Role Models

In our lesson, in groups, we had to create our own singer/role model. One person in our group was the manager and the rest of the group formed up a team who would make the manager's vision happen.

• Our singer was called Cara who is a Latina and her music genre is rock and indie music.
• She plays the guitar (both acoustic and electric).
• The main message she conveys is to fully embrace life and to give it all you got.
• In her spare time she loves travelling and always visits her home town.
• Prefers to play at small venues to be closer to her fans.
• Her dress sense is mainly retro style dresses and boots.
• Has a tattoo of the world map in black and white on her back to show her love of travelling.
• She was discovered through her YouTube channel.
• She is adventurous, intelligent, brave, energetic & independent.

WHAT I LEARNT:

This activity helped me learn that every aspect of a person has to be considered to create an artist. I never previously thought things like personal interests would be important in the formation of a music artist and I will consider this now for the formation of me and my group's formation of our band.

Another thing I learnt and found interesting was ethnicity in the music market. Our group's singer was a Latina and with research this highlighted the lack of non-Caucasian artists out there. It shows that audiences now are looking for something fresh and not the typically churned out artists from the industry. Furthermore, our artist was not sexualised which is something that is common in the industry and this also really shed light on what we as consumers want to buy into. Not every girl or boy want to see an overly sexualised, Caucasian female artists all the time but, this is what the music industry is giving us so we have to accept it.

Album Art Research in Class

In a lesson in class we discussed Album Art and its purpose and conventions.

When putting albums into certain categories these are the ones we came up with:

• whether it was a band or a solo artist
• conceptual imagery or beauty shot of the band/artist
• colour scheme
• gender
• compliations
• focal on artist or album name
• pop culture links
• links to songs
• what the focus is on the back of the album
• debut album or not
• abstract or realism
• medium used for the style/design
• theme of music
• decade in music (trends within a certain year)
• consistency of albums
• record label

We drew out some main features of all the album artwork that people had brought in for the lesson and we found:

• album and artist/band name at the front
• tracklist on the back
• spine has the name of the artist/band and album title
• an image
• record label on the back
• barcodes
• consistent colour scheme
• websites (a newer method of promoting)
• casing (booklets included)
• smallprint
• publication date
• copyright
• parental advisory (if needed)
• promo sticker
• distinctive fonts

After further discussion we came up with ideas as to what the purpose of an album cover was:

• an insight into the artist
• attractive to look at
• images associate with the sound of the artist/band
• to inform
• promote the band/artist
• provides lyrics which deepens the personal connection of the artist/band and their fans
• value for the money people spend
• shows band/artist identity
• gives people a physical product

The album artwork that I had decided to analyse for the lesson was Paramore's Brand New Eyes Album.

• Conceptual/artistic imagery used for the cover
• Paramore's third album so there is no need for an image of the band as they have already established themselves as a band
• Has a pastel/faded colour scheme
• Niche and quirky
• Very simplistic
• Images connotate lyrics as the album front cover is a reference to their song "Brick by Boring Brick" from the album
• Has a booklet which provides similar conceptual and abstract images on each page as a background for each set of lyrics

This lesson was useful to me as it made me see just how important album artwork is. If it does not draw in the audience, the album won't sell. As our group's idea is for a three piece band and they are releasing a debut album, we probably want all our band members featured on the cover as we have to establish their identity. Also I learnt that genre is very important to convey across using album art and that is something that we will do for our band's album.