Album advert analysis - Georgina Lowles

This unconventional layout for an album advert is the key to its success; unlike most others it presents itself to be in the style of a film advert. It works well, as it grabs the attention in a slightly different way, as you see the band’s name “The Stone Roses” as a film title, which people would be intrigued by and would want to read further. The “20^th Anniversary” is meant to mimic the 20^th Century, which is a production name for a film company, so its like a play on words almost. Also the 0 in the 20, uses the lemon which is the stone roses iconic image, so this works well to aid familiarity.

It offers quotes from magazines which the band’s music would hold the right appeal towards, such as Mojo and Q magazine, which relates to the bands target audiences and what they would be reading. Using quotes from musically popular magazines gives the album support and provides the audience with information to form a good opinion on, as the album has got a clearly well recognised and sustained reputation.

The name and album name are in key focus, centred and in yellow font to connect them together, which by using a separate font colour to the right around it allows it to flow. You have red blue and white, which interestingly are the union jack colours, which link to the lower picture via the colours. The yellow font is the most relevant, the name of the band and album, but also important information at the bottom; the different ways you can own the album. At the bottom, in smaller print, in provided more details about the album, what songs are included, special tracks and music videos, but also a very important link; the bands website; which in this day and age, with technology guiding the way to the future, the website is the key to the success of sales.

This combinational balance of the band name with the credits and the background image, provides an idyllic layout which cleverly reflects the genre of the music. It is important to reproduce the genre and style of music, via the album advert, in order to draw the audience in.

The band name is placed on the lightest area of the image, to draw the eye in to the band name, it is also in largest text on the advert, again to gain attention towards the name. it is also using the iconic font, that labels the bands merchandise, which is a point of recognition for the band. The album title is below the band name “love is noise” is the name of one of the songs, most well known from the album, used again as a point of recognition. Below the titles are credits, this is an opportunity to add more information for the audience to learn about the release of the single or album. It offers how to download the single, the ability to buy it on vinyl, and also the website. Advertising more ways to access the band and its singles and albums is a perfect way to increase sales and popularity. 

The layout of David Ford’s album A long time ago, is presented in a more traditional and conventional way. It is easy to gather the required information, almost as if it was bullet-pointed down the page. You get the release date, which is important for the audience to know when they can acquire the album. You then see an image, of which you can assume is David Ford, holding a guitar which will reflect the type of music he produces, he is also allowing you to see his fashion style which is important to potential fans. You then get his name and the album name, which is of course important, but from the information given, I can’t see any iconic recognition points of observation such as the font style or image, which may suggest he is a new or unrecognised artist.  Lastly you can see at the bottom of the advert is a 5 star rating from a newspaper. This has little relevance to the music business, which again lets you believe that this artist is un-established within the music business.