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Tuesday 1st December

Marina and the Diamonds 

Marina and the Diamonds is an indie-pop singer songwriter from Wales. I did not analyse any of her music videos for the first section of my analyses. This is her debut studio album 'The Family Jewels' released in 2010 at #5 on the UK albums chart.

The digipak has four sides numbered below to avoid confusion when writing/reading.

Panel 1: The CD itself
Panel 2: The image of the artist covering one eye
Panel 3: The back of the digipak (with the barcode)
Panel 4: The Front cover

The text on each panel is the same, in a handwritten font and bright white in colour a contrast to the images on each side and the background on panel four. The use of a handwritten font gives the feel of a personal touch to the album/music, it makes it more unique to the artist. The white is a stark contrast compared to the dark background the text is laid on (the artists hair and what looks like a vintage couch style pattern). The white text highlights the words and images used, it connotes professionalism within creativity something that several artists in this genre display. I think that we should convey this through our production tasks. The text is in a sans serif font connoting a playfulness and fun tone to the music, this present the artist as having fun with her career suggesting she's got a happy/fulfilling career in the music industry.

 

All the images on the digipak are close ups of the artist, however her positioning and the angle of the shot changes. On panel two it's a close up level with her face, she's using NVC in the form of eye contact to connect to her audience, this may come as surprising to them since this side will be on the inside of the digipak and will only be seen when it's opened. This creates the idea she wants to connect with her audience personally and creates a bond between the audience and the artist. The image on the front is taken next to her, she's clearly laid on something as her hair is splayed everywhere on a surface that's not seen in the background (clearly using some kind of editing for the background). She however has turned her head so she's looking at her audience again, this will catch their attention and create an idea of her connecting with her audience just as they walk by the font of the album she's selling, it's eye-catching and will interest people whilst encouraging them to buy the digipak.

               The image on panel three is another close up however its taken from behind/above her as she lies on the ground with her head tipped back so we can see her face, this is an interesting pose as it's not a common pose that many artists are seen doing. Her make-up and hair look the same as in the other images creating continuity through her image, she's looking at something off-screen on panel three which causes intrigue in the audience. She's clearly naked on panel three which insinuates the same for the other images, this use of costume (or lack thereof) highlights her sexuality and will likely be more appealing to a male audience than a female audience.

There's a lack of any props/clear setting on the digipak putting deeper focus on the artist/her music, this suggests the music is personal and heavy in terms negative themes/emotions. This is reinforced by the title 'The Family Jewels' which could be a reference to the theme of family /what is considered precious to the artist. This is seen through the song titles (panel three) that all have interlinking themes of child focused intertextual references (Hermit the frog/The Muppets and Mowgli's Road/The Jungle Book) and themes focusing around negativity in fame and childhood (Hollywood/The place of fame, The Outsider/Showing the isolation, Rootless/Potential reference to lack of authority figures as a child).

Song titles from 'The Family Jewels'

1. Are you satisfied?
2. Shampain
3. I am not a robot
4. Mowgli's Road
5. Obsessions
6. Hollywood
7. The outsider
8. Hermit the Frog
9. Oh no!
10. Rootless
11. Numb
12. Guilty

Side 1
Side 2
Side 3
Side 4

This is a gallery containing larger/focused pictures of each panel on the digipak. 

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