Textual Analysis Of CD

Ancillary task 1

Front Cover:
The colour scheme of the album cover is very interesting, as there is a clear conjunction of colour and non-colour. The primary image is in black and white, with the text in bright yellow. How this is conventional to the genre of drum and bass is this whole idea of juxtapositions. Bright and dark. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous colour, and the use of it one may argue suggests a lack of safety, it seeks to indicate some kind of warning. The representation of this colour is conventional to the genre, this notion of spontaneity in the music. The black and white image of the dog is arguably perceive after we see the writing, because of the lack of saturation. Our eyes are initially drawn the the yellow writing Chas and Status, represented perhaps as acting as a bright warning, and the we subsequently see the aggressive looking dog behind, as if the yellow had warned us in advance. Analyzing the typography: we can see, how, the artist's name is of a far greater font than the album name. This is quite conventional to the genre; many of the drum and bass albums I am aware of tend to have the artists' name larger than the album title. What, however, subverts for being conventional to the genre is the size of the font. Most albums tend to have the primary image as the focal point, where here the typography and its size seems to be. The font resembles that of Microsoft words IMPACT. The font appears to be relatively ridged in appearance, thick letters, and is therefore, arguably a representation of masculinity, perhaps the masculinity exerted by the dog. It is conventional to the drum and bass albums to use very hard, sharp, thick fonts as they are the more masculine of the fonts. The album designs would skew away from such fonts as Apple chancery & Lucida handwriting as they are far too fluid and, somewhat weak. The genre is all about the depiction of strength, hence the font on this album cover.

Clearly we can see how the primary image on the albums front cover is of a dog. Distinctly, this does not look like a particularly friendly dog, there is a clear sense of aggression permeating from its facial expressions. This is a close up, arguably even, an extreme close up of the dog for the purpose of showing the facial expressions that depict hostility. Very little of the background image is in fact visible. One may argue that an image of this sort is highly conventional to the genre, drum & bass, because it possesses this notion of hostility and danger, danger being a key aspect to the & Drum & Bass culture.

The final thing that is in need of analysis, from the album cover, is the puff. Yellow writing above a black long, rectangular box- a design that insure we do not miss what it has to say. It is to the left hand corner, which ensure it does not obstruct more of the primary image that is already covered to a certain extent by the Artist's name. Above the parental advisory notice there are the name of Chase and Statuss most commercially renounced songs, and through doing this, they attract the audience. Arguably, puffs are not conventional to drum and bass genres. Of the many I have looked upon and the three I have textually analyzed, the alluring album artwork is what takes complete prominence, over everything else, there are rarely ever puffs. One interpretation towards why chase and status used puffs is because, although they are still of the drum & bass genre, they are far less underground than they used to be; in fact, they are one of the most famed drum and bass duo at this moment in time.

Two Inside Panes:

It is evident that the album designer wanted to keep a pronounced revolving colour scheme through ever pane of the album. The black and yellow remains. This is an element that is highly conventional to the drum & bass album designs, a colour scheme that continues right through to each pane of the CD. This album exemplifies this to the fullest with its use of block colours. A plain block yellow CD background, where yellow is only visible, with a predominantly black CD. Upon the CD there is yellow writing which projects the relatively small typography forward to the audience.

The exact same image as the image on the front cover. Arguably very simplistic, but, once again reinforces this notion of aggression- reflected in the aggressive, blistering sounds Drum & Bass music provides.

Back pane:

In stark comparison to the many drum & bass albums I have looked upon and deeply analyzed, it appears that this whole album design is very simplistic. There is no intensely perplexing artwork such as that of the Pendulum albums. But what it lacks in meticulously artistic drawings it makes up in in shire boldness. The simplicity is perhaps there to purposely differ from what is considered to be normal for drum and bass albums.

The barcode and institutional information is situated in the top right hand corner. This is interesting, as although moving the information and barcode to that corner is not conventional to the genre, the notion of differing from the norm is conventional to Drum & Bass. Living by no-bodys rules, rebelling against institutions; Drum & Bass exemplifies all these ideologies.

The black & yellow colour scheme remains. Clearly the designer of the CD wanted a patent colour scheme, as now we can see it is there on each CD pane. In summery, the analysis of this album in particular was crucial. It has provided me with the juxtaposition: A far more simplistic Drum & Bass album design in stark contrast with the far more elaborate designs of the other two albums analyzed. Broadly defined however, I can understand far more greatly now how a simplistic idea can be just as bold and striking as the most intricately, hand drawn, complex album graffiti for example. Track listing in the bold yellow that has been so prominent in the panes prior to this one. Font remains as Impact. In terms of layout, conventional to CD album designs, they are towards the left hand side of the back pane.