Key Changes Media CD

7/30/2019 Key Changes Media CD

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Key Changes in CD albums.

80s/90s/2000s


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Drum and Bass, is a type of electronic music which emerged in the mid

90s. It consists of fast break beats, typically between 140-189 BPM, with

heavy bass and sub baselines. Jungle came before drum & basssoriginal blow up, and many of the drum & bass elements that

characterize the genre today have come from the genre of Jungle.

Therefore, the early analysis in this PowerPoint will consist of analyzing

albums that are slightly of the jungle, and electronic genre.

EARLY 90s


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The albums release:

1992.

The group produces style

of many genres, includin

the some of the earliest

drum & bass breakbeat

sounds.

There is great simplicity i

this design. The coloursscheme can be defined a

relatively bland colours:

Grey background with a

grey and black writing. W

cannot comment on the

mise-en-scene because o

the fact that there is noimage, no camera work a

the focal point and the

album covers layout is

souly of the album name

and title.

In terms of typography analysis, the font size is very large, covering at least one

third of the CD cover. There are no indications towards anything on the album being

hand drawn, this is a digitally produced font design. One could argue that the font

design of prodigy; resembles the artistic style of writing that would be seen in

graffiti. The experience is in a significantly smaller font, and it is indeed relatively

conventional to the drum & bass genre for the layout to be as such: Album namesmaller than the name of the artists.

No primary image, only a boring

grey background. Perhaps it lacks in

a complex, digital design due to the

lack of digital technology in the early

90s in comparison to what we are

exposed to now by the media industryConventional to thegenre in that there

is no primary image

of the artists.

Alternative genres

tend to allow their

audience to identify

with their artist viathe front covers

visually, Drum &

bass albums tend

to give prominence

only to names and

music styles, not

the appearance of

the artists.

The Experience by The Prodigy.


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Institutional information and barcodepresent.

There is a De saturated image, a wide shot, of

the group towards the bottom half of the CDs

back pane. It is arguably a sepia colour. In

terms of layout, the track listing is above the

image. It is relatively unusual to have an image

on the back of the CD, they tend to be at the

top, but perhaps this is conventional to thegenre associated with rebellion and individuality

as this is a relatively unique layout.

Similar to the front cover, very simplistic design,

no compelling artwork. Bland black and grey

colours remain.Music for the jilted generation by

The Prodigy 1994

This is The Prodigys second album, released just two years

after their first album The Experience. A key change that has

occurred, is that this album has a primary image. We are

exposed to a very expressive primary image that is slightlyfreighting, and arguably very artistic. This is conventional tothe drum & bass genre greatly, using abstract, imaginative ideas.The face looks to be suffocated in a metallic sheet, screamingat the top of his lungs. The entire close- up image conveys thenotion of energy, as perhaps the person is experiencing the

somewhat deafening sound ofDrum & Bass and Electronica, TheProdogies main genres.


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Although the primary image is very expressive and artistic, there are again noconvoluted shapes and designs that drum & bass album covers are sofamous for. We are not yet in the years that this become such an iconic partof the genre.

What the backgroundand primary imageresemble is a metal, athin metallic sheet. Inthat, the colours arepolished and glossy,yet still dull. Greys

blacks and whites. Wecould argue howalthough far moredetailed and rendered,this is similar to TheExperience as they

have not yet delvedinto colour pallets andused expressivecolours and shadesthat fabricate thealluring artwork ofdrum & bass albumsfor present day.

In the early 90s, it is clear that Puffs play no significant

role and are not placed on the album covers. Both out ofthe two albums so far analyzed are insufficient in puffs.

It is clearly visible that the Typography remains exactly the same in both albumsThere has clearly been no change to the font design. The layout has differedslightly, due to the incorporation of a primary image, so the prodigy has

shifted slightly higher than in the experience, as without this change would

shelter part of the enticing image.

Music for the jilted generation is placed at the bottom of the primary image,

in a font far smaller than that of the prodigy, yet, honed and solid enough tostill convey a deep sense of masculinity

Here we can see the albums back pane. Very interesting and unique to

this album, there is no track listing on the back pane. Towards thebottom is the institutional information, however all the otherparagraphs are completely unique to thanking people, and giving

respect to people. Famous DJs such as Carl Cox & Dave Angle for

example are acknowledged. Conventional to the genre? I believe so, thedrum & bass & electronic cultures are all tight communities where

various artists offer help, assistance, vocals for example to anotherartists song. It reaffirms the notion of unity within this music.

White font upon ablack background,clearly visible. Wecan see how thealbum designerused a revolving

colour scheme ofdark colours, and

within the blackcolour, variousshades of black. Itis conventional inthat the coloursfrom the frontcover are the

same, howeverslightly lessextreme.


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Mid- 90sWhere the genre Drum & Bass became defined andbegan to blow up.


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Timeless album by Goldie

Released 1995.

Goldie is one of the influential Djs that reallypioneered the movement of Drum & Bass music toits somewhat world renowned status. This was theyear where the genre really took off.

We can see how the conventional iconography:images associated with space and the universe areimbedded into this album front cover. The layout is

relatively simplistic, similar to the prodigies earlyalbums. A primary image in the center, the focalpoint of the album, and then the album title andartist name, one above one bellow, in the same fontand size.The image colours are quite cold. The dark and lightblues, with black shadows around one side of thespace ship, pitched black eyes for the skull insidecreate both a puzzling and chilling image. Upon thequite and plain background, it is enhanced evenfurther.

The typography of the album title and artist name is a font similarto Andale Mono.What is interesting is that there are large spacesbetween each letter, which seek to fill up the entire top half andbottom half of the cover with writing. The Typography isconventional to the genre in that this idea of strength is suggested,the writing is bold and hard, sharp edged, this is very

conventional to the drum and bass genre where all albumsanalyzed have used relatively masculine fonts.

Again, puffs have yet to beintroduced to Drum & Bass albumcovers.


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Here we can see the actual CD andits design. There is what looks to bean alien head of a very large size, or

outline of one, as the primary image:Red. The background is white,similar to the front and back covers

background colour. We can see interms of colour schemes, primarycolours have been used greatly. Redon the CD, blue on the album frontcover. Broadly defined, this CD is

conventional to the drum & bassgenre as that Space and

extraterrestrial bewildering element isprominent.

The typography is the same font as the front cover, thedifference is the layout on the CD. Both album title andartist name are at the top of the CD; what is

conventional to the genre again is the artist name to beof a greater size than the album name, perhaps due tothe lack of Artist images on Drum & Bass albums, themanor in which the artists connect with there audienceis by capturing them by their names not theirappearances.

Institutional information on boththe CD and back cover.

Back Pane:

Colour scheme remains. Blue and white from thefront cover, the exact same image also remainsfrom the front cover. This is conventional to ourgenre to have a colour scheme that revolves.However, it is still very simplistic, as the genre hasnot yet fully evolved into a genre of art as well asmusic, e.g the lack of graffiti designs andconvoluted shapes is still not prominent.

Track listing split, on either side ofthe image. Very unique and thereforeconventional to the genre in keepingin with the insurgent nature of Drum& Bass.


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The Prototype Years by Grooverider 1997

Firstly, when analyzing the colours, it is clear thaa verydark colour schemehas been used for thedesign. The black background, accompanied wit

the red, orange, and dark brown flame-ish desigof the primary image creates one highly duskyatmosphere. One may even go as far as arguingis far more conventional to a Heavy metal albuan image that is somewhat satanic.

Not only the colours, but more so the imageitself creates such a dark atmosphere. The

primary image is of a close up, of one solitarySkull. We can see this, and its hollow eyes arelooking directly at us, which is direct address,something conventional to drum & bass images.As mentioned before, images associated withspace are conventional to the drum and bassgenre. Now after analyzing both albums in the

late 90s, this and Goldies timeless, images ofdeath and destruction are clearly iconic to thedrum and bass genre. Both albums have a aprimary image consisting of a skull on their frocovers.

Typography: Of a small font, both the album name and even smaller font the artists name,but still similar to all the other albums analyzed a font that Is quite thick and strong

looking. This is therefore then highly conventional to the genre, fonts that depict power.What should also be noted on here is the Grooverider presents, and how it sounds far

more formal.


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What we can see here, on the back pane, is that the colour scheme hasremained the same. Dark colours, the blacks and dark brownscombined with the somewhat beaming yellow, together creating theimage of flames and fire. What is becoming far more conventional tothe drum and bass genre as we descend closer in the 2000s Is this

notion of complex designs. This design, both front pane and back farmore detailed and less simplistic than the albums analyzed before in

the PowerPoint.

Track listing is central to theCD back cover. Barcode is onthe right hand side. Thetypography is very small, butsharp and capitalized. Thisprojects the conventionalnotion of strength to theperson viewing the album back

cover.

The layout is again relativelyconventional to the drum &bass genre in terms of theirbeing a track listing on theback pane.

It is important to note that for

this album this is the only back

pane image I could indeed find,

and therefore, I am assuming

this had been released in japanor china, hence the foreign

language on the sides.


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EARLY 2000s


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Logical Progression Level 1 by LTJ Bukem 2001

We have now reached the early 2000s.

What remains very conventional to thedrum and bass genre is the primaryimage on this album front cover: Earth.

The sun/gleaming star is the secondarimage, to the left hand upper side ofthe album cover. This could beedescribed as an extreme close up of aquarter of earth. Clearly, this is animage of earth is very picturesque,broadly defined, it is these iconicimages of the universe that the entire

genre is a part of, and here it is adhereto greatly. The star illuminates a sectioof earth, and the black backgroundseeps into the bottom right handcorner, casting a shadow. Althoughbeautiful, I gain a sense of isolationform the image, the colours; bitter

blues and greens really portray theuniverse as being a cold, solitary place.Drum & bass albums are somewhat

famous for taking beautiful images andfluctuating with their saturations andoverall atmosphere, to project to theaudience something far more sinister.We could even go as far as deeming thi

a stereotypical image of the genre.

Furthurstill, the font issmall, still conventional

in that we are presentedwith sharp, tightlycompact fonts that

subvert from feminine

fonts such as Helvetica

or apple chancery.

I have noticed that all

drum & bass albums use

highly masculine fonts,its use can now almost bepredicted. This is aconvention I shall adhereto when designing myalbum.

Our eyes are drawn to the image of earth first, as it take upnearly two thirds of the entire pane. Then, the star, and finallyour eyes are drawn to the typography. The metallic greyish toneto the text is perhaps there to allude us away from it, it is

somewhat lost behind this alluring image, and in that, perhapsthe design is trying to convey the notion that nothing is asimportant as the universe.


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Very plain CD design. Album name and artist name visible, with numbers on bothEast, South, and West of the CD. Not entirely sure what VR stands for. Upon

analysis, plain CDs are becoming increasingly more conventional to the drum &

bass genre.

Colours: Use of the primary colour red to draw clarity in the writing upon a whitebackground. No primary image, in fact, the entire colour scheme looks to be

entirely different from the albums front cover and back cover which is relativelyunconventional to the genre, the blues and black tones are not present here.

Back Pane:

Primary image, of the artist LTJBukem. This is similar to Prodigiesalbum The experience, where

there is an image of all threeartists on their back pane. Thisallows the audience to identify

with the artist, it is a mid shotwherehis entire face cannot be seen.Perhaps, although he we can see

what he looks like, he has maskedmost of his identity, mouth andnose, with shadows cast upon hisface, to adhere to what the genreis famous for. Albums where the

artists are no where near as

important as the music.

Barcode in the top left hand corner. In terms of the backpanes layout, the image of the artist is central, and the track

listing and institutional information lies beneath the image.The font from the front paneremains the same, the colour

stays the same also: a metallicgrey. It is upon a pitch blackbackground that the grey doesstand prominent. Conventionalto the genre again is this notionof a masculine font, here isseems somewhat stretched as ifthe masculinity of it is beingpulled even further.

Web page. Important to note, as thisallows the audience to expand theirmusic experience further using web2.0. We could argue that this isindeed very conventional to thedrum & bass genre as this type ofmusic, more so than all others, is aculture. People live, sleep, eat,breath, rave drum & bass- and thisexternal link allows them to do this.


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Hold Your Colour by Pendulum 2005

Puff used to attract audience attention.

This is relatively conventional to thegenre, arguably, because it mainly targetsniche audiences with the undergrounddrum & bass artists, pendulum, beingperhaps one of the most famous drum &bass groups are targeting a mass audienceand therefore need puffs to attract morepeople. So it is indeed conventional tothem. The puff has quotes from critics

about the album, and songs that areincluded in the album.

Now, in 2005, with they key change oftechnology rapidly increasing we can seeone highly conventional image to thedrum & bass genre. One may even call itthe epitome of a iconic drum & bassimage. The design looks to me to be an

evolution of graffiti art- intricatelydetailed as graffiti but far more smooth inthe strokes of the colours and patterns.

It is a very complex image that inducesbewilderment: What are they trying tomake us feel? What does this imagemean? How does this relate topendulum? These are all questions thisimage poses for the the person viewingthe front cover of this digi pack, and thisis very conventional to a genre whereunconventional and highly confusingimages are used to project messages wecan not fully comprehend. Perhaps themost conventional image analyzed so farin the PowerPoint.

It could be described as oneprimary image,of an eye and its eyelashes that descendinto a convoluted pattern. The colourscheme is very interesting an intense.Greens, light colours juxtaposed with

dark purples and blacks all convey quite adark image.

Whatis conventional in the typography of the album cover is the artists name being largerthan the name of the album. I believe this is because the artists rarely use pictures ofthemselves, they connect with the audience only through their music and name. Album namelacks important; what is important is the artist.

Further still, what we witness again is this masculine, outstretched font that depicts a sense ofbold strength. The letters are ridged, pendulum looks like a futuristic font, something we

would see in movies depicting aliens. Again, this notion of the universe and outer space is

projected to the audience, which is very conventional to the genre.

Both are images of the album Front

cover.


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Luckily, I have found an image on the internet of behind the CD.Unfortunately these images are very difficult to find, and therefore not all theother albums analyzed on the PowerPoint posses these images.

What we can see: The entire colour scheme and design is evident here also.This means the album designer kept a revolving themeonto all panes of the CD,this is highly conventional to the drum & bass genre. It allows for oneseemingly fluid visual digi pack.

The primary image of two hands grasping some sort of energy. Perhaps this

is indicative of the power of music the band have in their hands.

What I find very interesting about this albums design in particular is that It

appears, at times, hand drawn, and then at times clearly computerized. If so,this is conventional to the genre in that they keep elements of graffiti art in

the album design. This idea of a conjunction of Hand drawn and digitaltechnology is something I might use for my final design.

We can see how the design clearlycontinues throughout the entire CD.

Image on the frontcover also on the CD.

Album name andartists name also onthe CD. Exampleagain of how thesame iconic imagesand colours revolvearound the entireDigi Pack.


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Conventional again for the drum & bass album tohave its track listing on the back cover.

We can see how although the image (the eye)remains the same yet again. The green stillpermeates through the entire digi back.

It is then somewhat sinister that this eye isfollowing us around through all panes of the CD,which is relatively conventional to the drum & bassgenre, this notion of something being so beautifulin design yet having an underlying sinister aspect toit. The eye is indeed quite scary.

Font remains the same.

Barcode and institutional informationpresent at the bottom of the back pane.


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Endangered Species by BlackEmpire Sun2007

We can see now, both this album and

the album analyzed before hand haveused digital technology to the extentof producing a complex and beautifulimage. It is because what people cando with technology increases as timegoes on, and this is reflected in thealbum covers. A key change comparedto the albums analyzed first in the

power point.

My attraction to this album front cover is the colour scheme. It is a black andwhite colour scheme, I believe it is edited to enhance shadows and highlights aswell as saturated slightly. This is done digitally, however similar to Hold yourcolour by The Prodigy, it has a hand drawn element to it. This image is veryconventional to the genre in that it uses various techniques to create onebeautifully confusing image. I cant help but recall M. C Escher's Stairs when

looking at this image, it is highly perplexing.

The image is very confusing and I cannot evenbegin to understand what the artist is trying toconvey fully, and this is again conventional tothe genre. There are many faces within thedesign all depicting different, intense

expressions.

This looks to be some sort of demonic creature,there are eyes and people all around, amongstthe stairs and hallways that all merge together.The image is both beautiful and quitefrightening, and it is this that makes itconventional to the genre. In my opinion, drum

& bass is built on juxtapositions.

Layout: Because it is one primary image that covers the entire album there is a


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Layout: Because it is one primary image that covers the entire album there is aclaustrophobic atmosphere about this image, as it is so in your face. This is

conventional to the drum & bass genre; this notion of being bombarded by eithersound or images, as each rule of third of the image has a design that is as complexand intriguing as the other. Your eyes are not sure where to look.

The font looks very manly and strong, One could place credencein the notion hat is looks very metallic to create a futuristic feel.

What Is interesting is how small both the artists name and albumname are in comparison to the image, clearly they did not want toretract any focus away from this beautiful piece of art. This is

very conventional to the genre, graffiti art being more importantthan typography words.

Documents

Key Changes Media CD