Investigation of Take That’s Recent Digipack Release

This entails the Album cover , Single Covers ,Music Videos and music promotion

posters

1. The Garden 2. Greatest Day 3. Hello 4. Said It All 5. Julie 6. The Circus 7. How Did It Come To This 8. Up All Night 9. What Is Love 10. You 11. Hold Up A Light 12. Here/She Said

This is the album list of Take That’s ‘The Circus’, the song titles highlighted in white are the tracks released as a single to society. I am know going to on the following slides discuss the intertextality used to make links between the artists, lyrics , underlying meaning of the album name and the links used that of colours , font , dress and theme to create a sub-conscious link for an audience in a wide spectrum of media forms such as posters, album covers , DVDs, music promotions posters and a music video.

The circus was released on 30 November 2008 in which the singles to the right emerged without a doubt instantly you can see intertetuality between the album covers from colour , type face to the presence of the band. 1

2

3

4

The singles are labelled in numbers 1-4 which are in release date order.

"Said It All"

Released: 15 June 2009

"Up All Night"

Released: 2 March 2009

"Greatest Day"

Released: 24 November 2008

1 2

3Release Date :- 1 December 2008

Released Date : 2 March 2009

Released: 20 March 2009

Intertexuality between single and album covers on the previous slide

• Colour

Mise-On-Scene

Colour

Straight away it is easy to identify the trends in colour use. As you can see the background of all three single covers are a soft calming blue which mirror a sky with hints of white to symbolise clouds. This is to represent the heaven like status of the group and also the risks they are taking to establish themselves which is shown via the various circus equipment eg. Tight rope , swing bar. Also the blue soft pastel colours are mirrored in the clothing worn by the artists but alters depending on the member personality and dress preference and to show the different personalities in the group.

Props and costumes

The props used reinforce the albums message of a circus theme. They have used items such as tight ropes (which are actually electrical wires to show the music is upbeat and the band are excited about the track.), to show the risks the band is taking on the album on the tight way from being great or disastrous but it is worth the risk. On the ‘Greatest Day’ single streams of paper is used to hint it will be a successful track as almost like confetti. Also it in some angles looks like doves which implies again the heavenly aspect of the group to its fans, purity and honesty. The ladder up to the swinging bars show the journey that the group have been on and the step and obstacles they have over turned to be successful.

Camera Angles

The camera is cleverly used for each single cover as its simplicity speaks volumes as the positioning of the group is always at a superior angle being low angle shot to show the establishment of the group in the music world , this is eventuated by the ladder which shows the groups journey.

Group positioning

This is a very clever tool as you can see by the varied position that the man artist of that track is higher than the other group members for example ‘The Garden’ and ‘Up all Night’ has Mark Owen more superior and ‘The Circus’ album and ‘Greatest Day’ has Gary Barlow as the main contributor, which shows the group appreciation and recognition of the contribution.

Lighting

The lighting is bright to enhance the feeling of the group being situated outside and in the sky, Also it is used to give the group and almost heavenly and angelic presence in the music world which also represents the melody types used and the voices of the group.

‘Greatest Day’ was the first single released from the album ‘The circus’ which made number one 24th November 2008.Straight away conventions and intertextuality jumps out the audience these are aspects such as the sky like formation of colours in the background of soft blues and turquoise, with hints of white to symbolise clouds. Also the trend is followed with the presence of the band members being the focal point of the single cover, also if you take a look you can see how the band member have clothing on which mimics a sky like theme and however different colours from the album cover and different style of clothing to show individuality and personality why showing the bonds and the unit of the band. However as you can see this arrangement of the image doesn’t have much influence of ‘the circus’, however other wise the intertexutalilty is very strong and the lack of its presence is apparent in the song title so it works quiet well of hinting the song meaning, by stating the band at a low angle shot to show the superiority of the band and there position in the charts at this time. As you can see the font used is again tat that mimics the album cover but most importantly shows the sub-couscous link between the take that logo and the title name and also it is used to create a follow of the image so it isn't hard on the eye.

1

Analysis of first single released of ‘The Circus’ album and the already established intextuality.

The publishers of Take That cleverly use themes in this case ‘The Circus’ to create intertexuality and a common association. A prime example is the single cover to the left and the DVD cover to the right. As you can see straight of the intertextuailty doesn't convey through the colours used as on the left there is stereotypical vibrant reds, blues found in a conventional clown and circus act. Where as the DVD cover to the right has a merge of similar septic colours with the hint of black to excaudate shadows. However intextuality is present just not to the naked eye when you first look at the single cover on the left you can initially see that even though the outfits worn are circus dress they aren't modern items but from a earlier Victorian era which is implied by some faded colours, synthetic material and some what aged colouring to the fabric. This linked to colour used on the DVD reinforces this aged different era of circus represented by the group. This is shown through septic colours used as the product to the right is of moving images and from the era of the dress this colour of filming is contemporary with Victorian technology so mirrors its intention to the audience as a film almost. Also this shows the groups fame and establishment in the music industry as the blurry appearance of group shows that they don’t need to rely on there own image and identification and this enhanced by the circus dress. This idea is also conveyed by the small and simplistic masthead in a time fitting typeface which doesn't have present the well associated Take That logo. This line of simplistic design also conveys the message of a different era an stereotypical design of the past time, this also shows Take That’s overall aim to appeal to both a old and new audience in its musical approach. As well as the secure position the group are in to be able to challenge conventions and for the products to still be attractive, successful and to as well.

Take That’s sell out tour , toured around Brittan in some of the most well known cities entertaining fans. Cleverly to increase revenue profit by utilising the merchandise market. As you can see to the left the is a diverse range of products from a music book to clothing and memorabilia posters. As you can see this is a diverse market but enables with one successful design to use this insidiously and still attractive to its target audience in a very versatile way for example the poster design was recreated on t-shirts as shown to the left, mugs, key rings addressing all aspects of the bands wide audience , young to old and men and women due to the wide spectrum of colours used and styles at very profitable prices with a sweatshirt hoodie around £50.00 RRP. Also including such items as a bowler hat to mimic the style of Mark Owen.

http://www.stereoboard.com/band-merchandise-Take-That-page2.html#merch

As you can see again Take That merchandise release on the reputation of there group which extents to silhouettes of there famous album cover as a small motif on a t shirt added with a small mast head in the same type face as the album to create a catchy classy design subtle for a wide target audience.

Overall Take That as there music doesn't in terms of merchandise attract every corner of there target audience in terms of clothing and every stream of merchandise from posters to key ring. This example really shows the understating of what a target audience wants and will purchase in some instance incredible prices to get close to their idol.

The Circus – Take ThatPoster

Traditional

Colours

The colours used are block colours of red, black, white and very simplistic however, the bold presence of the red against the cream white background creates emphasise and attracts the target audience. Also the colours used aren't in anyway geared to any age group, sex or social group which again is represented in there diverse target audience with little exception, why still keeping in with time period of ‘The Circus’ Victorian essence makes the poster stand out and be eye catching.

Imagery Used

The images used are very simplistic even up to the silhouette of the band members. The circus tent in the top right hand corner, is an sub-conscious link to the album and to the song features and yet gives no clue to the surprises in side which the closed bland tent gives.

Type Faces Used and Language

The type face used generically on the whole are very contemporary with the era being represent and this idea is used on the whole as a presentational technique. This is also shown in the use of banners as a heading background e.g. live , 2009, Take That. Also the plagued featuring ‘Circus’ is typical of a sign to a Victorian event so works as a mast head in this instance as the whole gig revolves around this album. The names of the artists are then presented in a wide spectrum of type faces however still conventional with the time era, from this we can see the personality again of each individual , rank order with in the group , audience preference and so on.

Presentational devices used :-

The use of colour in terms of decoration with the simplistic use of black, white and red used in term of decoration is very clever and effective and in keeping with the times era, this extends to the border used , which acts as a red light signal to attract attention to the information inside. Also the red decoration used as a border also acts as a information divider in terms of the name of the gig, the date, artists and for imagery. Also the decoration is very simplistic such as dots, simplistic floral inspired motifs .However, this is a very clever technique , as you can see this enhances the theme of circus and enhances the ethos of royalty that is put upon the band. Also the stamp like Shallotte used to present the bands faces again shows the rank order of the band in correspondence with the text of the band names shows the bands belief in there establishment , but also to make the idea of the band more relatable .Also this presentation of those leading the events was very conventional as reputation was key to the events success.