Digipak research

What is a digipak?
A digipak is a type of packaging for CD singles or special edition of CD's and typically are made up of a book-style holding the CD inside. The digipak is used to give an idea about the artist and the genre and the theme of the album. This is to gain the artist popularity and to highlight the image of the artist as well as promote them to consumers, thus encouraging sales of the music.

Digipak analysis:

NIRVANA

• The cover is making a political statement about anti-capitalism
• It is one of the most memorable album covers as it is instantly shocking
• It is also a popular cover as it is unique and different which reflects the genre
• There is no image of the band, which suggests that they are not promoting or selling their imageThey are more concerned with the music and not the superficial side of the music industry

 MICHAEL JACKSON

•         The cover is a close up of the artist so the focus is all on the artist
•         The colour palette is very monochrome which makes him stand out more
•        His pose emanates slight sex appeal-making him more desirable to his audience
•        The lighting also makes him look slightly angelic as he is back-lit which creates a positive, empowered brand image for him
•        He is looking at the viewer-direct mode of address which engages the viewer and makes them more likely to pick up the digipak
•        The cover is very disco influenced which reflects and highlights the pop genre

THE BEATLES

•       The cover is a colourful collage by Peter Blake which makes it unique and different from every other album at the time
•       The composition is very busy (spot the icons), it seems as though they are trying to sell themselves as icons as well
•       It is very influenced by the hippie/peace movement as shown in the flowers and the bright colours
•       The artist are featured on the cover, however they are not the main focus which suggests that they are not trying to sell themselves
•       The name attracts the most attention so that the band  and their album are immediately recognisable

BEYONCE

•         The white background makes her stand out
•         Her fur clothing and messy hair presents a wild and powerful image
•        The image of the artist is overlapping the name which highlights that she is popular enough to sell material off of her image
•          She is looking away from the camera so she doesn’t really connect with the viewer, this combined with the fact that the camera is angled up makes her look more powerful and superior to the consumer
•         Also she has lots of skin on show, in particular, her chest which supports the ‘sex sells’ idea and also appeals to the idea of the male gaze