Album Releases Analysis

Bass Hunter
The use of the blue colour scheme suggests masculinity as well as this new album being cool and fresh. The sports car prop connotes wealth and ‘coolness’. A car can also be a symbol of males as males are known to take their pride and joy into belongings such as cars and houses ect. Also it has links with the beat and spead of the dance music being fast and upbeat. This image also has an intextual reference to the 80’s tv series ‘Night rider’ as this is a film well known for fast cars also could have a reference to the film ‘too fast too furious’. The overall appearance reflects the theme of night club culture. Strobe lights all go in together behind the image of the artist and the car this brings in all the attention focusing on him. His costume is very casual; jeans, trainers, white t-shirt and a leather jacket showing his approach to his music is laid back and its seen as a hobby as well as a career. The leather jacket connotes rebellion; this act shows authority and shows us that he doesn’t have to dress smartly to show his success. The font used is white capital bold font, this really stands out on the blue background and he name of the artist is emphasised by horizontal thick lines these could symbolise road markings, which link in with the image of the sports car. I think this cover particularly targets a male audience through colours, themes, fonts and images all of these work together giving a masculine vibe off.

Janet Jackson

This is the advertisement for Janet Jackson is really playing on its simple appearance of black and white. Even though you would assume that a black and white effect wouldn’t stand out and be eye-catching this advertisement is, the use of glowing shadowing contrast behind the image really brings it forward. This image of Janet Jackson takes up more than half of the magazine advert gives dominance over the audience consuming this advertisement. The lack of clothing that she has on shows she has confidence in herself yet with her arms wrapping around herself shows she is still quite a reserved person, and keeps herself to herself. Its really different how she has got the name of the album and her name sort of hand painted onto her leather gloves could indicate that her music represents her and its original. Her facial expression is straight on looking into the camera, her make up appears to be very natural and not over done showing she doesn’t rely on her looks to attract an audience, her statement is quite laid back that she is portraying. The font still follows through the simple appearance by using a plain readable font which isn’t over crowded. Janet Jackson specialises her music to the R & B and pop genre yet this advertisement doesn’t echo this type of music when you first look at it you would think it reflects rock, therefore this suggests that this album is something new and fresh different from what she is used to releasing. A link to a website is along the bottom of this advertisement, if people are attracted to this advertisement they are likely to take the lead and go onto this website finding out more about this album and this website can be used to advertise her even further making people more likely to go out and purchase the album.

Cascada

This advert for cascada’s new album ‘Evacuate the dance floor’ has stuck to a precise colour scheme of purple and white. Even though this reflects a feminine side to the artist it doesn’t indicate or give of any vibe of her genre of music. As we normally associate dance music with neon and bright stroke lighting effects like the bass hunter advert above. In contrast the white text shows up well on the darker purple background which is a key element for a billboard as people may be viewing this from a further away distance; this means it is readable still. The same font which has been used on the album cover has been used on the font used to print her name, which links the actual album cover to the theme of the billboard advertisement. The albums name is still on capitals yet appears to be slightly smaller this is placed underneath her name. The advertisement doesn’t contain a lot of information as chances are that people viewing it will not have the time to sit and read it or they may be driving past, therefore only key information needs to be stated in order to make sure that is the information the view is consuming. The information stated is the date that the album comes out which means potential buyers of the album are aware from the date they are able to purchase her album. The image of cascada seems very energetic, her mouth is wide open which suggests she’s screaming giving a slight dramatic feeling to it. The airbrushed appearance makes her appear glamorous; attracting both genders of people. Her image appears on the left hand side of the billboard and people read from left to right therefore they are likely to come in contact with this before the writing so they can automatically link her face to her name.

Madonna

Voyeurism is present in this album release advertisement; the image of Madonna is very sexual and is defiantly aimed towards a male audience. Her costume symbolises her fiery attitude towards this particular album. The contrast between the bright pink background and bright blue font really stands out reflecting the genre of dance music, as well as linking in with the album title ‘Hard candy’ as candy itself tends to be bright attractive colours. These colours are vibrant which represent the type of music she produces as stereotypically, dance and rave music are rarely mundane, and are often extravagantly eye-catching. Her name is not on this album release advertisement but this shows that her global recognition is extremely high and people automatically know who she is by her image. The main focus of this actual advertisement is her image as it takes up a majority of the page showing that she’s a successful individual artist. The controversial choice of clothing within this advertisement helps to symbolise Madonna as a “sex icon”, also representing her global dominance as people will resist the temptation to mock her image as her success is greatly recognised. Her facial expression isn’t the typical pose of a female solo artist it’s quite ‘edgy’ and makes a statement. The way she has a tie going into her mouth shows her as dominance over males as well as women. High over the knee boots tend to be associated with sexual connotations of being their to draw in attention of a male audience. The belt around the middle is a champion wrestling belt which shows her strength and superiority that she has in the music industry.

Gwen Stefani

The main image is a blown up image that is used for the front of the album cover, it is quite an airbrushed image of the artist and it edited to look as if she’s a cartoon, the albums title is ‘Love, Angel and Music Baby’- this overall title is quite young sounding which links to the cartooned image. She is sitting in a queens thrown holding a jeweled stick with a jeweled crown beside her the font then follows on this theme of royalty by being gold and written in a script font. This advertisement for an Gwen Stefani’s album release is mainly based around her image as it has very little writing and information. Her name is printed in the largest font and appears just to be below half way this is to make sure none of her image is covered but it is still big enough to catch the audiences attention in the first few seconds of looking at it so people are able to put a name to a picture straight away.