Analysing an Album cover



• The title of this album is presented in the form of a tattoo on Rihanna’s left forearm which reads “Talk that Talk”. On a denotative level this tattoo appears to be similar to the phrase “talk the talk” which means to say something which sounds boastful but is in fact accurate. On a conative level, it appears as though the lyrics that are featured in this album’s music will sound legitimate to her target audience as if Rihanna can sing or ‘talk’ in a way that her target audience can relate to.

• This CD cover presents Rihanna in a mid shot, which focuses on her face and clothing. She seems to be wearing a party a black and white blouse and three rings on her index, middle and ring fingers. One her face, she is wearing dark red lip stick and a lot of mascara around her eyes. In addition her hair is shown to be very unruly and she has her hand covering her head. On a connotative level it appears as though Rihanna has just spent a night out partying and is now in the aftermath of those events. This could be implied by Rihanna’s attire and the make up she is wearing. Additionally she is holding her head as if she is currently suffering from a headache or a hangover. This presents Rihanna as being rebellious and also implies that the music featured in this album will be very loud and similar to party music.

• Rihanna is wearing very thick red lip stick, along with her tongue sticking out of her mouth. The red colour of her lip stick symbolises love which could imply that this album’s music may contain themes of love. Additionally the fact that the red colour is shown through Rihanna’s lip stick is effective in terms of representation as the red also signifies passion as she looks very seductive as she is licking her lips.
• Furthermore this same signifier is used to reinforce the theme of rebellion that is being promoted through this album cover. This is evident as Rihanna is seen sticking out her tongue which is commonly seen as a sign of rudeness and immaturity.

• Rihanna’s eyes are covered in mascara which contrasts her fair skin. She has a large amount underneath her eyes. Her eyebrow is significantly narrowed as they are both vertically pointing downwards. One of her eyes is partially covered by her unkempt hair. From a conative point of view, these aspects of Rihanna’s facial features show Rihanna as being somewhat of a bad influence on her target audience. This is shown as she has blackened eyes along with pointed eyebrows which give her a dark and disturbing expression as she glares to the audience in the cover.

• Rihanna’s full name isn’t shown on the cover. This is because she is already very well known worldwide which would mean that Rihanna only needs to use her image in order to sell her music as her face would be instantly recognisable in many different countries due to her worldwide fame. Instead of her full name, the letter ‘R’ is seen on the left hand corner of the CD cover. This letter can be seen as being somewhat of a recurring motif for Rihanna, as this same letter/symbol was also featured on Rihanna’s previous album ‘Rated R’. In addition this consistency could also indicate this album may contain very similar elements to Rihanna’s previous album.

• The font of this motif is very large with jagged edges. The colour of its font appears to be white and grey along with many small overlapping words on its surface which gives this motif a newspaper like texture as if this letter was cut out of a newspaper article. On a conative level this shows that Rihanna is currently very famous, as her name has been associated with the current news. 

Ideas for my group’s Album cover (Beautiful by Eminem)

• We could have a shot of local area in London, such as an area in Tottenham or Enfield, a housing estate or the area of London where we will film our protagonist. This would be seen as us creating intertextuality of Eminem’s single cover for his song ‘Beautiful’ which features a shot of Detroit.
• We could have a shot of a cemetery which will be one of our main locations in our music video.
• We could include a shot of our music video’s protagonist standing on a roof. The protagonist will be in silhouette, but presented as looking down in order to express his depression. This can be another form of us creating intertextuality to Eminem since this would be similar to the first shot of his music video ‘Not Afraid’ which consists of Eminem standing on the edge of a building roof top.
• For the album cover of our music video, we could have an image of the music video’s protagonist sitting alone in pub/restaurant (or any place for socialising). The protagonist would be by himself while he is surrounded by a large group of people who are all talking to each other but are all ignoring the protagonist. In addition the protagonist is shown to be wearing bland and grey attire while everyone else is wearing colourful clothes.   This Mis-en-scene of clothing would be used to show how everyone apart from the protagonist is satisfied with their lives and are in good positions whereas the protagonist has an uninteresting life and is depressed. Additionally this poster would also act as intertextuality of the ‘The 40 year old Virgin’ film poster in which the protagonist is shown to be alone at a local place while everyone else is socialising and kissing.

Audience Questionnaire

 Audience Questionnaire

1.       How old are you?

2.       What is your gender? (tick one of the boxes )           Male            Female

3.       Who are your favourite music artist/artists?

4.       What is your favourite genre of music?

R n B

Hip Hop

Rock

Pop/Pop rock

Dance

Grime

Other

5.       Where do you prefer to listen to music?

At Home

At School

With friends

At a party

Other

6.       How much of an effect do you think a music video adds to the music itself?

A great amount

A fair amount

Very little amount

Not at all

7.       What attracts you to a music video the most?

The music

The artist

The promotion

The music video

8.       What do you find most appealing about music videos?

The visual effects

A story narrative

The Art direction

The Choreography

The video’s message

9.       What is your favourite music video?(Please state the name of the song and the artist)

                 

10.   How often do you listen to American hip hop music?

Everyday

Quite frequently

A fair amount

Not often

Not at all

11.   Who would you say is your favourite U.S rapper?

Eminem

Lil Wayne

Nicki Minaj

Jay-Z

Rick Ross

Other

12.   Have you heard the song ‘Beautiful’ by Eminem?

Yes

No

If you ticked yes, please state your opinions on that song

My Music video team and others involved in our video

My team

• Leyon Stolz-Hunter
• Michael Phillips
• Tyrell Chetty-Wilson
• Shayne Thomas-Gordon (myself)

As there are four of us in this group we will all be contibuting to our project indivuidally aswell as working together as a team in order to get the best grade possible in A2 Media. My team members and I will achieve this by communicating with each both in school and out side of school so that we are consistantly working on project and supporting each other whenever someone needs help.

As a group, I am certain that we will be able to find time around our other A level subjects, and social life to organise dates when we can meet and carry out work outside the school environment such as our planning and filming.

It would not be difficult for us to communicate since we socialize with each other everyday in school.  

Job roles of me and my team members 

Leyon Stolz-Hunter(Actor, co script writer)- Leyon will play the role of the main protagonist in our music video. As a group we had all decided that , Leyon would be the most suitable out of all of us the to play the lead role in our video since he has the quality of being a talented actor. In the past, Leyon has had much experience acting in dramas and plays and is currently studying Performing Arts as one of his A level subjects. Aditionally Leyon has also served as one of the co writers of our music video's narrative script.

Michael Phillips(Script writer, Main camera operator)- Michael's key role in our project will be to record most of the scenes in our music video. To aid our project, Michael had contributed by providing his own camera for us to film. In addition , Michael has also contributed a great deal amount to the planning of our music video during its stage of Pre Production. When we were planning the story of our music video's narrative plot, Michael had given very useful ideas for what we could include in our music video and also advice on what would be useful to include and what would not be very useful to include.

Tyrell Chetty-Wilson(Actor)- Tyrell's role in our music video will be very similar to Leyon's role. Tyrell will also be acting in our music video as the secondary actor that would be shown interacting with Leyon's character. The character that Tyrell will play will have a cruical role in the story near the conclusion of our music video. Similarly with Leyon, Tyrell is also a very experienced actor as he has had much experience in acting in the past and is also studying Performing arts at A level. My group is vey priviledged to have two experienced actors which could both contribute their performing skills to our project.

Shayne Thomas-Gordon(Script writer, Storyboard sketcher,co camera operator)- During the Pre production stage of our music videos production, I had a very prominant role during our planning. When my group was first planning our music video, I was one of the key script writers of the music video's story narrative plot.  For example , I had provided the music video idea in which the protagonist is walking very close to a cemetary which connotes that this character is very close to his death.

Additionally, I was also elected to draw out the storyboards that would include the different camera angle shots that my team would plan to include in our music video for presenting different scenes in the video.

I am also studying A level Art as one of my other subjects, so we had thought that it would me most suitable if I had carried out this job role. Later on during the production stage of this project, I may also serve as one of the camera operators whenever Michael is unavailable to film certain segments of this media text.

Furthermore, I will also play a small role in our music videdo as a man that the protagonist walks past. 

Characters in our Music video

• Main protagonist- Leyon
• Man in smart clothes- Myself
• Protagonist's friend- Tyrell
• People walking on the road (3 to 5 people)-TBA
• Protagonist's love interest- TBA
• People at the party(4 to 6 people) -TBA
• 
  

Costumes

• Main protagonist- Dull and casual grey clothes, grey suit battered shoes
• Smartly dressed man- Smart clothes, shirt,trousers, smart black shoes
• Protagonist's friend- Casual clothes,Blue jeans,Blue shirt, Blue hoodie
• Protagonist's love interest- Red dress(connotes love)
• People at the party and on the road- Casual clothes

Our music video artist

My group has chosen to use the American rapper Eminem as our artist for our music video.

About Eminem

"Eminem" is the stage name of the American rapper Marshall Bruce Mathers.

He was born in Detroit,Michigan  on the seventeenth of October in1972.

In addition to him having a successful career as a rapper, he is also a member of the American Hip-Hop group D12. This rap group was mainly acive during the 1990's and had also consisted of Eminem's close friend DeShaun Dupree Holton who was the late rapper 'Proof'.

He is currently one half of the American Hip Hop duo "Bad Meets Evil" along with fellow American rapper Royce da 5'9.

Mathers is one of the most successful rappers of the past decade and is considered to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. His music technique often consists of humerous and emotional lyrics.

His music has drawn much controvsey in the past due to his lyics which are addressed to his troubled past and his legal issues. He has also been known to make fun of other celebrities in a selection of his music videos.

Albums

• Infinate (1996)
• The Slim Shady LP(1999)
• The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
• The Eminem Show (2002)
•  Encore(2004)
•  Relapse(2009)
• Recovery (2010)

Notable works

Allocations

• 13 Grammy awards
• 4 Brit awards
•  12 MTV Video music awards
• Academy Award for best song in 8 mile (Lose yourself)

The Music Industry

What is it?

The 'Music Industry' refers to any of the music organizations which play a part of the marketing of music and music videos such as their promotion, production, and distribution.

This applies for types of music that are both mainstream and non-mainstream. As this industry is run by organizations, the main purpose of this industry is to gain profits from the music that they create and provide to their consumers.

The key indivuidals which contribute the most to the industry would be the music artists that performer the music( an artist or a band), the music's song writer(s) and the organizations which promote and distribute the music.

Other people that are involved in the music industry would be the Sound operators, which are the people who use specialised audio equipment to record,mix and edit the sound of the music once it has been performed by the band.

In terms of the Music videos, the people who play a large role in their production would be the music video directors and the cameramenwho record the footage that will be featured in the video.

 During the process of the video's creation, the music video's producer will be present at all times to oversee the video's production and make sure that everything is going according to plan.

Additionally the music's target audience are also very important to the Music Industry as they are seen as the consumers , which provide the industry with its income.