Analysis of two digipaks

Muse

The front cover of this CD takes a black background with bright blue, the contrasting colours creates an electric sense due to the vibrancy. The lady on the cover appears to be glowing with blue which provides a supernatural sense to the cover aiding the space-age theme that appears to be. This is reinforced by a moon or planet in the top left corner. This links to the style or their music aiding fluency between the album and the songs within it. The back cover has the three band members at a low angle shot making them look large and powerful in this space-age world implying they’re powerful in regards to the genre they fit into. Additionally, having them dressed in black with a bright blue background reinforces this dominance. This also conveys how they are establishing themselves as a rock band as oppose to a boy band elevating their status. This appeals to the audience due to the fact that is has the band member’s faces on it as the audience are fans. The space theme is also likely to appeal to their fan base’s aesthetic.

R.E.M

As R.E.M were one of the first alternative rock bands, their alternative style is evident in their digipak. The artwork for their album was done by Howard Finster who produced alternative abstract art and got along well with the band. The group using his artwork for their album is symbolic of how they establish themselves as an art house/ artistic band. The front cover is disjoined with random seeming scribbling’s that are done so finely they appear as scratched in aiding their alternative aspects. Doing this removes them from being mainstream maintaining their place within their niche market. The multi-coloured snake going across the entire album cover provides a grungy sense as the coloured that don’t go together provide an interesting twist. The digipak unfolds and opens out multiple times providing something for their fan base to properly open and explore generating a lot of hype around the product as people want to know what’s inside it, this is exciting to their fans. Furthermore, the handwriting is the lead singers which further links to audience appeal as it provides a more personal touch to the album.

Audience demographic

Models of audience segmentation

The first method of separating audiences into categories is through demographics. Demographics can be defined as measurable data about a population/ group of people. The demographic scale takes factors including socioeconomic status, age and gender to place people on the scale stating how likely it is for them to use a certain thing. In regards to the strengths of this, it certainly provides a gage on target audiences through stating who would possibly be interested in what. Additionally, it provides results. However, demographic measurements equally have drawbacks that contrast this. The statistics are based on a sample group that may not be relevant in terms of a factor such as location. This is likely to lead to a lack of accuracy in results.

The next method is called the tribe/ subculture model. This takes subcultures such as punk and creates a list of categories in which an individual must fit within. The benefits of this method are the fact it does provide the reader with a certain level of information regarding subcultures furthering their understanding. As well as this, the website acknowledging all of these subcultures is credible as they are sharing the variety of life with their audience. The drawbacks of this method include the fact that someone may be offended if their subculture is given a poor or inaccurate representation and that the website is still attempting to put people into categories. People may also fit into more than one subculture as their identity is fluid and people can form their identity through taking signifiers from different subcultures.

The third type of model is titled the physiographic model. This is where there are seven categories and the creator’s state that everyone belongs to one of them. This is inaccurate due to the fact that an individual can fit into more than one of these categories as people are rather complex to classify. Additionally, the categories have very vague titles and no other information is provided. However, it does have the benefit of providing rough data.

The final category that can be used is referred to as habits and lifestyle. This is where people can type in any form of entertainment and find out what type of people like it and their basic demographics. The benefit of this is that it’s interesting to find out what similar interests the people may have and it could provide people with recommendations on other things they may like due to this. The negative side of this is that after testing the website, it seemed very inaccurate regarding its data.

Examine how Radiohead uses strategies and structures to shape meaning

The music video for “Just” by Radiohead utilises a linear narrative structure which can therefore be examined using Todorov’s concept of narrative. The video can then be divided into a three act structure as the first third is the protagonist walking, in the second he lies down and is questioned rather aggressively by pedestrians and the third act is when the rest of the people join him in dying down. Although there are three acts, the video experiences equilibrium and disequilibrium but it refuses to have a new equilibrium that is comprehensible to the audience as the video cuts when the man explains why he’s lying down before he’s joined.

The video symbolises the complexity of life through the lack of ideological closure provided by Radiohead. As a narratologically open text, it affects the audience as it makes them feel frustrated as they don’t know what’s happened, furthering this ideological closure that makes an audience feel comfortable. The video does, however, have a linear storyline which is comprehensible and the curiosity drives the storyline but when an ending is not clearly given it’s likely to frustrate Radiohead’s audience as when the piece builds up as it suggests a denouement.

The narrative can be understood as being driven by the protagonist at the beginning as walking drives the story forward as a proairetic code. Along with this, others include the subtitles as they drive the narrative forward opening new nareems to continue the video. Also, the subtitles not being present in the section when they’re needed is known as the enigmatic code which causes the remainder of the video to frustrate the audience. The ground is displayed as a symbolic object but the audience never find out the symbolism of this which adds to the enigma of the video.