21st century breakdown

Holly Taylor

Characters:

The two characters’ that feature on the album

advertisement poster are a boy and a girl who

fi t into the age demographic of 17-25. As the

two characters fit into this age demographic,

the poster i s therefore aimed towards readers

of Kerrang! Magazine, where this poster

advertisement features, which are typically

males but sometimes females aged between

the demographic of 17-25. The artwork of the

couple in the centre of the poster is in a

graffi ti s tyle, which is similar to the works of

graffi ti artist: Banksy. This creates a sense of

rebellion against conformity and is therefore

relating to the ti tle of the a lbum:

“BREAKDOWN” this suggests that there is a

“breakdown” of conformity amongst the

youths of the 21st century. The couple in the

embrace are dressed in all black in the mise

en scene, the colour black denotes s trength

and authority; as well as having the negative

connotations of: death, evil, and mystery. The

fact that the colour black is so prominent in

the poster’s mise en scene in particular the

costume, suggests that the two characters are

outcasts of society, by possibly being

criminals or involved in a gang of some sort,

or in fact could suggest that the two

characters are outcasts because of their music

taste: being rock/pop punk music and have

found someone to “embrace” their love of

this music with.

Iconography:

There are a few iconic images that

feature within the poster for the album.

For example, there are iconic images

associated with America, such as the

graffiti of the band’s name and the

graffiti style art of the couple embracing

against the brick wall. The art of graffiti

is prevalent in particularly urban areas

of America, which suggests that the

band is appealing to urban citizens to

purchase the album as it is relatable to them through the mise en scene.

Colour Scheme

The prominent colour scheme of this

poster is: yellow, red, white and black.

These colours connotate that the

album will explore and sing about the

themes of: destruction, blood, fear

and anarchy, this is juxtaposed with

the title of the album which suggests

that it will contain the themes of the

destruction of a civil isation and

possibly how the youth of 21st century

America are being corrupted by the

government and are instead rebelling.

This is shown through the colour

orange which is symbolic of fire, which

denotates a sense of rebellion and

anarchy, which is a key theme of pop

punk and rock bands.

Band’s name and album title:

The typography of the band’s name is in a bold, large

graffiti style font and is eye catching against the

dark/black background as the font colour is white.

The colour white suggests a sense of a “fresh start”

and a “new beginning” and so this can be applied to

this album poster because the band hadn’t released

any new music since American Idiot in 2004, and so

this album was hotly anticipated by fans of the band.

The “fresh start” aspect is prevalent with this album,

as the band had experimented with their sound by

creating songs that lead singer and front man, Bil l ie

Joe Armstrong described as a “snapshot of the era in

which we live as we question and try to make sense

of the selfish manipulation going on around us,

whether it be the government, religion, media or

frankly any form of authority". And so, the anarchy

and rebellion against the government, religion and

media is shown through the way the title of the

album and the band’s name is written in the s tyle of

graffiti.

The tagline of the band’s

advertisement poster says “The wait

is finally over…” in a large, deep red

font. The letters on the tagline

appear like they’re dripping like

blood. This relates to the theme that

with an anarchic attitude towards the

government etc, people are suffering

which relates with the dripping blood

coloured tagline. There is a slight

exaggeration with the “FINALLY” that

relates with the fact that it has been

five years since their last release. This

also suggests that the album has

been highly anticipated.