Task 2 : Analysis of CD digipak & advertisement promoting band

CD analysis of: MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

The entire CD album links to the music video ‘Time To Pretend’ – one of the most successful songs on the CD, and also pre-released on the ‘Time To Pretend EP’ (released in 2005). The music video displays the two characters on the Oracular Spectacular CD album front cover, and the variety of other characters on the back cover. This link means that previous fans of MGMT will recognise the CD cover.

The music video is somewhat psychedelic, with the use of colour and special effects, potentially hinting at the use of drugs (during the video, the characters are shown to ingest ecstasy or other potentially hallucinogenic tablets).

Front CoverThe colour used depicts a dream-like depiction, and is subtle: this puts emphasis

onto the foreground characters. This dream-like imagery, with the addition of the sun and sand, denotes a relaxed, somewhat magical atmosphere; this is achieved

in many MGMT songs, and is also common to the Indie genre.

The characters depicted in the foreground look like they could be festival goers, which further supports the ‘magical’ atmosphere – the glow-sticks worn by the character left of image further portray the ‘party’ element. They look almost stereotypically indie: the character on the right is wearing a vintage scarf accompanied with having long, untamed hair, whilst the character on the left wears traditionally indie skinny jeans, a feather cape, face paint, has rips in his jeans, and also has wild, long hair. This makes the album easily approachable, mainly by people associated with the Indie stereotype. These are the only two members involved with MGMT at the time of Oracular Spectacular.

The band motif does not detract from the main imagery, but is clearly visible. The motif looks 1980’s retro and blocky, which denotes a nostalgic approach to motif design: this may be aiming to achieve a sense of warmth/excitement generally associated with nostalgia.

Additionally in the years of 1980, it was not uncommon for there to be drug practise by many music bands: used to achieve a sense of euphoria and surrealism. There may be a subtle link between 1980’s music culture, the motif design, modern indie-culture, the ‘dream-like’ design of the album, and the nostalgic bridge between now and then.

Ultimately, the album art achieves a sense of alternative and art-like design: this I believe will attract the vast majority of indie audiences due to the way in which they can interact and associate with the album art and characters portrayed.

The red information box (bottom-left) is to show audiences the content (previously released by MGMT) that has been successful, with which fans of

MGMT will associate with and thus be more likely to purchase the CD.

Inside Panel + back coverThe inside panel is constructed in a different way to normal CD digipaks: the way that the CD is held is different (which is an obvious link to being different/individual and arty – popular to the indie culture). This means that audiences are likely to be attracted to the album and thus more likely to purchase.

The use of colour is minimalistic: tones are popular to indie culture. The use of stripes is also a connotation of indie culture. The use of colouring in a number of gaps within the lettering of ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is commonly associated with students that may colour in the lettering of their work when bored – this shows that the album is approachable by younger audiences.

Ultimately, the inside panel is easy to visually digest, and does not detract from the ultimate aim of being a CD-holder – it allows you to not get caught up on taking out the CD and playing it as soon as possible. All whilst being approachable to indie culture.

The back cover of the CD digipak follows the same colour-scheme as the front cover, demonstrating consistency which allows for the album to be recognised from the back as well as front.

The characters portrayed on the back cover include the two on the front: this portrays the characters on the front being social; this is combined with the possibility of nostalgia (from the sea-side), the ‘rebelliousness’ from throwing what appears to be fire into the sea, and the costumes worn by the characters in the image, which is ultimately desirable to any young indie audiences.

The writing on the back cover is small and barely detracts attention from the cover art – this allows for audiences to be attracted to the CD digipakinitially, and the target audiences (being indie) can associate with the ‘artsy’ display being creative.

Advertisement analysisThe image of the advertisement is the same as the CD digipak: this helps with recognising the product, and thus works in synergy. The writing on the front of the magazine cover follows the same colour scheme as the rest of the image, which helps the magazine to maintain the synergetic value. The placement of the writing allows for the image to become the focal point, thus increasing the likelihood of the product being recognised by the consumer.