Album Cover - First Attempt

Biography Analysis – Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is another artist similar to my artist, as she’s a British artist that writes about personal experiences and voices them through her songs and lyrics. She’s an artist whose lyrics are refreshing and describe ‘the highs and lows of love with her airy, gossamer voice.’

Like Adele, a large part of Goulding’s biography is written quotes which elaborate an original thesis. Throughout the entire content, she describes what her songs mean, and how she grew up in Hereford, a small town 16 miles east of the Welsh border. Her whole history is present, and once again, she uses an informal mode of address to talk to her readers through her biography, to initiate an intimate relationship between them.

Features of this biography that I will use in my own will be the mode of address and language as it creates a friendly, loving image of Ellie Goulding and despite being a celebrity, it describes her to be “one of them” instead of having the slightly intimidating celebrity status.

Biography Analysis: Adele

Adele is known for her intimate lyrics and meaningful songs, as well as not really caring what other’s think, shown by her response to Lady Gaga’s comment about her weight and how she should “move around a bit more, instead of sitting on a chair” – see Rolling In The Deep Video.

This attitude reflects in her biography as straight away, instead of all the facts and information like her birthplace and last name being pasted in a small box in the top right hand corner of the page – it seems like Adele is actually addressing the audience herself via an informal mode of address through quotes.

A large majority of the content on her biography is a starter line, describing a certain statement about herself and then following it up with Adele’s own words to elaborate. It shows the journey through her life, and what inspired her to become the artist she is today. Her whole life’s history, stemming from what hardships pursuing music brought her and how one of her friends set up a page for her music in late 2004.

The language the biography uses is definitely informal, and gives a friendly tone towards the audience as she continues her previous attitude about not caring with curse words inside of her quotes. Clearly, Adele prefers to be ‘real’ with her audience and to show who the real her is. This thesis is also reflected in her memorable lyrics and how she reaches out towards the audience by letting herself go and becoming vulnerable through song, allowing them to delve into the deepest darkest parts of her life.

Whereas Adele’s biography does establish the idea that the reader and her are ‘friends’, it does supply an increased amount of information that only outlines Adele’s life – leading us to believe that whilst the content may be informal and friendly, there is a sense of formality which creates Adele to be a celebrity, therefore drawing a line between friends and fans.

Biography

James Morrison - Undiscovered


The album cover for James Morrison's 'Undiscovered' immediately attracts the audience towards it with a close up of the artist himself. It's quite effective since it creates an intimate bond between Morrison and the audience because it lets them see him up close, and reflects in the songs featured in this album.


Several of the songs featured on the album reveal Morrison's feelings through his lyrics. Such as You Give Me Something was originally intended to be a 'harsh love song', as the lyrics mean that the protagonist of the song doesn't love the person as much as she loves him, but is willing to give the relationship a try. This suggests a darker side to Morrison already there must be some type of experience in his life, whether he was the protagonist, or whether he knew someone who was the protagonist - but this only enhances the intimacy between him and the audience. Other songs such as Wonderful World, The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore and Undiscovered also reflect this assumption of dark feelings.


However, whilst the close-up and expression on Morrison's face could connotate that he's opening up to his audience, and allowing them to see what he's like up close - his eyes are staring into the distance, which could suggest that Morrison is still quite distant about his feelings, and his songs featured are deep and meaningful. 


This goes on to reflect the genre of Morrison's music as from the cover, it's pretty clear that his songs aren't going to be heavy rock or drum and bass - they'll be calming and soothing. Which is later confirmed, if the songs are listened to, by the increased use of acoustic guitars and the raw power of his voice.


The size font of Morrison's name up in the top left hand corner suggests that he wants to be recognised by the audience more so than the title. Also, the use of a dark green to lime green gradient as the colour for the lettering suggests that maybe there's been a dark to light journey for Morrison. That does blend into the general colouring of the album cover as it has a slight greeny/yellow tinge to it - and it's known that green is usually associated with nature - possibly meaning that Morrison's songs are natural, and come from something nature-given, like the heart.


The album title Undiscovered gives the connotation that the album is revealing a certain side to Morrison that hadn't previously been discovered.

Adele - 21

‘21’ is indeed a very simplistic album cover in comparison to others such as Katy Perry’s One of the Boys or most pop sensations. However, despite first appearances, the single image of the soul songstress Adele with simple lettering depicting the title and the artist of the album - actually creates an image that’s more effective than any amount of photo shopped images and variety of colours seen by most pop artists.

She’s always been a confessional singer-songwriter who explores themes of anger, revenge, heartbreak, self-examination and forgiveness, and uses her own personal experiences to write her songs.

When first released, Adele went on to explain the inspiration behind her new album and it’s title:

“I’m very excited, nervous, eager, anxious but chuffed to announce my new album! It’s taken a while and it knocked me for six when writing it. It’s different from ‘19’, it’s about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I’m more patient, more honest, more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws, habits and principles. Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly, this record is called ’21.’ The whole reason I called my first album ‘19’ was about cataloguing what happened to me then and who I was then, like a photo album you see the progression and changes in a person throughout the years.”

Now when examining her album title, the emotion behind the simplistic design seems so obvious.

The monochrome effect gives the audience a sense of nostalgia, as it’s usually associated with events that have happened in the past. This basically depicts Adele’s lyrics and song writing skills as she stems her hard-hitting lyrics from events that she’s been through. For example, take her song Someone Like You - Adele wrote the song about a past love who moved on with his life, with someone new, and she was unable to do the same.

It also has an impact on the audience as it stands out from the typical, bright album covers, almost reflecting Adele’s status as an artist because she is an individual artist who makes music for herself, and not for the money or fame. The colouring could also connotate the darker meaning behind the songs featured, and suggesting that maybe the lyrics are a little more hard-hitting than her previous album.


Using the monochrome effect, also allows the cover to be aesthetically pleasing to the audience as it suggests a calm and relaxed feel, which reflects in Adele's songs as they're ones you can kick back and relax too.

The expression on Adele’s face, as well as the body language suggests a certain fatigue for her emotions. The closed eyes connotate her tiredness, and if you listen to the tracks in her album, this assumption is reflected by her songs showing her heart-ache and struggle with love. Adele’s hand placement backs up this as when tired, most people lean on their hand to prop themselves up. 


The lighting on the cover could also represent that this album is Adele's way of coming out of the shadows and revealing a little more of herself, since the light is directly pointed towards her face. Her first album 19 (see image below) is a shot of Adele mostly in the shadows. So possibly, with the development of her songs, and albums, she's revealing herself more and more towards the public - with a little more of her shown in each album cover.




The positioning of the text on 21, suggests that she wants people to know who wrote these songs, but doesn't care all that much as it's positioned to the bottom right of the cover. Just like the picture featured on the cover, the lack of creativity in the font doesn't reflect in Adele's song writing skills, and backs up the idea that she doesn't really care for material things as long as she gets her point across.

The One That Got Away – Katy Perry

Genre

•        Pop – focuses on the theme of love, in this case, loss of love.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

•         The visuals amplify the lyrics and the idea that Katy Perry had a soul mate once upon a time, and then lost it.
•        The very beginning of the video, it shows an elderly version of Katy Perry with a husband. However towards the end of the video, it’s obvious that this husband isn’t the same man as the one shown in the majority of the video.
•        In another life, I would make you stay ­– the young man gets up from the bed, walking away from Katy Perry, suggesting a link between the two despite the lyrics actually painting a bigger picture.
•        We got matching tattoos – later in the video, it shows Katy Perry getting her tattoo.

Relationship between music and visuals

•        At 1:18, the beats in the music behind goes with the change of what’s on screen, flicking between a selection of different photographs.
•         Further into the video, each shot becomes longer and more lingering – for example, the shot of Katy Perry as an elderly woman.
•         The editing mostly matches the tempo of the music, and maintains quite a fast speed for the first half of the music – along with frequent scene changes and locations.

Close-ups of the artist and star image motifs

•         Katy Perry is known for having memorable videos. For example, Last Friday Night, E.T and Firework. All of which either include some incredible CGI or a story line that’s impacting and/or amusing. This is another one as it impacts the audience emotionally through the combination of lyrics and visual aids.
•        There are many medium to extreme close-ups of Katy Perry as the elderly woman and as her young self, highlighting how the emotion is etching on her face and supporting the narrative of the video.
•        The video has an underlying serious issue about losing someone you love, suggesting that Katy Perry may have gone through something of a similar sort (i.e. Russell Brand). This suggests that instead of her usual voyeuristic or comedic videos, she’s trying to send out a serious message to respect and cherish the time people have with their loved ones.

References to the notion of looking

•        There’s one reference with a few photographs of the young Katy Perry and guy that come on screen.

Intertextual references

•        There aren’t any.

Performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?

•         It’s a narrative-based video as it starts with a shot of Katy Perry as an elderly woman, married to another man, and then proceeds on to show the tale of her lost love through flash-back type scenes.
•        The video is almost a little performance based as it shows Katy Perry performing towards the camera, and towards the elderly version of herself in a two shot.

Happy – Leona Lewis

Genre

•         Pop – focuses on the simple theme of love.
•         R&B – has the typical groove combined with piano and heavy use of drums towards the middle of the song.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

•        Throughout the video Leona Lewis is shown as laughing, smiling and generally being ‘happy’ around the people she knows.
•        I’m just trying to be happy – shows Leona happy with a guy she likes.

Relationship between music and visuals

•        Towards the end half of the video, the music dictates when the shot jumps to another one. The piano cuts from Leona to visions of the wedding, to flashbacks and then to the guy.
•        In the same half, every other drum beat leads to another cut. For example, 2:54 is a shot of a ring being placed on a finger, then 2:55 is a close-up of Leona Lewis’ face, then towards an over the shoulder shot of Leona and this guy and so on.
•        The video only chances pace with the music towards the end when the heavy drum beat kicks in. For the first half, the tempo is relatively slow, and the shots are more lingering in comparison to the second half.

Close-ups of the artist and star image motifs

•         Leona’s record label, RCA Records has signed other acts such as Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne in the past. They’re known for being women who created themselves and made a living out of their meaningful lyrics.
•        Leona is being offered to be a single, independent woman that despite her difficulties, is trying to be happy with herself and the world around her.
•        This video relates to her other, Better In Time, which represents Leona to be a strong woman who knows that despite the present, everything will get better with time. In that song’s case, it’s referring to a break-up, but if relating to all her songs, she could be referring to life in general – that despite hardships, life will get better.

Reference to the notion of looking

•         During the video, starting at 1:35, there’s a montage between Leona Lewis going out with her friends, and her changing into a white dress and matching shoes. This is an implied sexualised display.
•         Towards the end, there’s a reference to a wedding as it shows the image of two people getting married, and then off towards the reception as if the audience is watching Leona and this man’s wedding. Even though it’s revealed that he in fact married someone else.

Intertextual references

•         There aren’t any.

Performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?

•         The video is mostly narrative based as it attempts to tell the story of Leona Lewis falling in love with this man, and eventually seeing how their relationship blossoms and where it goes.
•        A large part of it is also performance-based as the whole video is a montage of clips, flicking between the telling of the story where it’s purely acting and shots of Leona singing in different situations, like leaning against the wall, or with the back drop behind her being the ocean at night

Adele - Someone Like You

Genre

•            Pop – focuses on the simple theme of love and romantic relationships.
•            Soul and Jazz – heavy use of piano

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

•         The relationship isn’t highly distinctive, but it’s still apparent that the overall meaning of lost love and heartache reflects in the visuals in black and grey – suggesting a haunting and emotional state of mind to those who watch it.
•         Adele’s expression also portrays the face of a broken hearted woman, looking back at her old love and reminiscing at the love she lost.
•         During the end of two of the chorus’, the camera moves off into a 360 rotation of the surrounding area as if to emphasize Adele’s lyrics – Don’t forget me, I beg’ – this enhances the idea that despite the world and everything going on in the other person’s life, she doesn’t want them to forget her.

Relationship between music and visuals

•        The video rarely strays from its tracking shot of Adele walking along the Parisian bridge.
•        The arrangements of the lingering shots and camera movements correspond well with the beat of the song as it’s slow.

Close-ups of the artist and their star image motifs

•        Adele is known for writing and singing songs about her past experiences with love and relationships.  So the image of her being offered is one that reflects this, by using lingering shots, distant expressions and slow camera movements.
•        This video relates to the rest of her videos like Make You Feel My Love and Rolling In The Deep, where despite the different genres, all seem to have similar cinematography.
•        The video has serious elements towards the video, suggesting that Adele is serious about her music and writes about real things that affect a person.

Reference to the notion of looking:

•        There aren’t any notions of looking as the camera is solely focused on Adele, and she’s the only one that stars in her video.
•        However, this suggests how she’s feeling whilst she’s singing this song, like she’s alone.
•        She doesn’t need any back-up singers/dancers or special effects to steal the limelight, because her voice and the lyrics make her a true artist.

Intertextual references

•        There aren't any intertextual references.

Performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?

•        It’s mostly performance based as it features Adele performing the song for the majority of the video.
•        It also has elements of a narrative based video, as it shows the story behind her song. The whole store isn't elaborated, but judging by her ability to stir heartstrings in this simplistic video, and the shot of a man walking away from her at the end – it sort of gives the tale of the video away.