Album Artwork Analysis - Bob Dylan

On this cover, the picture on it interlinks with the name of the album. ‘Together through life’ suggests a vision through the artist’s eyes about a man and a woman battling through life’s obstacles and horrors, together. We can see this with the picture on the cover as both of them are lying in the back of a car, travelling, either, away from something, or are going specifically somewhere, or they could just be generally travelling together. Most of the songs on this album are struggling love songs and so for the artist himself, he has matched the songs to the meaning of his album, obviously the couple on the front of the album are in love or in a relationship and they are ‘travelling together through life’ which s cliché to the lyrics of some of the songs. The picture is in black and white instead of colour, the picture in colour, would bring the cover to life a bit more, but the artist has decided to go for a grainy effect on it which goes back in time for album covers, as in the past all pictures were in black and white. The artist himself has been in the music industry for a lengthy time and his music is dated back to the late 60’s, so he is incorporating old traits from his old artwork, and bringing that old blues-rock genre back into his music. The overall layout is presented to the audience as a split of half and half, the text taking up one half and the picture taking up the other half, so we are not dominated by one picture. The font that is used looks like the old motion picture text on an old-fashioned theatre screen that they had back in the American 1960s as we can see that there isn’t one set of text on the cover, there is three separate looking like its in the motion of changing, like the film has started rolling on the screen.

Album Artwork Analysis - Kings Of Leon

The album cover of come around sundown looks obviously so simple on paper, but it is clever for an album cover that relates to the band, and the music. It has a distinct image, with one picture, by an American beach, edited with a yellow and orangey contrast to create a typical Californian beach look. It being edited with the orange colour is to show the visual of this coast, which is now going into dusk/sunset, and giving it a summery, sunny feel, which, it incorporates back into the title ‘sundown’, as if to say the sundown/sunrise is coming down. This picture also gives me that family feel, as if you’ve just looked into a family scrapbook from, and this is one of the pictures that they have took, on one of those old fashioned film reel cameras. The font on this cover is snazzy and has a southern American look to it, which is ironic as the band is originally from South America, so the idea is closer to home. It has a white text with a slightly orange outline, which makes it bold and doesn’t interfere with the back picture. The picture is the main attraction and the overall appearance of this album is very appealing to the eye. It’s an interesting cover that is not too overly designed or has any real true, deep meaning or representation, which isn’t bad; it just has a creative meaning to it, which is a recurring theme in the bands previous artwork. It is a simple design that didn’t take too long to create and is beneficial to the artist.

Album Artwork Analysis - Mumford & Sons

The artist on the cover is represented as if they are ‘on display’. The bands are in a shop window and are being used as a visual for a shop which seems to have the style of ‘folk’. The artist being a folk band is a good representation to use, as they are both the same. It could be said that because they are being used as a visual in this shop window, that they are displaying themselves to the general public, getting themselves out there. Making it shown that they want to be viewed, and they want their music to be viewed as well. We can see in the picture that it fits well and that they have used contemporary folk representations, such as the instruments (the guitar, banjo and cello), clothes and stance. They almost look like a busking group with the look they have here, which is often where a lot of folk bands and groups originated from, or have done one time or another in there career. The shop being plain doesn’t distract to us to the shop and so focuses solely on the band in the window. The plain white shop itself looks quite bland to the other buildings beside them which are brighter; this represents its difference and makes the audience focus down to the shop window. The style is very neat and it is using this vintage style to try and make the cover seem old fashioned and the location contributes to it, because it has the visual as well. The font is the same to, looking old fashioned, being eloquent and articulate so much that it could be a sign on the door of this shop bringing this folk look, together. It has an overall smart look

It suits to its genre as it is especially picking out all the genre traits, and you can see that just by looking at the cover.  There could be some intertextual reference to do with the band ‘selling their image and look’ in this shop window for the audience and critics.

Costume For Protagonist

These are the costumes and clothing that our protagonist will be wearing. All the clothing fits into the folk genre, for which our video genre is. What will indicate the most is the floral shirt and jacket, the shirt especially as it takes the look of a field full of flower, and in the video we see the protagonist walking through quite a lot of fields to keep with the genre, and it links together, well, using both themes of the genre.

Mood Board

We have a theme of a journey, and one of the significant shots we have in the video is the protagonist walking through a field. The shot of the field is to link in with the theme, the look and the genre.

Using the shots of city and rural areas, is to show the contrast from the agriculture area he walks in compared to the city area which he lives in and is used to.

Having the protagonist play in a cornfield by himself, shows that we are linking the theme into the folk genre, using the common setting that is used in folk videos and using the common instrument of an acoustic guitar, which is used in folk videos aswell. It also links into the type of music that is playing in the video.

The sunrise is used at the beginning of the video and at the end of the video. It is used at the beginning to show that the day is about to start and that is journey is going to begin. And then at the opposite side of the video, at the end, is shown to end the day and that the journey and reflection is finished. It shows how the long the journey is for our character and that it takes the entire day.

When we see that the character has a message from his partner, this is the starting point from the 'small riff' between the pair and sparks off the journey for the male character to go off into this music video to discover the other aspects of this relationship.

We also show the the couple together as a flashback to him of the times that were good with his lover, and the times that they shared. We show the key feature of love which is the base of the whole video.

One of the focus points and features to indicate that we are keeping in the folk genre is the costume. The waistcoats, other coats, and floral shirts are the clothing we use in this video but are the common visuals in the folk scene.

Location Shots

The big sizes of the buildings here, are included in the music video to make the protagonist at the beginning seem meaningless and small, so the audience are greeted by the landscape and scenery that they are shown when the music video first begins. We use the theme of journey, and we incorporate this theme using the bridge and we are showing him taking his journey as he walks over the bridge from one side to the other.

At this point, we are showing the residential and urban area as to where the protagonist lives. The linear roads and the area contribute to this basic city look, which we were trying to use and one part of a contrast, leading from the city area to the rural area, which we can see the difference that comes later on.

This part, shows the rural area and focus' more on the emotional journey and the mood change that are character takes. The river and the more agricultural setting gives a harmonious feel to this part of the video and we get the message across of his feelings for his 'lover' and the setting around him, reminds him of her.

One of the recurring themes we convey in this video, is the feeling of loneliness as it is more of a self reflection of the character and how he is feeling about the relationship that he is in, so the audience can understand the emotion. The buildings, landscape and scenery and the shots that we use, make it possible for us to show the various themes and feelings, by making the character seem small to everything else and seeing the world go by him. We show him go through this journey of contemplation which is shown throughout.