Types of music videos:

Music videos are split into 3 categories, Narrative based, Performance Based and Concept Based. This helps explain all different types of music videos and puts them into their own categories, this can also help describe the genre of each band or artist.

A Performance based videos is used by both a band or artist, I the video there tends to be some sort of performance that goes with the song. For example dances, battles, public singing. Chris Browns love more is a Performance based video, in this music video you see Chris start Dancing with someone at a club, I think that Performance based video are associated with the pop genre more than any other.

A Narrative based music videos is a video that has some sort of storyline which carries on for the whole of the music video. An example of this is Check Yes Juliet by We the Kings is a narrative based music video because the song matches what’s happening in the music video. In this video you see the singer singing about this girl and how they can’t have a relationship but they fight for each other. This kind of video suits the genre of Alternative rock more than any other genre.

A concept based music video is more of an idea that goes with a song; it doesn’t have any connection with the lyrics. They are more spontaneous ideas that will make the video more appealing   to people. This means that unlike narrative and Performance based video they have to rely more on idea, mise en scene and the movement within the scene. This type of video is associated with the more niche genres like dubstep, electronic and so on. for example Mgmt’s electric feel is a random peace of video, but it helps sell the song and keeps the audience entertained.

Digipak

A popular music artist album cover would be something that stands out and is associated with an artist, an entire albums success or failure can be due to the style of its digipak. The digipak is important because it helps contribute to the overall sales of the album. There is a difference between both the style of a band and solo artist. For example Plan B, is a solo artist therefore the front cover is devoted to him drawing the public in and give the kind of atmosphere of the music inside the album, as you can see by looking at the picture who can’t really see his face. This is because he is a popular music artist who is established and therefore has his own followers; this means they will recognise his still. As you can see from the picture bellow it’s quite dark, sad, secluded, shadowed, and old fashioned, retro, the CD itself is a peace of Paraphernalia of the music age. This visually explains/depicts the style of the songs inside the album and the type of emotion and topics he talks about. What I like about the album cover is the way the design depicts an old disused movie theatre. Through looking at the album cover I think that the songs inside the album would be about love, friendship, anger, betrayal and about him going against other people.

The back of the album cover has the same look which is an old fashioned theatre, most album covers are like this though, it’s only the more extreme artist or bands that don’t follow this rule. As they’re going with a theatre as the them they’ve put the name of the songs on the old school billboards that have the name of the movies on. The font colour and style has stayed the same throughout, Red on white. This make the writing stand out and clear making it the main focus point of the back of the album.

The style of the CD itself is keeping up with the old fashioned look; it’s styled to look like a Vinyl record which is associated to old music records. This has been styled like this to suit plan B’s music some old fashioned singer to more up to date rap, showing that there’s a mix between current and old music and how old music stays around forever just like plan b and this vinyl record CD.

A popular album cover for a band would be something that stands out and is bright colourful and shows the type of music in the album. The digipak behind a bands album cover is very important because it helps draw new audience members in, if the styles right you are able to get anyone to buy it. Bands such as Munford and sons focus on the more arty aspects of the album cover; this is used to make them stand out more from the solo artists. How I would describe the Munford and sons album, it’s bright, colourful, open, inventive, styled to their type of genre and unusual. This means it’s easier to associate with their band.  As you can see from looking at the album cover the main singer isn’t the main focus point the location, colours and brightness are the key focus points showing that the band isn’t down to one person it’s a group work. 

The back of the album cover is plain, not to ruin their image or giving too much away of what’s inside of the music. Again they go with the same background of part of a building, they’ve done this to be different to all other bands, to make them stand out just like there music they like to be one of a kind.  The barcode is located at the top of the album which for me is unusual as most of the album covers I have, have the barcodes at the bottom. At the bottom of the album you see all of the record labels they are with, all albums have to do this as some sort of sponsorship.

What are mandatory when it comes to a albums digipaks:

• ·       Artist’s name – this is designed to make the Artist name to stand out from other albums
• ·         Album name – sometimes the name of the artist isn’t included so they would have the albums name instead.
• ·         Catching image – this is used to draw the people in and make them intrigued by the album
• ·         Track list – this is needed so that the person buying the album can see what songs there are and by a album that suits them.
• ·         Bar code – this is included to make sure that you don’t steal an album
• ·         Logo of the record label – this is used so that people the record labels can advertise there artists.