Green Day Digipak Analysis

Holly Taylor

The final digipak I have chosen to analyse is Green Day’s American Idiot, this was released September 20th 2004. The genre of this particular band is: Pop Punk which is established through the dark colour palette the album cover features as these particular colours are often associated with the punk aspect of the hybrid genre.

The typeface of the band’s name is in quite a large white font, the colour of the band’s name stands out against the black background and therefore signifies the importance of the band’s name and furthermore is eye catching for the audience. The colour white has connotations of a “fresh start” and so this is evident through the fact that this particular album experimented with more darker themes and undertones with the lyrics of the CD. The typeface appears to have a smashed effect to it, with flecks of the font missing from the band’s name, this relates to the Rock genre which is prevalent through the music featured on the album. The title of the band’s album is also in a similar font as the band’s name and the name of the album is quite a humorous title, as the band member’s are all American and their personalities are reflected through the ‘idiot’ part of the title as the band are well known for their humorous antics through their satirical lyrics and on stage when they’re performing. The part of the title is quite formal, “Green Day presents american idiot”, the “presents” part of the title has connotations of a large and brash sound to the album.

The image that is featured on the front of the digipak is a person’s cartoon style hand holding on to a bleeding heart with a grenade pin attached to it. The bleeding grenade heart is symbolic and representative of the lyrics featured in the tracks on this album. As throughout this album the main themes of the songs are a hatred for American government and politics and also love and relationships. The hatred for American government and politics is represented through the grenade imagery, as a grenade is typically associated with war and politics American propaganda. Whereas the bleeding heart imagery is a powerful image symbolic of the lives lost in wars America was associated with. The two images combined create a feeling of the bleeding hearts of the things American soldiers are subjected to see whilst taking part in the war. The white arm could also symbolise the arm of the American government, with the grenade heart symbolising the American public. The message Green Day are trying to convey is that the government has the American public in such a firm grip that it’s starting to bleed, and the grenade symbolises how the government can destroy the American public with the simple pull of the grenade pin.

The colour red which is prevalent throughout the mise en scene of the album cover has connotations of rage, anger, leadership and courage, these are prevalent, in particular the emotions of anger and courage as the album has the theme of rage against the American government and a sense of leadership from the band in an anarchic rebellion against the American government.

Back of digipak

Again, there is the consistent colour scheme of red, black and white featured on the back of the digipak as well as the front album cover. There is a typical conventional tracklist featured on the left side third of the back of the digipak. There also features a parental advisory on the back of the digipak which therefore creates a feeling of taboo language and themes to feature throughout the songs that feature on the album. On the back of the digipak also features conventional features such as the barcode, record label and the band’s name and album title on either edge of the back of the CD.

The imagery on the back of the digipak is a continuation of the front album’s imagery, however this time there is no heart shaped grenade attached to the pull pin, this suggests that there is a hopeful future for the American public. It suggests that if the changes they mention throughout the album aren’t implemented then the government will have “pulled the pin” and ruined the American public. The parental advisory sticker is featured because Green Day are a controversial band. The white font of the track list stands out against the black background and is therefore attention grabbing for the audience.

The imagery on the CD is consistent with the front cover and back of the digipak. This particular imagery of the arm (the government) pulling the pin lackadaisically represents the fact that they have in this case pulled the pin and cause the destruction of the American public. The disc features the consistent colour scheme of black,red and white. As well as this, the tracklist is featured on the left side of the CD disc in a white font contrasting with the black background. The record label is also featured on the disc but is in a much smaller font size in comparison to the band’s name, ensuring that the band’s name achieves the most attention from the audience.

The insert of the digipak is the titles of each song that features on the album along with the accompanying lyrics. As the lyrics are in a hand written style font, there is a connection established between the band and their target demographic as it gives the feeling of an intimate and voyeuristic element, as if the audience are seeing into the thoughts of the band member’s and therefore a relationship is established between the audience and the band. As the text is in black against a white background, there is again an intimate feeling created, as the text appears to of come from the band’s own songbook

The colour scheme prevalent throughout the album digipak is a deep red colour, black and white. The deep red colour is symbolic of blood but also has the connotations of: anger, leadership, courage, malice, and wrath. Which are all presented throughout the themes of the songs featured on the album, in particular anger and wrath, in particular against the American government and broken down relationship.Black: power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. The power emotion is particularly seen in the powerful lyrics that are featured in the album.White: light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. The colour white also has a feeling of a fresh start which is prevalent in the American Idiot album which is revolutionary for the band.