Textual Analysis3 album and 3 magazine adverts

Black and white filter on the picture gives the album an authentic and old feel to it, that it is vintage somewhat. It also adds a sense of minimalism and detachment from the audience which allows the listener to take the album how they want – the colouring and album cover doesn’t influence this as much as it would be if it was brightly coloured etc., we don’t know what to expect from the music and keeping it neutral allows it to appeal to anyone.

Lana wears casual clothing which gives off the impression that she as an artist is very laid back – which then may be reflected in her music. The picture overall is a pretty standard and has a very relaxed and informal set up. The expression on her face is serious/sad which could give us an insight into the type of vibe the music will likely give off.

The way the picture is framed she as the only significant individual has been placed to the right hand side and covering most of the dimension, this and the fact that the left hand side is heavily darker as she wears white it gives her an angelic look and the contrast is nice. Her stance is very laidback and lounged yet she has her left arm placed in front of her which you could take as being some kind of a guard – which then links to the album title ‘ultraviolence’ and guarding and protecting yourself is a heavy connotation to violence.

The typography is placed in a bold font which gives it high significance on the cover and placing it in bright white fits in with the monochrome theme. Keeping this simple font throughout her albums and covers allows the it to be easily recognised within her target audience and relates to the simplicity of her music.

The parental advisory banner also fits in with the theme of the album cover, black and white theme and ensures the safety of younger audiences that may be exposed to explicit words, this is a conventional and essential aspect of all explicit album covers.

Using these two shades of blue colours allow the band to explore different depths, literally, to do with the water yet also suggesting the depths they reach with their music also.

The naked baby is used to portray the band as reckless and the bands alternative/individuality – they want a reaction from the audience whether it be an offensive or supportive one, they want their album cover to be out of the norm therefore drawing many people to it and consequently increasing sales because of heightened talk about it.

The camera angles used are from the bottom up, prominently focusing on the baby, it gives a dominant feel to the baby and allows the audience to focus on it because it is placed in the middle of the screen and not to either side. The baby is not making eye contact with the camera therefore leading the idea that it is focusing mainly on the money and the fact that babies are easily led/naïve. You would not expect a baby to be chasing money yet it could explain the way in which society/ America is obsessed with money and capitalism.

The typography used contrasts really well with the calming colours of the background. The fonts are both used in capital to give a sense of urgency and simplicity. The name of the album’s text has been manipulated to match the theme of water. The way it has been waved and stretched represents what the theme of the music may be and also the kind of way in which the music might affect you and represent a psychedelic/hallucinative feel.

The fact that the artist hasn’t used a picture of himself because it is his second version of the album suggests that he has established himself as an artist and doesn’t need this to sell it.

The fact that the filter on the picture portrays quite a dated and sepia tone. This therefore gives off a vintage, old feel which therefore leads and links to the fact that Eminem usually raps about his past – and will do so on this album. The black border around the track cover gives the impression of a polaroid kind of picture suggests a retro and authentic kind of feel because he cant afford the latest technology therefore bringing about problems and theories as to why he may have moved away from this house etc.

Eminem has chosen to include a picture of his old childhood home on the cover as well as including the number of the house ‘’19946’’ shows that it is still relevant to him and may often appear in his music. It gives the audience a really personal insight into his life which allows us to become aware that the emotional naivety the music will incorporate. As well as using his real, full name ‘’marshall mathers’’ to name the album also adds to the personal feel of the album and that you are likely to understand and become to know the artist on a deep level from this music.

The setting is derelict and devastated which could reflect that Eminem wants to remain reminded of this place and that it holds a lot of memories, good and bad equally. The overgrown shrubbery and plants suggests confinement and isolated feeling of living here.

The artist has used his name in the form of his logo appealing to his usual audience as they will always recognise this as him, the capital letters stand out amongst the central position of the house.

The camera angle of this picture is from the point of view of someone emerging from the woods, this gives the impression that he is visiting and it from quite a low down angle, this suggests that the house is important and at the forefront of his mind at this time.

The name of the artist has been placed at the top of the page in a white colour compared to the black means that it immediately comes to the audiences eye and is recognised as the most important aspect.

The use of the album name ‘lungs’ could suggest that music is an essential part of this artists life and that they can’t in some way live without it. This gives the album a more emotional and passionate feel which then leads to the audience anticipating a heartfelt album which targets a specific audience especially current fans of her music.

The picture of the lungs being able to be seen through Florence's see through t-shirt could suggest her revealing everything and showing her true self through this album. It is kind of grotesque because the organ is fully on show as well which intrigues the audience when they come across this.

Dark and faded colours give the poster a vintage and worn out look, this reflects her style and she wants the audience to know this. The picture of her is in the style of a painting not a picture which again shows her old fashioned style and allows a more inconspicuous finish to the poster.

The use of typography is bold and uses all capital letters. Keeping the writing short and to the point gives a more minimalist cover and you don’t want the audience to be overwhelmed with writing as then they are less likely to pay attention to it. She uses the same font throughout apart from in her masthead of her name, this shows that it is separate from this and differentiates the normal, informative text from the artist/bands name.

Her stance in the picture is significantly relaxed, she looks almost as though she is asleep on a bed of flowers – this gives an insight for the audience as to what kind of genre she is going to be basing the album around.

The fact that the colour black has been used intensively suggests darkness and rebellion that could be shown through her music, it gives the audience an idea ahead of hearing the album what it will be about. Gold and black are also the conventional colours of R n B and glamour in the hip hop scene immediately giving us an idea to the genre of this artists music.

As most people are likely to be drawn immediately to the pictures on the adverts the artist has chosen to print the name and album name over the top of this as a bid to try and maximise the amount of attention this gets first.

The artist mentions the fact that another one of her popular songs is also featured on the album which adds to the selling point – people that like this song now will be curious as to what her other songs sound like and are more likely to buy it if they are a fan of her other music – this is a selling point that a lot of artists use to promote their albums – releasing one of the songs from it as a teaser etc. She has additionally added another artist on the front of this, mentioning ‘B.o.B’ also aids as a selling point as it widens the audience to people that also like this artist.

The fact that the artist has chosen to print her name in gold suggests that she is big in the music industry and thinks highly of herself because we often associate this colour with royalty and wealth.

Centring the information in the middle of the page allows everything to be easily accessible to the eye. It is underwhelming because of the lack of depth in the text which is attractive to the audience because they don’t have to skim read to find important information – it is all there for them. Including a website for the artist also allows the audience to access additional information about the artist before buying the album.

The artists stance in this picture is quite confident and the fact that her hands are in front of her head attracts attention to it – she could be doing this on purpose and be suggesting she is happy about the way she looks. Her expression is serious suggesting the message she is going to be giving in the album is a serious matter.

The use of graffiti and bright colours suggests rebellion from the group – rebellion against norms and wanting to be different from other groups. The use of different colours such as red, oranges and yellows suggests passion and anger which therefore connotes to the genre of their music – rock.

Having a black border and then focusing all the colour in the middle of the page creates a saturated focal point and also could connote to ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’ which this album could be for fans of the band.

The picture of the two cartoon individuals on the front kissing and the fact that the album is called ‘21st century breakdown’ could suggest a teenagers kind of ‘breakdown’ which is usually to do with love and relationships – they have then tried to use irony to allude to this, maybe trying to mock todays generation.

Using the words ‘the wait is finally over’ suggests that this album is one that they spent a lot of time on and perfecting for their market. This makes you want to listen to the album more because you are putting trust in the artist who has spent their time making it perfect to listen to. This type of thing significantly appeals to people that are already fans of green day because after listening to all of their music there is a natural desire for more and giving this finally after a while is likely to cause popularity for the album.

Again using the mentioning of a popular and previously released song by the band just increases the likeliness of people to buy the album if they listen to this music.

As you can see the artist have chosen to place their band name in a bold white font and to make it bigger than all the other typography on the page making it stand out more and recognised as the primary bit of information – they have somewhat ranked the importance of the information with the colour of the text – the most important being in white because this is also seen with the release date.