that the colours are used to incoperate this type of feel to the album cover adjusting peoples views towards her so that they feel that vshe is unique and trying something new which people will want to hear so in turn will buy the album. The artists stance is diagonal across the cover suggesting that she is quite relaxed with her new change and her change from a good girl into a bad one. However the outfit that she is wearing suggests that she is still "A good girl" or a good person, this is probably trying to provide the image that she is still a good person so that the audience will connect with the artist and want to buy her production even if her style of music is changing she will remain the same. A new song sung by Alexis Jordan has similar lyrics with things such as "I can be a good girl but i've been bad before" this suggests a similar factor to Rihanna as unlike her first song which is quite slow and mellow, Alexis's song good girl is faster and more upbeat. Her song is displayed below in order to show exactly what i mean about the beat and the lyrics that she has similar to that of Rihanna

So compared to our artist Carly the song from Rihanna that i picked was called "Cry" which is one of her slowest ones and has a piano as one of the instruments within the track, thus making it very simiar to my own artists production. Both songs also talk about emotions although in different manners/ways, for example: Carly's song is about death and losing someone you love while Rihanna's is about having your artner cheating on you. Two different things yet has the same kind of tone or feeling towwards it which i feel would attract a similar audience which is our target audience - teens to young adults. These will also be mostly female as female artists seem to attract a lot of attention from female fans mostly because they turn into their role models and people want to be like them by either looks, talent or money etc.

Digipak Example 3

The album cover above is known as the fame by female artist Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta who uses her stage name for her music that she is better known by which is Lady Gaga. It was her first studio album and was seen as a breakthrough by many critics within the music business who stated that she was a breath of fresh air on the music scene and i feel that the album cover above represents this factor rather well by the use of the vibrant colours and the tones which are lightened by the top left of the digipak. I feel that the female is hidden from behind for the light to express the female in this way and give her a bold sense of authority, control, power and beauty. This i feel makes the artist appear more of a role model as people want to seem this attractive or appealing with the album tries to make the female seem as well as this the actual artist herself in the way she dresses and behaves can also influence the public and make her appear as more of a role model.

Her Qualities are the following:
- her not care attitude in what people think are expressed by the type of costumes that she wears and the way that she acts which the artist has said her self in interviews is simply herself. thus representing the view that you should just be yourself just like the artist is.
- another quality would be that she is quite colourful and out spoken resulting to her speaking her mind quite often which seems to be another link for people to be themselves.
- she seems to be a respectable person as she stands up for a lot of human life qualities such as gay rights etc.
- people respect her as she came from a lower class background working in clubs and bars until finally her record label spotted her.
- her dress sense has also sparked attention as she is vastly different to other artists out there which makes her seem more interesting thus she attracts more attention due to this factor. as strange factors such as wearing a dress made out of meat is strange yet attracts people as it is unique and different.

All of these points seem to show why the artist is well known and famous however she has had so much success that it seems like she is here to stay. Many Critcs at first stated that her music was good but wacky with some now stating that she is in the driving seat making new forms or music for a new generation with a lot of success. Most people nowadays know who she is even if they havnt listened to her music as like i mentioned before she had become a world wide success. This i feel is what Gaga wanted from the start as this album is called Fame thus trying to show i think that that is what she want for herself.

Even the tracklist hints towards the fact that she wants to be famous & wants to produce money doing something that she loves. For Example:
- Paparazzi which has a video or her being in newspapers.
- Beautiful dirty rich with countless shots of money shown within the video and she even sets a peice a light during the production.
- The Fame which is obviously linked to her being famous as well as the title name.
- Money Honey again like Beautiful Dirty Rich, it has a lot of links towards money.

Lady Gaga talks about her album here in an interview with MTV: "The Fame is about how anyone can feel famous. Pop culture is art. It doesn't make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it's a sharable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle" Proving my point about her wanting to be famous yet also showing her personality as she has often been linked with helping out charities and people who arent as well off as she is.

She also stated in the interview how proud she was of the album & what it actually meant to her as well as what she wanted it to mean to others: "I just feel like this record is really different- youve got club bangers to more 70s glam to more singer-songwriter records to rock music. Fame is not about who you are—it's about how everybody wants to know who you are! Buy it and listen to it before you go out or in the car. I think you've really got to allow artists' creativity to marinate. It took me a while but really delving into myself I finally got it. I couldn't be more proud of it. It's not just a record, it's a whole pop art movement. It's not just about one song."

Because of this interview i feel that more people connected with the artist & were more likely to buy her album as they like to think of the artist as a nice person so that they can feel that they are buying a product from someone that deserves it. As well as this Lady Gaga is a big inspiration for the gay community with fighting for their rights within her own songs, for example: "Born this way" which says that it doesnt matter what race or sexual orienation you are as everybody is created/born the way that they are. This increases the aduience attention seven fold.

Digipak Example 2

The album image above clearly shows who the artist is by showing a close up of the females face which is positioned dead center of the cover. The title also expresses this factor saying that the artist is Madonna which is a cause for celebration which is what the actual album is called thus the company connected the title with the artist in order to promote the female more. That said she doesn't really need advertising as she is quite a famous celebrity so when people see or hear Madonna they think of her. That said as her sales have dropped slightly thus album was brought out probably to remind the audience and the public what they were missing or trying to get them to remember the female artist.

The colours used suggest that she is a fun out going person even though she hasn't been around the music business for a long time thus they are trying to draw you in with the colours thinking that the music will represent what is on the cover and like the hypodermic syringe model it will influence the consumers into thinking that they will look or act in similar ways. Thus the audience will buy it as a feel good factor thinking that it could possibly make them more happier.

That said the three main colours are Blue, red and yellow which i feel represent the artists originality and again her fun loving attitude meaning that the album will be far more attractive to look at and thus will draw the audience into buying the CD. The album is also more aimed at females due to the bright colours and the attention on the female artist as well as this i also asked ten people male and ten people female and who would buy the album. The results were that the females said that they were attracted to the cover while the males weren't interested in it thus shows that females are drawn to this.

Celebration is also shown to almost be painted in a pink colour like it is a party and to celebrate the album. The design is also tied to this like it is being painted on so in turn is a new design and to celebrate the females full life and possibly a new start.

Digipak Analysis Example

http://www.slideshare.net/3701/my-digipak-analysis

Here is an example of a finished digipak analysis from a different media group which i will use to compare to mine once the digipak is finished. I will also use this example to critcially analyse my own CD as it is a finished product. Thus i can compare the two on their conventions and use of text, light, clothes or location. I may also look at the background and the colours which represent various opints of interest.

Alica Keys - Digipaks

Examples of her album work & designs in time order:

Songs in a minor (2001)

The diary of Alicia keys (2003)

As i am (2007)

The element of freedom (2009)

All of these CDs cover her change in music and her various tracks which have changed over the years. All her front covers include herself with some type of decoration behind it usually relating to the title of the album such as "the element of freedom" with bird type clothes on and wings on other designs of the cover. “As I am” seems to be the only album that is a close up yet could signify her change in music and popularity as it was at this time she really cam forward in the music business. This it could also show or represent her, as i am is almost like saying here i am, look at me. Most of her albums also include her name in a bold font with bright colours to stand out or appeal to the target audience except from the album "Diary of Alice Keys" while underneath the name in a smaller size and usually a different font is where the album name resides.

Her target audience i think is around teen to middle aged as the genre of her music covers various topics such as, R&B, pop and even soul. All these topics represent the younger generation more mainly teenagers who are listening to more and more pop music today which has almost become a culture for them to be in. Pop songs are also stereotyped to be listened to by female consumers although through our questionnaires we found out that this is not the case. That said we targeted this age group as well as the middle aged group is a fairly large group so we wanted to attract as big of a population as we could making the CD more effective and produce more money.

Music Video Three Analyse

An artist similar to our own music video would be the female singer known as Alicia Keys who like Carly likes to play the piano during some of the filming process in videos such as new york, if i aint got you etc as well as singing similar music to our artist. Thus because of the connection i analysed a video of Alicia to use in contrast with Carly and see the various points that are the same or not so that i can use the techniques within the process of making the digipak. As they are similar artists i believe that they will attract similar audiences/consumers thus helping us known our target group for the digipaks which allows us to use various colours that will appeal to that age group. For example bright colours for young and teen audiences.

Alice Keys - Like your never see me again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtR43QxUQJQ

The music video is similar to our video as its about the death of someone close to you which is a lover within Alicia's video yet in our own it is the loss of a mother, that said the meaning stays the same. The loss of someone is hard to manage/deal with and that you should care about the happy times and about what you have rather than arguments. In her video the male character survives and they reconnect at his bed side while within our video she connects with her mother by visiting her grave and wearing the necklace that she gave to her. So although the concept is similar we have used different techniques and footage to show the meaning behind the video and characters.

As well as this the artist also has the video going back in time which is similar to our video that provides flashbacks. Alicia however shows it with time stamps while in our video we use the use of black and white to suggest the time difference. I think the use of time clearly shows what is happening within the video so that the audience doesn't get confused, it also fits with the cuts of the video allowing the location and the scenes to change giving the story a back story so that you are able to understand what is going on. Our video also explains this fact yet in a more secretive way which allows the audience to interpret the video in their own way giving more of a connection with the story so that it doesn't stop the flow with cuts and time stamps.

One scene within the artists video is similar to our own in which Alicia looks at a video on her phone of herself and her boyfriend creating the notion of looking while in our video the notion of looking is expressed twice as the audience are watching a video of the characters making a video on their phone. This i feel makes the story more real and shows that the footage could actually be real footage instead of just clips to form a music video creating the atmosphere that we wanted for it.

Within the start of the video the female character is seen as crying while walking along a corridor similar to when our female character sits around the graveyard crying over the gravestone. I feel that this is used so you can visually see that the artist is upset to get the feel of the video as well as trying to get the audience to relate or feel sorry for her. This in my eyes is what both videos seem to try and achieve to get a feeling of sorrow from their audience, its about what the songs are about too where even the titles tell the consumers that the songs are sad or suggesting towards that viewpoint. For example: Alica Keys - like your never see me again & Carly - reason to smile. Both suggest that they need reasons to be happy as they will never see each other again or because they are simply looking for a reason to do so.