Group 3 A2 2016/2017: Research

Digipak Research

This is a sample of my CD collection. Each of these CDs contain an interesting and exciting digipak.

Digipaks are marketing tools intended to act as an incentive for purchasing a physical copy of the music rather than streaming the music from the internet. Digipaks are only seen and received when a person owns a physical copy of the music.

Some but not all Digipaks include additional content such as:

Membership cards

Lyric sheets

Disk impression

Band info

Free image

Exclusive download links to B-sides

Free posters or postcards.

Whatever people say I am that's what I am not

This Digipak is extremely simplistic and minimalistic. The first aspect of the Digipak which is visually clear is the dull and greyscale colours used. This was a common theme in indie bands at the time and still is now. The reason this was so popular with indie bands is because they thought that if there was a piece of art on the front then it would take away from the music or perhaps skew the consumer's opinion on the album or attitude towards the music.

The emphasis is 100% focused on the music at hand rather than the artist's persona this is different to many mainstream artists who have a lot of focus on their persona and look. This could be interpreted as a conceptional album because of the simplistic look and the portrait photograph featured on the front panel of the digipak.

The photograph of the man smoking glamorises something which is usually looked down upon and slightly taboo, this causes controversy within the album cover. This image along with album title 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' suggests reasons to the meaning of the album which could be a depressingly realistic depiction of the north of England. However, this is up to interpretation of the audience.The Arctic Monkeys could have just chosen that image to look cool/trendy and appeal to their teenage target audience.The first image could be 'Whatever People Say I Am' and then the image with him wiping away tears could be 'That's What I'm Not'.

This is a very successful and impactful Digipak in my opinion. A good Digipak for me should reflect the mood, themes and content of the album. This Digipak allows the consumer to think about and interpret their own meaning or to acknowledge it and move onto the music which proves it has an underlying sense of intelligence within.

Melodys Echo Chamber. The Genre of this music is Psychedelic. This is very clear through the bright colours present on every panel of the digipak. This digipak was especially interesting as it was set up like an old vinyl record. The cardboard sleeve to the left of the picture fitted the CD which was inside another sleeve. This was a really refreshing way of displaying and presenting a CD.

King Krule. The Genre of this music is very mixed wiht elements of industrial music and Hip Hop. Although the constant and present theme throughout the song is the theme of urban London. The can be seen through the digipak by the use of dark and contrasting colours mixed with handwritten notes and song names.

The names of the songs are written on the back panel of the digipak. The colour scheme is most present on the front and back panels of the digipak.

This digipak includes an poster of an enlarged and more developed image of the front panel(album cover). This poster folds up into a sleeve opposite where the CD is positioned.

Tame Impala. The Genre of this music is psychedelic. This is not clear through just looking at the front and back panels of the digipak. The front image is a photograph of Luxembourg gardens in Paris. My interpretation of this image is that we, the consumers are being put in the view of the person being captured in this album musically and visually. We are viewing a brightly lit park which features happy looking people enjoying the sun. This all occurs while the viewer is 'trapped' behind bars which separate the two. This could represent an 'introvert' living in his/her owns world perhaps experiencing isolation and solitude at the same time.