Evaluation Question Two

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The groups ancillary texts of a Digipack and Website make an effective combination with the Music Video due to the similar themes, costumes and locations that create an overall image for the artist that would promote the album in an instituational context.

Digipack

Our digipack effectively uses many of the typical conventions of existing CD Covers and mimics some of the areas found from my research of CD Covers. The large cover image clearly displays the artist and is a simple but effective image that looks professional due to not being overcrowded. This is a style many cover images use including Lady GaGa's Fame Monster album which I analysed earlier in the project. The shot is framed so the audience can clearly see the artist's face and some of her body. We chose to lay her down over a guitar as this links with the acoustic style of some of the songs on the album and therefore contributes to creating the image of the artist and album. The insert image is also used to do this, this image is portrays a more sexy, confidient and rock style through the use of the corset costume, the brick wall background and the serious look upon the artists face. Furthermore, the back of our pack lists the tracks on the album in a column in the middle, this conforms to the style of CD Covers because many existing albums do this and it is the most common form of track presentation. Therefore if the album were real it could easily sit alongside other albums and be viewed by the audience as a believable product because it appearance conforms to what they would expect of an album. In addition, the background location image of a street that we chose blends well with the list of tracks in the middle and they do not clash. The image links to the location in the music video, so the audience may recognise it and links to the name of some of the songs on the album such as September and Waterloo Bridge, through the fallen leaves and wet ground, creating the feel of autumn, depression and other serious or 'moody' topics that are present within the songs. The CD booklet contains a range of images of the artist laying, sitting, standing and posing using a variety of close ups, long shots and high angle shots to portray her from different angles and positions. This is often used by artists to portray the look and image of the album and themselves in that particular era of the career, this is what we have tried to reflect here.

Website

Our website effectively creates a realistic

Star Image

Richard Dyer has noted: “a star is an image constructed from a range of materials”. For pop music these materials include:

1=The songs and their lyrical themes and musical structures/ genres
2=The record covers- singles and albums display a large part of the image the artist wants to create and present to an audience
3=Music videos, which may draw upon the image presented in each of the other aspects.

The group have conformed to this theory by creating cohesion between the three products we have made to create star image. In an institutional context an artist releases a song and music video as a lead single from an album before the album is released. This is a crucial time to set up and maintain the style of music and image of the artist throughtout this album and period in our career. Our music video for what would be the 'lead single' 'Not Made for This sets up the idea of different and distinct personalities through the two different costumes and locations- casual and corset and house and street. This refers to the narrative as the character the artist plays goes on a journey to try and change her life and escape the troubles of her boyfriend. In the digipack we use the same costumes, locations and split personality style in a variety of different images in the booklet to continue the idea over from the music video to create the whole image and theme of the album. The left side pictures in the booklet are all set in the garden from the music video and and the casual costume, this links to the innocent side of the character in the video and to the acoustic tracks on the album such as 'Touch', 'Emotional Baggage' and 'Tired of Holding On'. The right side pictures use the corset costume and wall settings to link to the stronger, performer aspect of the character from the video and link to the more upbeat rock songs on the album such as 'Mannequin' and 'Rock Chick'. Using the same locations and costumes from the music video in the digipack allow the audience to recognise the features between the video and album, this can be used as selling point as it conveys what they can expect from the album if they have seen the video. Therefore a diverse and versatile image has been created through the combination of these products as they portray how the artist can perform slower, emotional acoustic songs as well as upbeat, fun pop songs.