AT: Deconstructing Album Cover

Chase and Status - No more Idols

Genre

How is the genre of the track/artist evident?
The genre is evident due to the typography used and the imagery. It is evident that the text used is a way of showing its individuality as a genre with the text in the middle breaking the dominant reading path making it appeal to their audience.

Richard Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in music. The star image is incoherant, that is complete and open. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes. The first paradox suggests that the star is extraordinary whilst simultaneously ordinary, this however is not fully evident in the album cover however items such as the britch bulldog with bearing teath and the yellow font suggest the low fi feel and the authenticity creating the ordinary feel. The secound paradox suggests that the band is present and simultaneously absent, this is evident as the band is present through the band name is listed and they are absent as you do not see the members themselves.

Media Language

What visual techniques are used ?

Everything is placed central and therefore it breaks the rule of thirds and makes it more interesting, however this also draws attention in on the CD with the name of the band being in bold and in yellow to stand out from the black and white background. The british bulldog represents aggression, this is further reinforced with its teath bearing, this fits in with the drum and bass genre and also with use of the cultural code the cultural reading from Britain identifying that the background is a British Bulldog and therefore as further connotations rather than other readings about it being an agrresive dog. The indexical sign created is that you who buys the album whish to represent yourself as patriotic or show interest in other cultures if you are from another country. Social myth that British people are middle to upper class as percieved by foreigners , however this myth is challenged by the lower class representation of the black and white effect background.

What linguistic devices have been used here?

The album title is 'no more idols' this connotes that they dont base themselves on any other music or band they are unique which further conforms to their genre. The 'no more idols' is the way in which they have seen to of grown and established there band and are informing their audience there inderpendent now.

Representation

How are the band/artist represented?

Their meta- narative is added to through the use of the 'no more idols' as they have established themselves and are gaining attention. The British Bulldog reinforces this is as it helps to draw in the attention of the viewer and leads to an easy relation of the comprehension of the British patrism. This helps to sell their product as it helps to build the relationship between them and the consumer. This leads to more trust and brand loyalty. Futhermore this gives the consumer a furhter insight and confidence in the brand due to the 'no more idols' as the album they buy they want to label themselves as being recognised that way.

Institution and audience

How might this print text be consumed?

It is evident in the print text that the dominant reading path of right to left has been broken by the centralisation of the text juxtaposed with the background image. It has been constucted so you identify the band name and read there statement of the 'no more idols' and then you see what they visualy pair themselves with of which is the dog to connote the patriotic britain reinforcing it is a british band and the type of music it is with its simplicity in design however the complex structure of stereotypes in order to construct the meta - narative.