Analysing a music album magazine advert

Analysing a music album magazine advert

The album advert that we as a group are analysing is that of the American based recording artist Gwen Stefani’s and it is called Love Angel Music Baby. She recorded her first solo album “Love angel Music Baby” and was released to the United States in the year 2004; this album shook the world and was a great hit with over 7 million sales in the shops Love. Angel. Music. Baby. This album was designed as an updated version of a 1980s music record, and was influenced by artists such as early Madonna. . The album yielded six singles and had high sales, going multi-platinum in several countries, and selling eight million copies worldwide. It earned Stefani six Grammy Award nominations in 2005 and 2006; the album is primarily pop, with the synthesizer’s characteristic of synthpop, most popular from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. Like all pop albums of the 1980s, L.A.M.B. focuses primarily on money, with songs such as "Rich Girl" and "Luxurious" that feature descriptions of riches and wealth

By just looking at the album cover the audience gets this sort of idea that it is about being glamorous as Gwen Stefani is sat on what looks like a distorted throne, this indicates her status as a leading female artist of the 1980’s era. The dancers behind her also signify the intensity of how much she took over the music industry.

The colour co ordination that was used in this album cover are all colours that are catchy from a distance in the eyes of anybody, from the dark red to the brightly lit yellow.

Rolling in the deep by adele video analysis

As part of me and my groups analysis I will be looking at the video “ rolling in the deep” by the English artist Adele, she is known for writing songs to do with her past life and bad relationships. This song furthermore stresses the fact that she is forever depressed. And it falls into the narrative category because the story line is a portrait of a phase that has been through in her life and she is telling the story to the world.

The song would fall under the genres of either soul, blues or pop because it starts off slow paced and then the tempo speeds up to a dance speed towards then end of the song. She is known for her music to fall into the blues category because that is her specialty

The camera use in this video tells a lot because it allows the audience to understand what the artist ”Adele” is actually feeling and sort of puts the audience in her shoes. Long shots are used in this video to symbolize a form of loneliness and emptiness she is feeling, this in comparison to the song works because in the song she is singing about being left by her boyfriend meaning she is lonely, her also being in a big room all by her self sat in the middle of the room also symbolizes vulnerability and loneliness.

There was a range of different shots in this video from panning shots to tracking and also sweep shots across the glass cups. These shots can be found where the camera is sweeping over the glasses. And also were she is sat in the room all by herself to exaggerate her loneliness as the camera pans around the room.

The costume use in this video is one color dominated really, she is wearing a black dress throughout the video to symbolize sadness and mourning because she is heartbroken from the previous relationship. This has caused her mentality and the way she sees males to change because now she is in “ recovery mode “. Also we see a pile of shattered plates on the floor this may have been used to personify as her heart being broken and the plates being glass may have been used to symbolize that she is fragile and could easily be heartbroken has she has just been, there were quite a number of broken plates on the floor and I think this is to tell the audience that she has been heartbroken a lot of times has the plates crash on top of each other violently.

She is sat in a big house all by herself and it looks like she is jus about to move in with her boyfriend but is now having second doubts because of the failed relationship and the house looks like it is still unfinished/ under construction, this could be also mean that her life at the moment is under construction.

The lighting in this video also is in comparison with the general dominant color in the video which is black there is a black room with white lighting in it to once again signify emptiness and mourning. There is a big bright whit light on the wall in the video, which may mean a way out from her troubles, which she is facing. Asif the light is the answer to her problems but it is only of a small scale which could mean she is far off .

The stairs of which the drummer is at is another similar shot that portraits loneliness because it makes the house look a lot void than it is. On a concluding note this video appeals to the selected audience of which it is targeted to because of the genre and what the video is telling the audience. The selected colors of the graphics and costumes in the video is based upon are very accurate because it initiates sadness because of the color black. The location also makes the singer look alone and in dispair because she is sat alone by herself in a big empty house.

Chica boom Video analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMn3Rb7jAzA

I have decided to analyze Chica bomb by dan Balan as when I have firstly watched it on my own I have found it very effective and cleverly designed. The video genre is dance pop and very upbeat but because of its right proportion between instrumental and lyrics I think it would capture a wider audience than a normal dance pop video .One of its main attractions is good acting the props are life like the locations are appropriate and the actors are playing their role effectively . There is no flaws in the basic elements needed to create this video witch is why i believe it has such a strong foundation .There is a lot of movement and energy present , it is very much so a performance based video .There is some dancing and lip singing involved but also narratively there is active suggestions to the lyrics . The video has plenty of variety in shots types such as , close ups, long shots, medium long shots, extreme long shots, two shots and many more .I like the variety in lighting as it varies from studio perfectly lit , to neutral lighting , trough blinds giving a nice atmospheric effect .The other lighting effect that is very effective is the backlighting as it turns the figure into a black outline and has a very effective contrast to it .

What I like about this video is the parallel editing in the scenes .Even though this video is very conventionally in some elements such as the close ups ,the dancing, montage editing and so forth i still believe the ways its constructed along with the basic features still makes it stand out with a bit of a mister to the story line as the lyrics aren't that specific and could be related to various different things. What i think makes this video even more beautifully sculpted is that the two time lines merge towards the end and the begin cross cutting between the present and the past witch I think is very symbolic as i think it beholds the true nature of relationships and how they choose to intertwine the past shots with the present witch recreates the beginning of the video witch shows the reason why the girl was favorites at the beginning of the video . Theoretically the motions of this video are so interlinked they could go on a constant loop a simile to most dysfunctional relationships like the one they are stating in the video of how couples split up and get back together as they were singing about each other at the begging of the clip so they evidently had past encounters and also they were together at the end with the suggestive shots of the past creating that illusion. Another stunning feature of this video would be the fade in transitions.

Third analysis. Greatest Day by Take That.

The third and final music video that I and my group have decided to analyse is that of the English based song writers / boy band Take that. And the song we have chosen is Greatest Day the video for “Greatest Day” was filmed on location in Los Angeles on top of a 60 storey building in the downtown area. This song was recorded and also released in November 2008

This music video would fall under the Performance category because the band is on top of a really high building singing and dancing to this song. Them being on top of this building annotates that they are on top of the world and ironically singing about the “Greatest Day”.

The chosen genre of this music video is that of “Pop” the tempo of the music starts off to a beat that can be danced to, the band are normally known for their Pop based music anyway. In this video the use of the camera is very important because the camera connects with the audience and shows the audience that it is the greatest day. First of all there is a helicopter shot of the city of Los Angeles so as to show off the city and also what greatness the city reflects. The camera moving up and down showing the off the city and the happiness on the face of the performers once again reflects on the title “greatest day” because it looks like they are having the time of their lives.

The camera at a point gets a long shot of the men stood on top of a 60 storey building in a long shot to signify vulnerability because they are out in the open world surrounded by “life” and nature itself, but this is quickly overshadowed by the time that the camera zooms in upon their faces and sees brightness and happiness written all over their faces.

The costume in this video is quite different because of the colour of the shirts that they are wearing which is black. In comparison to the title and lyrics of the song of it being “ the greatest day of their lives” wearing black clothing sort of downs that because the colour black suggests unhappiness and sadness. I would personally say that brighter clothing would have been more appropriate so as to match the title of the music video greatest day.

CD cover Research

(front cover)

I have decided to study Adele s over for this as she is the main inspiration trough this hole video as we believe her image reflects her lyrics .As you can see on the cover there is a black and white effect on an image of her face as a base .I believe the black and white effect is a symbol of a curtain mood she carries out trough the hole album . Back and white can be associated with coldness , colorless is as equal to lifeless , an analogy to her having the life dragged out of her by these things she sings about .Her facial expression is very serious , witch is also suggestive of the music genre(blues ) and lyrics .At the same time this front cover show her imagery trademarks ,those being, black ,and false eyelashes.

As in the title , she keeps a continuos house-style trough-out her album over and her dress code , showing allot of colour orientation . As her wardrobe , she only uses a touch of color on a black and white canvas being the rest of her album . The only color is the number which is 21 . Her other house style is naming her albums by numbers Eg:19 and 21.Her album 19 also uses the number in a touch of color with a dark background and white writing just like the album 21.

(back cover)

on the back cover you can see another face shot , in the same black and white effect , keeping a sustain consistency . I have realized that Adele's photography for her album resembles allot to Edward western 's work . A photographer in the that worked earlier in the 1900's, therefore we have decided to use his style of shots variety and his style of editing too .even-though he uses sepia as well as black and white , this is still very atmospheric and incorporating Adele's image very well .YOu can also see the titles of her songs in white ringing as the wring is on the front also and on the rest of her albums. i think she uses white writing on dark backgrounds to suggest her songs are the good things that came out of all of those bad experiences . The silver lining of her clouds.Her face says allot about the album . As it strongly expresses the mood and tone of the music and also her face says that its about her .The barcode is centerlised at the bottom .

(inside covers )

As you can see the inside covers are filled with white writing keeping in theme with the house-style .This writing includes details about the album Things such as titles and producing details to details on people she thanks in response to the production of this product .The background is also keeping in theme as it is non color its in fact a shade .We appreciate the classic style of this inside cover but however we are going to use something a little more imagery and we will combine this style with another inside album cover we have decided to analyze and study .

Product treatment

The music video: The song we are going to make a music video for is “Turning tables “ by Adele.

Duration : 4.08 minutes.

Audience: The Audience could be anything from 12 + as its not got any scenes of nudity no inappropriate scenes apart from minor stress and conflict implied witch is why its unsuitable for under 12 year old children .It could defiantly appeal to a much older audience as well as the youth because of the genre of music that appeal to the younger ages , yet the lyrics can defiantly interest an older audience because of the reflecting the same emotions and experiences they may have experienced , this is a very effective way to create a strong bond to the audience .As the gender is pop blues , it may appeal to female audiences more than male as statistics show women are more intro emotional music as they are far more sensitive to this genre .

Resume : This song has a very strong background and was very much so inspired by a true stories . You can feel the emotions in this song so well that the audience know its real and its just one of the things that attracts its audience and our group to produce a video as it is so much raw emotions to work with an reflect in our video .This song has put a plenty of ideas in our heads and we think it’s a great song to work with and easy to interpret it in a creative manor. This song is about a couple and the troubles of a relationship. This song reflects specifically to a curtain aspect of a relationship and the situation is that the male character is turning the tables on our performer ,Adele .She sings about the struggles and the feelings involved and how its going to be next time , meaning she has learned something from this experience and if she was to do it again she would do it differently” next time ill be braver ill be my own savior .She is singing that she cant do this anymore and its time to end her constant cycles of grief “ its time to say goodbye to turning tables “.

Suggested elements :a big element in our video is performance .throughout the clip you will see scenes of couples towards the beginning of the song the couple would be happy and in love as a reference to how it was in the beginning of the relationship an towards the middle and end they start to argue and fight as a reflection to the same points in their relationship were things started to go wrong in the middle and conclude to an end. These will be refereed to as flashbacks in there relationship.So to give that effect evidently trough imagery , we will use a back and white effect on those scenes.At various stages of our filming we will have an actress in reflection to Adele .She will be in similar dress style and with Adele's trademark witch are black and fake eyelashes .She will be Lip-singing whilst playing the song on piano and she will also be lip-singing whilst walking as a symbolism of her walking away from the relationship.The man will be wearing some elements of black to represent his loss .Locations will be some everyday locations as this is an everyday common relationship struggle and they would occur in everyday environments.However the Performance element will not be as preforming is not as casual and needs more preparation .Therefore we will look for unusual and strong places to preform at.

Recording days :The amount of days we are estimating for production is around 3 weeks. Post production will in-tale around 4 weeks .As to budget we will try to use props we have already got but as we would like to achieve a realistic effect with the camera we are going to hire a more professional camera witch is estimated to cost around 80 pounds per day.

Second CD cover

What first strikes me about this album cover is a what looks like a plastic display of Florance's Lungs as she is captured in a mid-shot .This may show she is a very direct and creative artist and by showing her insides on the cover she may be directly referring to her feelings and emotions .So to me this indicates what the album is really about .her gaze is at a lowered angel at herself , like she is looking within.Her body language is that her hands are fully up like she is surrendering and as I've mentioned the symbol of her feelings , together they may imply she is surrendering to her feelings .

In the background you can see some nature some lovely un-blossomed flowers that may be a direct reference to her , along with the beautiful birds with long coloured feathers yet they are not flying or spreading their wings .The curtain implies that she has more to reveal than the cover states behind the curtain , were the album is placed .The black background may state that she is in the dark about something, and the childlike writing and writing + instead of and may suggest the album may also be about learning and could specifically be from her experiences.The white then continues from around the writing to bring the hole image together .

The back cover is black and white . Assumable that the artists is making it black and white for us , in other words simple , she has even drawn you a diagram pointing to each part of the insides and numbering it with a song almost showing a musical journey trough her insides . Or on a more literal level , were her music came from .

More costume research : Fashion Icons

Here are some strong bold fashion icon that has brought this colour into my pallet , And strongly influenced the style in this video at the performance elements .The length of these dresses has also inspired me as it adds a sense of class and grace i would like to achieve in our video .

Another colour we decided to use with black is white . This is because of many reasons . Directly , it is the opposite of black as are the two characters this song is about they are contrasting and conflicting to the eye as the characters and in personality.Also white is the colour of peace and black is a symbolism of the ends of things . Directly implying that peace will be brought to her from the end of that relationship . It is also a direct reference to the piano she is playing in the video as the main instrument this song is composed of is piano .Originally i have seen some dresses in white on the red carpet on women such as Kim Kardashian and Padma Laksimi and tohrght that they looked gracefull witch was an element i wanted to capture in my vedio and trye to do so by using the colour they wore .

Last colour we will be using with black is gold . She will only be wherein gold in flashbacks of their good times together symbolization of the best times in their relationship as gold is a rich colour that is associated with great things such as Christmas witch is an indirect symbolism of togetherness and literal gold itself .Main star to bring this to my attention and is a great example of what i mean is Megan foxes outfit on the Golden Glow Awards .

The reason why i will have so many costume changes in my video is to imply that this has gone on over a long period of time in several locations in several situation. It shows a certain timeline and creates the illusion of these things happened with time apart . It is also to symbolism the stages of their relationship and to emphasizes surtain aspects .

Music Genre -PoP Ballads

We have chosen a song that is a pop ballad.So then i have decided to look at three pop Ballads for a little inspiration . These are :Someone like you by our chosen artist Adele http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0&ob=av3e

Robbie Williams - Feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc06ZOJCqIA&feature=fvst

and Beyonce - Listen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc1R1JMTMKQ

Adele is most famous for this type of songs and she preforms very emotional songs. Therefore we thought bringing that emotion out would be a great feature and aim for our music video . Firstly i have started by watching her Video for another Pop ballads of her . A more famous peace that she has gotten around to creating a video for .This video is" someone like you ".In the video you can see Adele lip singing her song in a beautiful yet ill weathered location . this is very effective as you can directly see her expressions and her emotions clearly . Therefore we have decided we are going to use some lip sinking in our video.Her video is also this effective because of the black and white effect applied to this video .We are going to use this in our video not
only for the impact but to keep in house-style with Adele way of working . This h

ouse-style of hers is carried out through her album cover as well .Even though Adeles vedio , someone like you is a good vedio , we will try do a lot more verious locations . Also we have noticed it is one one time line in one time frame , a continuous peace . We have decided that we cannot do that as we will be a little more creative with our timeline and events , w

e got this insiration for Beoncey's video for Listen .

I love the way she mixed performance and narrative and sows some strong bursts of emotions .This has inspired me to mix performance and narrative as i can clearly see that they do

combine very well when it comes to pop ballads , especially when a song like Turning tables has such a strong complex and pictorial story-line .Just like the song Listen Adele's s

ong has various bits where her voice is much stronger and emphasis as the emotion is getting across allot cleared therefore we will also use her video inspiration for her statement makeing moments.

I've also noticed close ups work well in ballads ,not only in Adele video but in Robbie William's es video feel witch is also a pretty legendary pop ballad .

What also inspired me by his video is a rotational movement in the camera along with some panning and tracking shots .Since the tile of my video is " Turning tables " i thought this same movement would be beneficial and relevant to my video .

Two shots are also very common in Beoncey's and Robbie Williams's video .And as they are both Pop ballads they have also planted the idea in my head that using an extra actor to act out the narrative of the story line could work quite well in subtle ways .However at the same time i will try not to capture the second characters face as much , because i believe if i did it would draw too much scene of importance to him and this is not about him its about her own experience and spin on the situation and who he is is irrelevant . i would like to leave the face placement to whoever the audience presive him to be as the her fans may be able to relate to it a little bit better .

They also both show flashback of past situations , to juxtaposition past and present situation to make it clear to the viewer what has transpired and the way things have changed .They can also be used to illustrate the lyrics and connect on a very direct level to what the artist is singing

about.In This case he is singing in sad times reminiscing over happy ones . Just like Adele is singing how the tables have turned yet in the beginning of the song she had stated ,"close enough to start a war" therefore implying things must have been pretty good before this has started happening .

In the end , the choice is ours to make . At the ending of the song she said "its time to say goodbye to turning tables , but the tabloids have previously said that they have been getting back together and splitting up .And As far as the saying turning tables goes , splitting up and breaking up go hand in hand so weather towords the end we show then splitting up and at the end they get back together , it would create the effect of a never ending story therefore the turning of the tables yet again .But for more meaning and dramatic effect we have decided the story-line to show a conclusion to their relationship .

Make up props and costume: Adele inspiration

My main inspiration point for the make up and costume is Adele .As she is the artist i believe she should be the main influence as the song is a reflection of her own life and experiences and she is the author and the performer of this , i believe this could well be presented in her own personal style and would also add a classy touch and atmospheric look to out video. Her hair style is very simple and casual yet suitable for any occasion.Th fringe and fond hair is very flattering and face framing .Even though she manages to make her eyes stand out in many other ways ,the close drop of the fringe big more attention to the eyes , witch is the focus point of most emotions , and as she is a very emotional expressive artist this is a beneficial feature .We will stylise our Actress in this same way to strive to achieve this very same look, however we are inspired by a different colour palette for the hair colour , even though her hair is a caramel colour , we think a better representation of emotion in this song is black, as black represents loss ,fighting and the emotional war this song represents . Another technique to emphasise the eyes (as we believe this was our artist's beautician's goal )that we will use is heavy eye liner ,as you can see she uses above .As you can see Adele's skin tone is quite fair , but the reason why we will use light make up is to emphasise the emotion and as far as stereotypes follow colourless face represents sadness and sorrow ."pale with grief " is one of the many phrases used to connect skin tone with emotions.

Last yet not least , the finishing touch to the make up i will be using is one of Adele's most known trademarks along with the colour black is , long , bold and statement making , fake eyelashes .

as when it comes to wardrobe , Adele is very subtle and classy , nothing too elaborate or flashy.she is very concealed and appropriately dressed unlike most pop stars these days . Even though she possesses all these qualities she still dresses femininely and seems to like her dresses and frocks .her glamourous yet vintage way of dressing pay quite close references to 50's and 60's dramatic diva looks . Black being her primary base colour at all times topped off with a subtle touch of colour giving her that little bit of an edge and courteously structured simple glamour .This is the type of effect i will be trying to recreate in our video , however the colour we are going to use with the black is more symbolic to the song as it represents what she is singing about and this is love . The colour the we will be using is red, not a colour often seen wearing but its yet most appropriate for said lyrics .

As she only wheres a touch of colour each time we have decided on strong and bold colours .One particular colour will will use and emphasise the story line is red as it symbolises love . And as black will be accompanying this colour , black being a symbol of death , the overall meaning would suggest dead or dyeing love that they have for each other .Red is also i symbol of power , witch is also handy as she is the character with the power in this video as she is ending it "time to say goodbye to turning tables ".