Inspirational Album Covers

   During my research into different artists and genres of music I looked at album artwork. This allowed me to identify similar themes that were in each piece of artwork, such as the name of the artist and an image created to catch the audiences attention. Only around 15 of the albums actually feature the singer or the band on the album, with most favouring to use art instead to make their album eye catching. This shows me that in order to make a good album cover, the artist is not needed.
 However more of the well known artists such as Paloma Faith, James Blunt, Shy'm (A french singer), and Taylor Swift, actually use portraits of themselves on the album. This would imply that the more well known a singer becomes, the more they use themselves and their image as a unique selling point, whereas the lesser known artists, or those with a more alternative genre are likely to use other artwork such as paintings.

Magazine adverts

These magazine adverts are analysis of other texts. These help me to understand what singles, albums and tours of music artists are advertised like. The Verve advert is quite a simple and plain design of a sepia picture of clouds with fields as the background , these then have the bands name and the name of the single below it. This will be useful when we come to designing the music video's advert, this also helps to give an insight into the sort of things that we need to think about how the music video is represented. The Muse poster is a lot darker with a picture of the band as the background. It has a big bold logo of the bands name in the top left hand corner and also the date of the of the tour. The bands album cover is then placed in a section to the left hand side of the poster about midway down. This shows which album the band is performing on the tour.

Video's for inspiration

In this video I really like the way that the music sounds really relaxing and is sort of magical and the video is magical to the man.
I really like how the bubbles lead the story along and how the man is inspired to go on a journey in order to be able to find where they came from and how to make them. I think that this is a really good story line.
I also really like the way that the video is simple and looks good even though it has the different simple components.




I really like the way this video is created because when certain sounds happen the different lights come on. I also like the fact that the video is set in one space and then has different toys that come to life throughout the video. I think this is a really creative idea.



I really like this video where it is a band performing and then switiching to a storyline, I think this is what we would do in our own video

Album covers

I used these images as I thought that they were bright and inspiring for the future project of the digipak. I also feel as though these are inspiring for the music video because of the colours in them.

The Paperkites - Bloom - Music Video Analysis

Bloom

The Paperkites



The Paper Kites are an Indie folk band from Australia, the song is called Bloom and is a Folk song. You can tell that this is a folk song from the connotations within the song, such as the acoustic guitar and the Banjo these instruments are often used in Folk music.

The lyrics in this video link to the visuals that are shown, at the start of the video the lyrics are 'in the morning when I wake' and the visual is a woman lying on grass opening her eyes, presumably from being asleep, also in the video it then goes on to say 'and you fill my head with you' the woman then holds a can up to her ear on string to hear whats on the other end, presumably she heard someone talking therefore filling her head with that person. It also says 'Oh you fill my head with pieces of a song I can't get out' as a man holds the other end of the can to his ear and smiles indicating that he can hear someone talking on the other end. This all shows that the lyrics and the video are telling a story. The video is interpreting what the lyrics mean.

The music and the video are also linked as you can hear a guitar being played along with a banjo and drums, also you can hear singing, humming and whistling, these are all shown with in the video as the band, The Paper Kites, are shown sitting around a tree with their instruments. In the video they are also lip syncing so that they appear to be singing the lyrics of the song. These all link with the song and how it is played.

There are some close up of the artists when they are performing around the tree and singing, there are also close ups of the instruments when they are being played in the video. There isn't really a star motif for the band, however, they do often film their music videos in a woodland as their music is usually quite fokey and magical meaning that a woodland is a perfect scene for their music videos to be shot. This being said in their most recent video St. Clarity the video is shot in an abandoned building and in the streets, however, it still has that magical feel to it as the man in the video is discovering something that appears magical to him.

There is some Notion of Looking in the video which is where the artist or actors in the video look directly at the camera or slightly off from the camera giving an insight into their lives. This happens in the music video for The Paper Kites - Bloom as the singers are looking off from camera and the actors look directly at the camera in parts of the music video therefore giving an insight into their lives and helping the audience connect with the song.

There are some intertextual references in the video such as the acoustic guitar makes you think of other folk musicians and the Mis - En - Scene of a forest also makes you think of earthiness and folk music creating the intertextual reference of the magical earthy feeling that you can associate with their music.

The video is mainly an illustrative video, showing aspects of performance and narrative. The perforance happening with the band sitting around the tree performing their song and the narrative happening with the between the two people and the tin cans and string. There is a small bit of amplification but not a lot. The amplification is probably following the string as that doesnt really show what the song is about although it does lead to the next part of the storyline

Mindy Gledhill - Whole Wide World - Music Video Analysis

Whole Wide World

Mindy Gledhill



Mindy Gledhill is an Indie Folk artist from California. The song featured is called Whole Wide World and it is actually classed as Pop, however, I feel that the single has more of an Indie feel to it. The reason I feel this is because although the music video appears to be higher budget than the video for The Paperkites, it still isn't an extremely high budget music video. Also the video appears to have more of an Indie feel with the way that the actors and artist are dressed. The song its self also gives the feel of an Indie song due to the fact that of what its trying to say which is a unique concept. The video does fit some of the pop criteria though, with some of the props used within it e.g. A helicopter.

There are a lot of relationships between the lyrics and the visuals, this is because the video uses illustration in order to be able to tell the story. The lyrics 'I'm gonna run right up this hill' are represented in the video by the artist, Mindy Gledhill, running up a rocky hill, which is quite literal and highly links the action with the lyric. The lyrics 'I'm gonna go and take a chance, I'm gonna learn to ballet dance' are also represented quite literally as Mindy Gledhill is then shown learning to ballet dance.

The music that is the video is represented with any visuals, there are no instruments used or shown in the video. The only instrument that is shown is Mindy Gledhill singing, however, there is a drum and guitars and other instruments although they are not shown being used. At the start of the video, Mindy Gledhill is shown jogging, the beat of her jogging is set in time of the drumming.

There isnt a major star Motif in the video as the artist isnt that well known and doesnt have a lot of music videos out, however, she is out doors a lot in this video alongside her other video called Anchor. Anchor also shows her daydreaming about what she would like to do in life.

There are some notions of looking within the video as you can see Mindy Gledhill looking directly into the camera at some points and in other points of the music video the actresses are seen either looking directly at the camera or slightly off from the camera. This makes the audience feel as though they are inside of the video.

There arent really any intertextual references other than the fact the artist is outside and this gives the contations of the folkey sound that Mindy Gledhill uses.

The video I would say is part illustartion and also amplification. I would say that it is illustration as the video represents the lyrics litersally in some parts and in others it is amplification such as when the girl is using the gun to shoot all of the paint. The shooting of the paint is completely abstract. The scene where the girls are all running also has nothing to do with the actual lyrics apart from all of the actors being female. I feel this is amplification as the shooting of the paint is representing the concept of the video in an abstarct way and the running is showing the beat of the drum in the music along with the humming at the end.

Coldplay - Fix you - Music Video Analysis

Fix you

Coldplay





The band Coldplay is classed as an Indie Rock Band. The song 'Fix you' is classed as an Indie Rock track and to be more specific a sub genre of Indie Rock called Post - Britpop. The video I think suits its genre and the song. The first half of the video shows the lead singer Chris Martin walking through the streets at night. This is a simple and effective idea that I could use in my video as its easily achievable. The video then goes into Chris Martin going off of the streets to then going on to the stage and performing with the rest of the band. The fact that there a musical instruments and a band scene shown really helps to add to the rock side as this is stereotypical to be shown in a rock bands video.

The lyrics in the video arent really represented by much the only part that is represented is 'lights with guide you home' This is done by the lights in the street and the car lights and also the tunnel lights. It is also represented by Chris Martin swinging a lantern about in the streets and then another one on stage.

There are some relationships between the music and visuals. When the song is slower at the beginning, Chris Martin, is shown slowly walking through the streets and when the music gets to the bridge of the song and the faster parts he starts running through the streets and then the scene cuts to him being on the stage where the song continues to grow as the music does. There's also the band playing in the video as well with the different instruments that were in the music including the drums, keyboard, bass and guitar as well as the vocals.

There are closeups of the artist and their facial expressions and there also seems to be a Star Motif with the dressed down sense of style and simplicity of the music video just like the video for their other single called Yellow. In Yellow Chris Martin is walking along a beach in the rain singing the lyrics of the song and it gradually goes from dark rain clouds to a lighter coloured sky .The fact that the band are also shown been on stage and actually performing is also  a star motif as they are well known for their performances on stage and performing so this is a star motif as it actually represents what they are now known for.

Chris Martin is looking into the camera for nearly the whole of the first two minutes of the video as he is walking. This is a notion of looking as he is allowing the audience to see what he is seeing and what is going on around him.

The Intertextual reference that I get from the song is that the dark night time is showing that people feel most lost at night as that when they often begin to think more and this is showing that the lights will guide you from the dark place to the light place where you're meant to be. For Chris Martin this is walking through the dark streets until he gets the stage where its all light.

This sort of music video is an amplification music video. This is because the songs tempo and beat is used for the video to be created. Where the tempo changes, Chris Martin changes speed of walking/ running. The change in the music also prompts a change in the number of cuts between the different shots and the change of the location.