Friday, 29 June 2007

ALBUM COVER ANALYSIS

THE CLASH (SELF TITLED) 1977



FRONT COVER :Image on front full length LS photograph of all band members
Debut album -introduces band members for first time
Confrontational , moody pose, blocking alleyway –directly addressing the camera, intimidating scary image
Dress code –leather jackets, scruffy suits, cigarette in hand, messy hair, GB flag, skinny jeans
Conform to punk rock image and attitude
Not professional picture: low quality, grainy, black and white, torn edges, placed at angle on cover

This scrappy, homemade, DIY effect gives it the image of an indie underground music label, presenting a band which is gritty and real rather than presenting a glossed over or ideal representation -which fots in with the look and attitude of the Punk movement in the late 1970's

BACK: The colour code on the back is the same as the front - black, white, green and fluro orange -creating continuity between the two covers, the text on the back and the sleeve is also the same

The background picture is of a still taken from the music video for their single 'White Riot' -which followed the riots at the Notting Hill Carnival in the late 1970's an influential issue at the time -this demonstrates how they would use their music to make their own political opinions, a strong feature in punk music

This background image of the policemen creates a visual divide. With the Clash on the front and the police on the back it is almost as if it is symbolising the punk movement versus the authority -linked to the sense of Anarchism surrounding the Punk movement.

The bits of spray paint present rebellion, anger and vandalism



Thursday, 28 June 2007

Music Video Style

PRIMAL SCREAM

Some Velvet Morning




Higher Than The Sun




Come Together




Loaded



I love the psychedelic theme which runs throughout their videos using surreal bright saturated colours, slow dream-like pacing, cross dissolving and slow motion effects.

They also use effects such as:
putting negative effect on shots
layering images
repeating footage
playing the performance just behind the music or off the beat/lyrics out of sync

I would like to encorpoate this into the ideas for our music video -although this would be dependant on the genre of the track we choose as these effects are most suited to slow paced psychedelic rock songs.

Potential tracks which suit this style would be by artists such as Bjork, The Velvet Underground, Aphex Twin or Rufus Wainwright.

TRACK SELECTION

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever



How does the track conform?
1. I think it provides a lot of potential to produce original and creative work
2. It has been promoted previously by a video but this is not very well known and was released a while back
3. The target audience is most likely to be popular with older people who were fans of the Beatles -this may be a problem as the song will always be associated with them rather then the band we will be creating
4. It is generically identifiable with the psychedelic music popular around the late 1960's