Unit 54 assignment 2

 Diary for Unit 54 Assignment 2

10/01/13: the first thing I looked at to start this new assignment was CD covers. I started looking at my favourite bands and artists from a broad range of things including album covers and tour posters. The first band I researched was The Wombats, which was a good band to research from since I knew a lot about them already but also they’ve released lots and lots of material over the years. Their logo was very pop in my opinion. It’s the image below, and my first thoughts were just fun and upbeat. I didn’t even need to listen to the band in the first place to even know what their music is about. By the cover, it looks like a band that doesn’t take themseleves very seriously, they’re just out to have fun about things.

I then looked at the tour posters for the band because they seemed to be on tour all of the time. The tour poster (which can be seen to the right) is advertising their second world tour of their second album, This Modern Glitch. The poster is interesting because of how everything goes together. Obviously, the bands trademark logo is the biggest thing on the page so it catches your eye straight away, along with the bands album name. The albums cover mosly takes up all of the poster. This is so someone will recognise the album to the poster. As soon as the band released the album, its instantly become iconic as their album cover. Nobody else can use it apart from them. Also on the poster is the special guests who will also play live with The Wombats at their shows. The reason why they are on the poster is to publicise these bands too. Other people might come and see the shows with the support bands being along side the main act. The final thing which is added on the poster is the information about the tour and when they go on sale. The dates are always added on the poster to advertise to people to buy the tickets for their show, its all about publicity. The final thing which must be added on the poster is the bands album advertisement and the companies that are providing the help for the tour.

The album cover is very clever because there are hidden things behind it. The people on the front cover are no one special whatsoever apart from three of the people who are the band members of The Wombats. This isn’t something which most people will care about but it’s just a small fact about the cover. The Wombats genre is very indie/rock/pop

11/01/13: the genre I am going for has already been decided. I want to do indie rock because it is my favourite genre of music, but also they have very unusual and different album covers. I first researched The Wombats current album cover and tour poster. They used the same insert from their album cover on their tour poster. This was mainly for recognition when people look at the poster, they will just know who it is from the cover.

The next band I looked at was Mumford and Sons. Their logo is shown to the left and it isn’t actually their final logo, but the writing is. They use the writing on everything; from their album covers to merchandise they produce. Comparing this to The Wombats form of logo is much different because Mumford and Sons produce a different kind of indie rock. They mainly make music which fashions towards the folk side of indie, so they use a lot of old fashioned instruments and present themselves in an Victorian manner if that’s the best way to put it. It all goes with the image of the band which they must keep up for their musical purposes. But the album cover on their latest LP is very similar to The Wombats.

Just like the album cover for The Wombats, Mumford has used the approach of using people on their cover but covering up their faces. Obviously it’s different on each one but they are very similar if you look closely.

These two bands have completely different genres but they do use similar themes. Both albums have very unusual albums covers which don’t make any sense when you first look, but it’s looking through the front cover and listening to the music which changes your perspective.

The tour poster for Mumford and Sons is very unusual compared to The Wombats though. Mumford chose to do a poster which looks very old fashioned, maybe war-is like posters from the first and second world war. They even changed the name of the tour to something completely different from the album. A daring move as some might not know that this is Mumford advertising a tour, but it does look professional and effective.

The final bands I looked at from the same genre, I mainly looked towards the logos for the bands.

This is the album cover and logo for Jake Bugg’s self-titled debut. The album has been compared to using influences from Johnny Cash and many 50’s country and rock singers, so no wonder the album looks very dark, old fashioned and straight to the point.

The logo is simple, it’s just Bugg’s name written in block head writing, which doesn’t get easier than that.

17/01/13: Today, all I am looking at is one more band at their promotional material for albums, tour posters and a magazine advertisement. I decided to look at a popular band at the moment which is The Vaccines. I decided to choose The Vaccines because I really enjoy their music, but also because they are extremely popular so it’s easy to find promotional material for them.

I started with their logo which is just like Jake Bugg’s, it’s a simple block text but The Vaccines use various colours on their logo, which has changed from black, to red, to pink. But the block text seems to be very popular to use. It seems if a band uses a block text that they are a serious band which plays very serious music, which The Vaccines do. All of their music touches quite serious subjects like failing relationships, and this is the same with Jake Bugg, who talks about leaving his home town because he can’t handle it anymore. So I’ve noticed that the block text means that the artist/band means business and are very serious about their music.

The next thing I looked at was albums from The Vaccines two busy years. The first albums cover was simple to say the least. The cover is built like a vinyl cover. I don’t know why they decided to make the cover like this, but it works. The only thing I can say about it is their trying to bring back a lot of old music like punk and rock from the 60’s like the Ramones. But the picture explains everything to do with the album, which as I’ve said is failing relationships, which as you can see by the picture is a girl hugging a boy but he’s not hugging her back. And finally the block text that stands bold. What makes the album most effective is the fact it’s the only text on the cover, so you immediately draw your eyes to this.

The second album does the same as the first; simple yet effective. The block head once again stands bold and tall on the cover, and it’s the only text once again. This time around, the album is about coming of age and growing up. The front cover has an image of four women and these are supposed to be The Vaccines if they were women. The reason the cover is black and white is to represent the quite old themes that the album plays around with. A lot of the sounds on the album are very 60’s/70’s so it’s playing with a time when women didn’t have the rights that they have today, so growing up in this time was difficult. But once again, these similar themes between this genres show that it’s quite a serious genre which takes its music seriously.

The final thing I looked for was The Vaccines tour poster and magazine advertisement. There wasn’t a tour poster for The Vaccines that officially gave dates to when they were touring so I ignored them and decided just to look at a magazine cover for the band. This is a cover for the magazine NME, which is a magazine I really don’t like but it’s the only magazine that fully showed the band advertising their latest album. Once again, the block head text has been used and is the biggest text on the page so your eyes immediately get attracted to this straight away. The tagline right above it saying ‘Older. Wiser. Wilder.’ Along with the pictures show that they are a serious band and they are here to show their new album. As much as I dislike NME, they have made a very good cover for their magazine because it makes me want to read this particular issue.

So to conclude, indie rock is a genre which I personally think takes its music quite seriously but comes in many different forms. Indie rock is a sound which is different to every artist but it’s an individual genre which stands out from the rest, but to conclude the material the bands let out is always something that interests you and makes you want to know more about the artist/band. But even sometimes, a band can produce something which is completely different to the rest (The Wombats; Mumford and Sons) but still fall into the same category of indie rock.