The wombats album artwork

When analysing The Wombats album artwork, we see something different in comparison to those already analysed. Firstly, it is evident to see contrasts in the typography. The type face is similarly in a sans-serif font, being capitalised however, this small in comparison to the overall text to image ratio. Again, this has been aligned central as the name of both the album and the band are the most important pieces of information on the album. The typography further illustrates the name of the album, 'The Modern Glitch' as a sans-serif font can be considered both informal and contemporary. Likewise, to the albums by Indie Pop band, Scouting For Girls, a natural landscape has been included within the artwork as a backdrop. The central arrangement however, has a concept-based feeling. Here, a group of people are seen to be holding images in front of their faces, identifiably picturing a lounging seat but then an unknown object above. I feel that this has no relevance to the band or indeed, the Indie Pop genre however, this could relate to the modernity of the album, suggesting that society are covering their true identities.

Another album by The Wombats is called, 'A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation'. The album artwork,  opposes that of the above however, still applies visuals of a concept-based nature. Nevertheless the audience may be able to relate to what is pictured on the front of the album, interlinking with the everyday appearance of the band. The artwork for this, follows the rule of three composition with the cover being split into three horizontally. When looking more closely at the items on display, you are able to see various labels saying 'POP'. This therefore links to the genre of the bands music, as The Wombats are Indie Pop artists. The typography of 'The Wombats' has however stayed consistent between albums, acting as a known attribute of The Wombats. The typography additionally adds a sense of synthetic personalisation to the album cover as the text looks almost handwritten.

Bastille album artwork analysis

 

 When looking at the EP album cover for Bastilles, Bad Blood, a girl is seen to be in the sea. This is an image from the bands music video, something commonly seen on all of the EP covers. When considering the composition of the artwork, the rule of thirds, puts the head of the young girl in the top tiering central third. This is purposely done to draw attention to the girl, posing an usual scenerio to the audience. From a horizontal perspective, the bands name is posed central on the album cover in a large, bold, capitalised font. The font is further in a sans-serif type, likewise to the typography on the ablum covers by Scouting For Girls. Aligning the font central allows the audience to instantly reconigise the artist of the track, displaying the most important information in paramount position. The triangular symbol, representing the A in Bastille lets the audience further identify the band, acting as a logo to the bands name. The positioning of the text additionally draws the attention of the audience, making their eye track different paths of the typography, looking over the totality of the album cover. Finally, the typography is white in colour, acting as a contrast to the artwork, allowing the text to distinctly stand out as it has been superimposed onto the image face. Next, I will be analysing the EP cover Laura Palmer. There is much consistency in the apperance of the EP artwork by the band Bastille. Again, a shot from the bands music video has been used as the cover to the single. This shows a concept-based relationship between lyrics and visuals as a male figure is seen on a quad bike, wearing a money mask. Similarly, the typography is composed in the same manner, being capitalised and in the same type face. This shows consistency of the bands image, giving the band a persistant market selling point. Having the trianglular symbol further, applies to the Indie Pop genre by creating associations with the modern day, hipster youth culture. Moreover, this may attract the hipster subculture to listen to the music of Bastille therefore, making them more popular with the music industry. This links with the connotations of the Indie Pop genre having a do it yourself attitude, by simply taking a shot from their videos and superimposing text onto the top of the artwork. This may be an influence for our own album artwork, as this is a simple and effective way to create connections between existing visuals connotated by the band.

Scouting For Girls album artwork

 

Here, I will be analysing the album artwork of an Indie Pop band, Scouting For Girls. The artwork uses the rule of three composition, having the mountainousness landscape and typography in the top third, followed by the male figures in the middle third, to which I presume to be the band members, and the walkway in the bottom third. Having the figurative images in the centre of the artwork, helps attract the eye of the audience to the main image upon the cover. Superimposition has additionally been used to superimpose the walkway and figures onto a photographed background. This is noticeable, with a base of black and white, almost acting as sketched images. I feel this imagery has been used in order to portray the light-hearted atmosphere of the Indie Pop genre, along with the sense of community it provides with other individuals. When considering the typography, this is seen to be set central in a large sans-serif font. The use of a sans-serif font represents a modern text in contrast to the formality of the serif font, which is used in mediated items such as newspapers. The size of the text further establishes the bands name, making it easy to distinguish whom the album is by, with the colour white having been chosen as a contrasting colour to the background of the artwork enabling the typography to stand out.
Next, when looking at the back of the album, you are able to see that the landscaped imagery has consistently carried through. However, this time if you were looking at the rule of three from a vertical perspective, you are able to see that the bar code and young boy are set in the right third, and the main text of the song titles in the centre third. Again, this has been done to set emphasis on the most important part, upon the back of the album. Likewise to the front, the typography has remained co`nsistent, considering both the colour and font type.

Here, I will be looking at another album by the band, Scouting For Girls, The Light Between Us. Likewise to the above album, the artwork is simplistic, with the dominant image in the central third of the cover. With this album, there is a bold relationship between the title and the artwork. Again, the typography is in a sans-serif font, due to this font being more modern, with its more regular appearance on magagine covers. This font has been capitalised, aligining central, in a dark opposing font so that the typography makes a clear statement on the album cover. Corresponding to the Greatest Hits album, primary colours have predomintely been used as well as naturally occuring images, such as sunlight and seas in order to show the do it yourself attitude of the Indie Pop genre.

Moral Panic: Horse Meat Scandal

Irish food inspectors announced in mid-January that they had found horse meat in frozen beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK, and sold by a number of supermarket chains across the UK including, Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279385/The-unpalatable-truth-The-horsemeat-scandal-brutal-warning-Britain-MUST-change-ways.html

The Horse meat scandal was regarded as a moral panic (Stan Cohen 1973). The media exaggerated the danger of consuming horse meat, with the risk of dangerous substances entering the human food chain through unregulated meat. However, the only drug to be identified was the veterinary drug, 'bute' which was found in less than 4% of horse meat samples.

When looking at articles encompassing the subject of the horse meat scandal, newspaper headlines are seen to be generally bias.  The media usually exaggerate the extent of news headlines in order to sell, or gain the publics attention.


When looking at the horse meat scandal, from the Food Standards Agency, a different message is put across to the audience however, this is still seen to be a bias interpretation of the scandal. As seen in many media sources, the newsreporter or business representer are usually white, middle-aged men. This presents a trustworthy and professional image to the audience, suggesting that the information being presented is an accurate source. The FSA interviewer states that they are 'not advising anyone to stop eating ready meals or products indeed, with beef in them'. This presents a highly contrasted view from the Daily Mail whom, said there was a 'risk of dangerous substances entering the human food chain'. This shows how the media are biased, depending on their side of the news headlines. Within the interview it is further claimed that 'we have two products that we have identified as being contaiminated'. Again, this information being projected to the audience could be inaccurate, enabling supermarkets to continue making sales of these 'contaminated' products. This opposes information from the BBC, confirming that 17 products had been found to be contaminated.

Fan profile

Audience Research

To collect audience research results, I created a survey on Survey Monkey and posted it onto an online forum. For this, I created an account for the 'The Feeling Offical Forum' where I posted up my survey for a fan group of the Indie Pop band, 'Scouting For Girls'. Here I designed a survey, compiling an image of a 'typical' Indie pop band fan.

From my results, responses were evenly collected from both genders. Most of the results were collected from our age targeted audience, this being 16-20 year olds. However, some responses were also collected from the age category of 21-25, but to a lesser extent. 

The next question again, was quantitive. This was a rather broad question asking; 'what music genres do you enjoy?'. From the results, a wide selection of music genres were selected however, these were as I expected, having no 'typical' Indie pop fan enjoy completely opposing genres such as; Blues, Classical, Country or Jazz.

Since the costume of our 'typical' Indie pop fan has been profiled, determined by the clothes worn by Indie Pop musicians, a question was asked; 'what is your typical dress?' to see whether our underpinning assumptions were correct. From our results we were able to see that we were correct, having the majority of fans wear denim or any other type of shirt, followed by patterned tops likewise to musicians such as Bastille and Scouting For Girls. 

From research, it was said that Indie Pop fans enjoy going to music festivals. Again, we wanted to see if the stereotypical assumption was right in accordance to our own audience. 'How often do you go to music festivals?' received a split in results. The majority, 67% said that they went to music festivals a couple of times a month. This is typically what we expected to see however, the remaining 33% said that they only went once a year. Therefore, this splits the Indie Pop audience, suggesting that it cannot be assumed that the 'typical' fan regularly goes to music festivals. 

The next question asked was a qualitive question, where the audience had to reply in their own words.  It is assumed that the 'typical' fan enjoys their music and socialising with likewise groups of individuals. From our results, most of the people asked would fit into this stereotypical assumption, with most results including the words; 'music', 'partying' and 'mates'.

For our music video, a narrative structure was chosen due to our audience preferring this over a performance or concept-based music video. 100% of our individuals agreed with each other that this is what they would like to see therefore, for the successfulness of our music video we went with our audiences preference.

The next question, again was related to decisions reguarding our music video. The question asked related to the colour of our shots. The choice given was colour, monochrome or a mixture of the two. The results revealed that our audience prefer both colour and monochromatic productions. This is therefore applied in our music video, distinguishing colour between the past and present tense.

 Following, we were curious whether our audience wanted to see the band in their music video. From analysing a variety of Indie Pop music videos, it was evident that there wasn't a theme for whether to include the artist or not. Our audience were split on opinions however, the majority of votes concluded that the artist wasn't necessarily needed in our music video.

Finally, when considering a topic for our music video, we didnt know whether it would best be related to individuals or contradictory to their lives. Therefore we asked; 'Would you prefer the subject in a music video to be relevant to you?' Along with the answer no, we offered the choice of preferring the music video to relate to society. From our results it was noticeable that our audience wanted a realistic storyline however, this was to be related to society. Hence, we chose a storyline consisting of alcohol and drug abuse, something which is hidden, but at the same time still happening unknowingly in society.

Human Traffic

1. How can Human Traffic be considered a social realist film?
Human Traffic could be segregated into the genre of social realist, due to the exploration of themes of 'coming age' suggesting that ideas throughout the film reflected and focused on what was happening in society over the time period. This is broken through the use of fantasies and looking into the camera, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, dialect and fashion contributions. This therefore, pushes the boundaries allowing the experience of real Britons to be put on the screen. For instance, typical youth representations of individuals feeling like they have to fit into society. This is shown in Human Traffic and also Quadrophenia, in the sense of music division.

2. How does the youth culture depicted resist or subvert mainstream society?
Cultural hegemony is present in Human Traffic. This witnesses the domination of a culturally diverse society by the upper or ruling class whom, manipulate the culture of society via beliefs, perceptions and values. Therefore, youths are seen to be subverting society with their alcohol and drug consumption. Furthermore, this is also shown through the 'living for the weekend' attitude, suggesting that youths dismiss the value of work.

3. What values or morals are present in the film?
It could be said that the youth have no morals in the film due to their 'live for the weekend' attitude. This however, may submerge moral panic with the elder generation as there may be concern that the behaviour of youths is likely to have a negative effect on society. This is shown by a positive drug value in all of the youths lives. This heavily contrasts with the overall perception of drugs from the adults view, as within a serious interview, Nina and Lulu are seen to be taking fun out of the seriousness of drug-taking. Human Traffic further suggests family values. This can be seen for example, when Moff is sitting down to a Sunday lunch with his family, representing that of a christian ritual. Additionally, this is seen within the same scene with the discussion of drugs, showing the morals of the family. It is also evidnetial that music may be a value, as the youth culture is divided depending on their music taste. Hence, this creates links with the film Quadrophenia, as the Mods and Rockers conflict over their musical personalities.

4. How can you consider the film to be British?
Apart from the location, the characters are being based on stereotypical British youths who are trying to escape their pointless lives in order to live for their drug-fuelled weekends. For example, with Nina not being able to get a place in college, this allows us as the audience to see her uneducated remarks about the course that she once hoped to do. Now she has a job which she doesn't enjoy, giving us a view of the youth culture as being unable to pursuit a higher career. Additionally, with the excessive alcohol and drug consumption of youths, this may portray youths as anti-social to the elder generations, such as parents.

5. Analyse one scene from the film


Here, I will be analysing the 'Look at your eyes' scene. Firstly I will be commenting on the camera angles, sound, and mise en scene of the clip.
When looking at the shots used in this scene, the majority consists of a mid shot with an interchangable close-up shot when nearing the end of the sequence. Additonally, these are all low angle shots, with the audience looking up at the two characters. This could represent youths perceptions of thinking that they know everything hence, having the camera look up in order to suggest power. This I feel gives the audience a sense of closeness with the characters within the scene, also directly looking into the camera so a relationship is established with the audience. On the other hand, the closeness of the camera could represent the intimacy of the characters friendship. Hence, this could link to youth representations, as youths send more times with their friends than their own family members.

The mise en scene of the scene comprises of two young men, sitting side by side, looking down into a mirrored table. Within, one of the young lads is seen to be smoking and the other creating a line of a white powered drug. This immediatey beings in the theory of cultural hegemony, creating a negative stereotype of youths in society. The use of drugs could also represent rebellion in society, due to their legal status. Furthermore, both the characters are seen to be chewing gum, something which may be looked upon as unprofessional in the business world.

Next, all the sound in the scene is diegetic, meaning that it is naturally occurring. This is present in the form of speech, a rolling pen, the taping of a card on the surface and house music, occuring faintly in the background. From this, elders may perceive the youth as anti-social due to their heavy use of tabhoo language. From their dialect it is moreover evident that youths have negative views on society with the suggestion of putting an unsane figure into parliament therefore, devalueing the efforts of the past and present governments. This could additionally label the youths as unintelligible.

Drugs laws driven by "moral panic"

• Most drug users harm neither themselves nor those around them
• Treated as a health issue
• It is driven more by 'moral panic' than by the practical desire to reduce harm
• ABC classification - drug users pay no attention to it
• People who used illegal drugs did not harm themselves or cause anyone else any trouble however, they are breaking the law by possessing drugs
• Drugs education should be moved to primary schools

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

• Prevents the non-medical use of certain drugs
• Drugs subject to this Act are known as 'controlled' drugs
• The Act prohibits unlawful possession
• Police have special powers to stop, detain and search people

 Offences under the Act:

• possession
• supply
• production, cultivation or manufacture
• import or export
• allowig premises for consumption or supply

Post humanism

• Moving beyond the limitations of a human
• Every human has these qualities
• Humans are never critical of their physical and mental limitations
• Human beings can alter their mental and physical state to become another being entirely

Ecstasy

• Class A drug
• Energy buzz
• Sounds and colours are more intense
• Feelings of great love - not a drug that makes people violent 
• Makes people feel chatty
• Psychological dependence
• Damage to the brain
• Linked to liver, kidney and heart problems
• 200 ecstasy related deaths in the UK since 1996

Media and Collective identity Notes

'Identity is comlicated. Everyone thinks they're got one' - Gauntlett 2007
...Magazines and talk show hosts urge is to explore our 'identity'. Religions and national identities are at the heart of our major international conflicts. Artists play with the idea of 'identity' in modern society. Blockbuster movie superheros have emotional conflicts about their 'true' identity. And the average teenager can create three online 'identities' before breakfast...Thinking about self identity and individuality can cause some anxiety - at least in cultures where individuals are encouraged to value heir personal uniqueness. Each of us would like to think - to some extent - that we have special, personal qualitites, which make us distinctive and valuable to other people in our lives (or potential future). But does this mean anything? is individuality just an illusion? Maybe we all are incredibly similar, but programmed to value miniuscule bits of differentation.

'A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and the consequences both for individuals and for social groups' - Buckingham 2008

Behaviourism and Media Effects
- audience models

Effects Model
- audience duped and doped
- Hypnotised

Gratifications Model
- texts used to gratify needs and interests
- read, adjust, subvert other texts
- read in a way not intended by interpretting

Effects studies objectives
Social, Moral and Political objective
- To measure the power of media technologies to affect how individuals think, feel and act
Commercial objective
- To measure the effectiveness of advertising and publicity campaigns

Cumberbatch & Howitt - 1989
'The history of mass communications research is conspicuously lacking in any clear evidence on the precise influence of the mass media'

• Effects debate issue received in the 1990s (Barker and Petley, 2001)
• This relates to Human Traffic as individuals were influenced to take Heroin from watching the film, 'Train Spotting'

Laswell's chain of Communication - Harold Laswell, 1971

- Communication can be dissected into 5 processes:

Who - Control analysis
Says what - Content analyisis
In which channel - Media analysis
To whom - Audience analysis
To what effect - Effect analysis

Total conductance
- At every stage, information can be misunderstood or altered. This is like Chinese whispers, and is called 'Modified conductance' or 'No conductance'

Propaganda 
Propaganda is only effective if it can tap into the meanest as well as the keenest of intelligence. This must tap into latent public opinion within the society it aims to influence

Violent media - Wertham, 1955
'The quantity of violence in the media is stupendous'

• analysed crime comics and television
• children shown images and asked to interpret them
• children also asked to finish stories

Tests where deemed crude and artificial (Gauntlett, 2005)

1. Passivity - comics and TV makes children passive

2. Misconceptions - TV teaches children unhealthy values

3. Imitation - children copy what they see on TV

4. Identification - children see themselves as the strong character, even if this is the villain

5. Desensitisation - the high volume of violence desensitises children 

Warshaw - 1957

'To blame comic books...is simple minded'

Band Profile

'Follow Me' was the first song from the band, You Are The Empire. This tells a story of how nightmares are devious and negative, feeling as though they are being personified in everyday life. This song therefore, inspires individuals to pick their head and go searching for their nightmares, despite the consequences so that misery isn't forever lingering.


'Take A Seat' is another song by the band. Through the lyrics of the song, the band is expressing the emotions felt by an individual when they're in an unstoppable state of mind, telling a story out loud without dwelling on it or living in the past.

London Riots 2011

When looking at the Sky News report on the London Riots, an interview is taking place with some teenage gang members whom were involved in the riots. This immediately strikes me as being biased, as the only people being interviewed are those whom set out to steal. Hence, these four individuals are structuring societies viewpoint on the London riots, suggesting that everyone protesting, inevitably ended up causing mass destruction. It should also be noted that the news reporter is a white, middle class male, contrasting against the appearance of the rioters. This therefore represents the presenter as the knowledgeable individual, suggesting that what he is reporting is the correct information due to complete contrasts in appearance.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study
This article from 'The Guardian', what would be considered to be a reliable source, is just as biased. For instance, the article states that 'the Guardian and The London School of Economics interviewed 270 people who rioted in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester and Salford'. Although sources where taken from a variety of locations, having only interviewed rioters again, only gives one perspective of the events, suggesting that all the locals were involved in the violence. From the 270 interviewed, the 'typical' stereotyped rioter was labelled. This suggested that the majority of the rioters were young and male, either students or unemployed. Additionally, half of the interviewers were black, with 73% having been stopped by the police in the last 12 months however, these individual didn't class these as 'race riots'. This fits society's stereotypical perception of a criminal. Also when interviewed, rioters confirmed they rioted due to 'opportunism' suggesting a lack of voice, in power and wealth. Hence, it could be said that the riots are down to inequality of income in society.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/12/london-riots-2011-alf-biber-tottenham_n_1144040.html
Originally found on Twitter,from the Huffington Post, 'London Riots 2011: Victims Face A Difficult Christmas And An Uncertain Future'. The choice of the word 'victim' is incredibly strong, suggesting the riots resulted in severe effects for the locals. The use of the word, parallels with stories such as the Glasgow Helicopter Crash and the Philippines Typhoon, where innocent civilians lost their lives. Further, 'An Uncertain Future' suggests that the London riots had a permanent effect on the livelihood of the locals however in reality, locals were only affected in the short term with the loss of businesses. When reading the article, the writer has included irrelevant information in order for the public to feel sympathetic for the 'victim' these include lines as such; 'His wife died in 2010' 'Alf Biber grew up half-starved'. This therefore sets an image for all the locals, representing them as innocent and fragile, being unable to defend for themselves against the 'gangs of youths'.

To summarise, all Youtube, The Guardian and Twitter, have been biased on account of the London Riots. This has both been when representing the rioters, suggesting that everyone protesting was inevitably out to cause destruction, but also that of the locals, denoting them as frail and distort victims. This shows how the media exaggerate news stories in order to panic their audience, gaining greater attention from viewers. Hence, the saying is supported;  "If it bleeds, it leads"

My interpretation of a 'Typical' You Are The Empire fan

When compiling an image of what I assume to be a 'typical' You Are The Empire fan, I would base this upon fans of the Indie Pop genre. This is usually defined by an individual or groups image. This look is more cutting edge and extreme, not conforming to any general style but instead,offering several statements from one single outfit. The costume of a 'typical' fan commonly suits a general vintage apparel for example, denim shirts and iconic t-shirts. This also includes items of clothing such as waistcoats, cardigans and skinny jeans. Furthermore, this follows the fashion of Indie Pop bands including, Bastille and The Wombats. Other music genre interests include Indie Rock and Alternative, genres which suit a niche audience in opposition to those which are more mainstream such as Pop and R&B. The favoured environment of an Indie fan would be that of music cultural festivals, thrift shops or Urban Outfitters, allowing the introduction of beautiful noise and socialisation.
The sense of socialising can be seen in a variety of Indie Pop music videos for instance, 'She's So Lovely' by Scouting For Girls and 'Techno Fan' by The Wombats. Like wise to the typical 'Indie' fan, music videos by the artist Bastille often portray their character as a singeton, conforming to the suggested differentation of the 'Indie' fan.

Summary of 'Youth culture movies: how soon is too soon?'

• The magic number is 13 years before making a youth culture film
• 90s rave culture is difficult to pursue any artistic or box-office success
• Human Traffic portrays a bunch of clubbers going through highs and comedowns of an E-enhanced night in early 90s Cardiff 
• The benefit of further hindsight makes films more nuanced and profound
• 'the last days of Sex Pistols legend Sid Vicious' came out a mere 8 years after the events it was addressing. This was too close to effectively process what had gone on
• Period films are expected to contextualise and analyse, to foster or confront nostalgia and explain why adults have become who they are now
• "A significant period of time has to pass between the height of the experience you are seeking to capture and the release of your film" Anything between 13-25 years
• Youth focus is identifiable through music,fashion and haircuts
• There is an importance of establishing a link between the era covered in the movie and the social concerns nagging at its present day audience
• Director Richard Jobson is taking on a sequel to Quadrophenia with a time gap of 40 years however, the story has crucial modern parallels. Its about a new decade and a state of emergency Britain 
• Affection for personal youth reboots due to milestones of marriage, parenthood or mortgages as well as financial and familial responsibilities
• The middle age desire to recapture a brief moment of freedom and invention that youth once provided
• People want to return to the moment when they found out who they were
• Films about teenagers often serve the need of ageing film makers to look back on meanings to explain

To summarise, there is a time limit on the release of Youth culture films, as enough time has to spare after the event in order for film makers to process what has gone on.

Shotlist

Planning Schedule

Style of 'You Are The Empire'