FINAL DIGIPAK

My Final CD Front Cover

Evidently, my final front cover is extremely different in comparison to the original draft, however all changes were made with good reason. For instance, the song I chose as the focal song for the album and overall band promotion was much more subtle and slow and the original images I incorporated in the initial draft, implied a more loud and obvious sound. This was due to the bold and bright patterns and colours used like the green, black and white stripes and the accentuated checkered squares.
As opposed to these extravagant designs and cluttered images, I chose to focus solely on the band and their music and what better way to promote an underground band than a well-taken photograph on stage at a gig. However the image looked slightly unprofessional in its original form, so I decided to use a blending tool in Photoshop to add depth to the image to make it look like an actual potential CD cover. Furthermore I changed the colours to black and white to emphasise the subtlety of the band. The band's music is simple and acoustic using traditional instruments such as guitars and their own voices - as opposed to the technological effects and instruments we now have available - can further reinforce the idea of using black and white as a way of conveying the way that the band value tradition and simplicity in their music.
Another change was the name of the band itself. We originally named them 'The Kennedies' because Alan Kennedy is the main vocalist in the band and they themselves had not chosen a particular name at the time. Roughly a month ago, the main vocalist told us that they would prefer the band to be named 'Life Thu Iris' which caused me to re-design my title as I did not feel that newspaper cuttings of the word's 'life thru iris' were the best way of conveying the music or values that the band portray. Instead I used a normal, handwriting font to emphasise the idea of simplicity. Furthermore I coloured the writing in yellow to contrast with the black and white background but still maintaining a natural element of colour as opposed to a bright red.
Overall, I am quite happy with my final front cover as it conveys most of the things that the initial draft cover did not. For instance, being and underground and relatively unknown band, it is important to see the band on the front cover so that potential audiences have the opportunity to see the band member and gain an impression of their music and identity which they may then be able to identify with as a fan.
Moreover I found that by using an on-stage photograph of the band, I did not have to create and stick-in a random image of a guitar and other instruments to portray the importance of music to the band. In fact this is better than the previous idea as the band is actually playing the instrument and are presented 'in their element' so the importance and value of music to the band is self explanatory through the image itself.

Feminism and Post-Feminism

To fully understand the difference between feminism and post-feminism, I thought that putting it into context alongside a music video would be the best way of grasping the two - quite different - approaches to aspects of the media.

Jessie J - 'Do it Like a Dude'

Feminist Response:

• Although the singer claims that she can 'do it like a dude' and be equal to men by dancing spread-legged and holding what is supposedly her 'crotch', she wears translucent tights and a very high-cut leotard exposing her the entirety of her legs. She also wear heels whilst dancing in this male-like manner and is heavily made-up in layers of make-up which, from a feminist point of view, is actually objectifying herself as a woman through everything that she wears. This greatly contradicts her words as she is actually sexualizing her image to appeal to the 'male gaze', who would find this image sexually stimulating.
•  The way in which the artist gives herself 'male power' with typically male traits, can actually conform to the idea of 'fetishization' which explains how due to the male sex feeling powerless against a woman like Jessie J's character, they may objectify her and use her male traits to provide them with sexual pleasure and turning this fear into a fetish - again, sexually objectifying women.

Post-Feminist Response:

• Through sexualizing herself, Jessie J is in actual fact exploiting men through their sexual desires whilst setting her overall standards the same as men through the entire concept of the lyrics 'do it like a dude'. The artist/actress is embracing her sexuality as a female and in doing so, sexually empowers females.
• By visually stimulating the idea of woman-power, Jessie J can provide other women with 'narcissistic identification' as they may look at her and see how empowered she is as a woman and identify or aspire to portray and adopt those same values.

So ultimately, feminism and post-feminism are very different in their proposals of the representations of women in the media, and more specifically music videos. feminism is strictly against any form of male dominance. therefore women may actually have to restrict themselves from doing certain typically female activities as they may fear that this will present them as a conformist to the male dominating society. However post-feminist's realized that woman - for instance - don't need to repress their sexual desires and needs, and in satisfying their sexual needs and other desires, they are using men as opposed to being used by men. Therefore women aren't being objectified, but rather the men are being objectified to please and satisfy the need and requirements of females instead.

Other Music Video Theorists contd.

Andrew Goodwin
Goodwin stated that there were 5 key aspects that music videos can be broken down into:
1) Though beats (seeing the sound)
2) Narrative & performance
3) Star image
4) Relations to the visuals of the video
5) Technical aspects of the video

Akon and Eminem's 'Smack That' is a music video that conveys most, if not all of these elements to an extent: from telling a narrative which somewhat corresponds to the visual stimulations, to the importance of the star's image.

Other Music Video Theorists

Sven Carlsson
Main ideas:
       -Binary oppositions drive the narration of the video forward. This could be opposition between males  
        and females, black and white, naturalism and surrealism etc.
       -All music video's fall into two sub-categories: Performance and conceptual

Performance videos: Where the audience can see the artist dancing and singing in the actual video. This can be further divided into 3 factors:

          - Song performance

          - Dance performance

          - Instrumental performance

1) Carlsson states that the musical artist becomes the performer and is commonly manipulated to appear as a (materialistic) 'commercial exhibitionist'. So the performer is presented as almost a product, setting high aspirations and standards for the fans of the artist.
2) Another form of portraying music videos is what Calrsson named 'television bard', where the singer tells a story using on screen images rather than images that are personal to the artist.
3) 'Electronic Shaman' - Here, the artist's voice is the only form of identification for the band/artist as they themselves will not physically be involved in the music video.

Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' would be a modern example of a performance video as she fulfills both ideas of the artist singing and dancing in their video. More specifically she fulfills the 'commercial exhibitionist' convention as the video is consumed with visually stimulating images. The entire video consists of Rihanna dancing and singing, just in different settings and costumes which further sets materialistic aspirations for her fans.
      






Conceptual videos: When the audience are shown a music video where the focal point is something other than the artist themselves throughout the video

Lil Wayne's 'Lollipop' is a prime example of a conceptual video; the constant theme of confectionery sweets - and more obviously, lollipop's - is a focal point throughout the entire 'Lollipop' video

Deborah Holdstein

Music Video Theorist: Deborah Holdstein

Deborah Holdstein

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