Digipacks and magazine adverts and their importance

What is a Digipak?
A Digipack is a style of CD or DVD cover that has several panels, consisting of several faces with graphics on them. These faces can have the capability to hold one or more CD's or DVD's in them.
For CD's, Digipak's are predominantly used for compilation albums, or live performance albums with the studio version included. Initially, they are used for CD's that require more than one disc, for example, Now That's What I Call Music.
For DVD's, they are usually used for compilation films, or films that have more than one sequel, for example, The Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Why are they important?
There are several aspects of a digipak that make it so important to the success of the CD itself. Firstly, it promotes the visual aspect of the artist. This means that the visual side of the digipak will represent the artist. For example, the Digipak pictured above for Oasis shows an acoustic guitar on the front. This represents the idea of the band using guitars in their music, therefore promoting their visual persona.
Secondly, it is a product that can be purchased by fans to be kept as a memento. This is because digipaks are seen as somewhat rare, and also decorative. This is good because not only does it encourage fans and followers to purchase the album for the sentimental value, but for the musical purpose.

What is a magazine advert?
A magazine advert is an advertisement that is placed in a magazine to advertise a product or event. In terms of music artists, it can advertise their merchandise, such as albums or souvenirs, as well as upcoming gigs and tours that the artist will be performing at.

Why are they important?
Magazine adverts are important because they firstly promote the artist to audiences of the magazine; this audience may not initially be aware of the artist. This factor means that the artist could potentially gain a broader audience, and their sales figures will in turn increase. In addition, it will promote upcoming events or products the artist could be soon releasing - products that could be advertised in this advert as well as products that are not evident in the advert itself. This will also boost monetary sales for the artist and production company, as well as promote the products that are currently available.

The Cultural Effects Model

What is the Cultural Effects model?
The Cultural Effects Model is the idea that audiences ideology of texts are constructed over time - instead of immediately - by seeing various amounts of different media  products, additionally known as the drip effect. This is because the frequent ideas slowly 'drip' into our minds, ergo eventually forming a fundamental portrayal of media texts.

How is it used in music videos?
Initially, it has been used in several ways in contemporary music videos. Despite this, the fundamental portrayal of females and their beauty has been formed so that women are seen with similar traits throughout the media. This constructs an idea of what is defined as 'beauty', and due to this idea of having a similar portrayal of females throughout many media texts, this is seen as normal. This is why it is believed by many individuals.

This is shown in different music video texts, but is usually shown in videos that convey the idea of voyeurism, and the impression that 'sex sells'. This is shown in these sort of music videos by females wearing minimal clothing, and using their bodies to entice the audiences, and attract them.
This applies to the drip effect whereby overtime, this has become the norm, and by looking at the most popular videos on YouTube to date, these characteristics have all been met.
For example, Rihanna's video for 'Pour It Up' is very sexual, and we see many shots of her in seductive positions, as well as clothing. In addition, Nikki Minaj's video for 'Anaconda' has attracted massive worldwide attention, due to the sexual nature of the video.
These videos are examples of how we are encouraged to see women in their beauty, and is becoming a normal aspect due to it's frequent occurrence in the media.

We are not going to use this technique in our final music video. This is because our music video will promote an immediate idea, rather than a gradual idea throughout several videos. Additionally, the aspects in our video are already ideologies that currently prominent in existing media texts.

Magazine advert from chosen genre (Electronic)

Chase & Status
This magazine advert for the Chase & Status album 'No More Idols' is used here to promote an upcoming event at Yeovil Westlands on Saturday 12th march.

Typography
Considering the overall image used in the background is the same image use on the album cover, as well as the text, the text of this piece has been design to match the typography on the album cover. This is so that it looks as if it should be a part of the image, and meets the house style that was intended on the album cover.
It is a bold font, which makes it very readable and easy to see by the audience, therefore making the information easier to consume.
The informative text itself includes information regarding the event, the artist name and other details external to the artist, such as websites, phone numbers and hotlines.

Colours
The colours used in this advert match the house style of their other artwork, similarly to the typography. Particularly since their 'No More Idols' album, the singles and remixes have matched this style. On their artwork that includes images in the background, they are black & white. For example, the single of 'Let You Go', which was featured on the No More Idols album, has a similar style that matches the overall house style. Similarly, the single for Blind Faith has no image as the background, but still meets this style. This style predominantly features black and yellow. This choice of colour is due to the differentiation between them, therefore offsetting the text to make it easier to read. If the colours were too similar, it would be difficult for the audience to read.

Images
The images used on this magazine advert are simply that of a dog. The reason for this is because it is the same image that is used on the album cover. Due to the idea of keeping the advert the same style as the album, the image is used again, similarly to the text used. This too meets the house style that frequents throughout the singles and remix album covers, whereby it is a random image (with what seems like no relevance), in black and white. This is effective as it is a memorable and abstract image, however can largely be associated with this album (image of a bulldog).

Specific music video knowledge

Here, I have mind mapped my specific knowledge from what I have learned in my media theory lessons. This is an advance from my general knowledge I had at the beginning of my course, and is applicable to both my coursework project, and other aspects of music videos including analysis as well as general viewing of music video texts.