Genre Specific Digipaks
18/11/13
After looking into general digipaks and gaining an understanding of the codes and conventions in a digipak I have looked into genre specific digipaks to understand the conventions of how artists in the acoustic folk genre present thier music in a digipak.
I will be looking into the way they present themselves, what camera shots they use and what mise en scene is being used. This will help me and my group when creating our own digipak.
The digipak to the left is an acoustic band Oasis. The genre is represented through the acoustic guitar which is something I want to take into consideration for my own digipak. This acoustic theme is carried out through each side as on the back where the list of songs on the album are found, they are overlayed on a slanted angle looking up the guitar with a low key ligting. On the inside you can see this lighting and mise en scene is carried through for continuity and gives a professional look. You can also see the record label on the back which promotes them as well as the artist. Another convention is to have the artist name in bigger font on the front with the name of the album in a smaller font as this promotes the artist and then the album.
For this digipak rather than promoting the genre they have focused on the artist but not so much that she takes up the whole front and back. The title of her name and the album stanf out as equally as she does which is found in the genre. On the front they have included a sticker which tells us what most popular songs are included in this album which helps to promote it. On the back you can see in small the record label company to help promote them but it is in small so it doesn't take away from the album. They have used a strong black and white effect to give a mask over her face so that the focus isn't soley on her but her music, this is common in acoustic folk genre digipaks as they're whole sight is on their music rather than their image. Although they want to focus on their music and selling it they need to have themselves on there or something that shows essence of them to help promote the music as audiences like to see the artist along side their songs. On the back you can see the contents which is common in most digipaks and I will take this forward.
This digipak you can see the different sections inside. They have included a booklet which generally contains either song lyrics or thank yous from the band and producers. In this digipak you can see on the front cover a photo of the band in a natural setting which reinforced the natural, raw aspects of the genre. One thing that challenges the code and convention of the genre is the equality between the band, one is closer and in more of a focus that the other two which challenges the equality. They have carried on the soft background with the hands showing continuity on each panel however it doesn't tell the audience much about what the album will be about. The font is sans serif and larger than the title of the album to help promote themselves to make it clearer than the name of the album. In the bottom left corner on the back panel you can see the record label and other companies and businesses used to create this band and album, including this helps promoted them and is a common convention in every digipak let alone acoustic. The acoustic conventions in digipaks are soft and gentle which is shown here through the background and the hands connote the natural elements in the genre rather than something harsh.