1. What are the typical features that an advert has? Make a list if the elements they have in common?
The typical features which a magazine advert, usually contain are features such as a cover ad, a main article or which may include pictures, interviews, sale promotions and many more. The elements that both these magazine covers have in common is that the layout of the 2 magazine adverts are very similar, this is seen through the layout of the text and the images. Both adverts contain one large image which relates to the tracks Wonderwall and “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” The writing is similar in font and the same Oasis logo has been placed on the adverts but in different places, but the album of “What’s the Story, Morning Glory”. And also includes the theme of voyeurism.
2. How would you categorise the adverts in front of you?
The images used in the magazine advert includes that of the Oasis’ single Wonderwall and their albums of “Definitely Maybe” which is positioned in the bottom right hand corner of the magazine advert and the other album which is portrayed next to that album is called “What’s the Story”. The layout of the pictures is unusual as there is one big image of Oasis’ track Wonderwall which covers the majority of the page whereas there is, also the images of the two albums in the bottom right hand corner. I think that the designer of the magazine advert has done this because the person wants to signify the importance of the song and that it is also a reference to the film wonderwall and the score of the film. By laying out the image this way the designer is attracting people’s attention to go and buy the song. The reason why I would say that the albums are that the song appears on the album of “What’s the story” and the 2nd album of “Definitely Maybe” is to communicate to audiences that their debut album of “What’s the story” is followed by a their mew album and includes tracks of “Live Forever”, “Supersonic” and”Shakerrmaker”. The colour of the magazine adverts is mainly of black and white, which has been used to make a reference of the music genre of rock. The style of the magazine advert is. I would, also categorise these magazine adverts as magazines adverts that are of the media and advertising category.
- Images used (layout, colour, style etc.
The don’t look back in anger poster advert contains the albums what’s the story, morning glory and the other track of “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. The layout of the images on the advert includes one big picture which appears to contain the Gallagher brothers in a long shot of them standing in the centre with key lighting or backlighting being used. I would say that key lighting is being used to create a silhouette effect whereas the backlighting has been used to create a halo effect around the edges of the band members to connote how unique the band is. The colour used in the magazine advert includes black and white which has been used in the advert to connote an image of the ban that masculine, authority and leadership. A lot of colours such as red, blue, white, orange and black have been used to connote connotations of the band from the cover of the song. These colours have been used to connote connotations such as red has been used to connote power and passion, blue has been used to connote capitalist ideology etc, White and black has also been used to connote perfection, authority and leadership whereas brown has been used to connote determination, success and creativity. The red, white and blue have also been used in the design of the track cover to represent nationalism as well.
The image used on the wonderwall cover of the magazine advert contains an image of a women depicted in a portrait/canvas, with hands holding thee canvas, in a countryside landscape in which seems to be a high backlighting used to convey a halo effect around the edges of the women seen in the canvas. The women has been used to connote the relationship between Noel and his girlfriend and how he is so attracted to her but isn’t able to explain his love for her. In my opinion I would say that the canvas and the hand have been used to represent creativity, beauty but achievement and desirability. The colour of black and white has been used to connote the time period of Oasis peak success in the night ties. The women I would also say represent affection, passion and inspiration or influence, the clothes worn by the women are casual clothes which communicates to the target audience that the band are appealing to a young, white, working class target audience and background.. The landscape of the countryside, in my opinion relates to the British countryside and relates to the music genre of Britpop which distinguishes the song of the English culture and idealism.
- Text (fonts, size, positioning, colour etc).
The text used on the magazine advert of Wonderwall contains the words in bold letters and seem to be in times new roman capitals. The positioning of the writing is underneath the image representing the song. Then there is small printed writing on the poster. There colour of the writing is black, which is used to connote perfection, rebellious, intensity and advancement. The positioning of the Wonderwall writing is placed under the picture of wonderwall whereas small print rival has been used in the bottom left hand corner of the advert, which talks about the release of the wonderwall single and the 2 other albums. The logo of the band is placed at the top left corner of the image.
The font used on the “Don’t Look Back In Anger” magazine advert is uses the same words of the song but these words are bold but not as big as the words of the wondewall adverts’ title. The positioning of the text is placed under the image which relates to the song in the centre as the wonderwall magazine advert. The colour of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is white which has been used to represent the band and communicate connotations of perfection, happiness, purity and trustworthy.
- The relationship between text and images-how do they work together?
The relationship between the text and images on the wonderwall poster is that the woman used on the cover is used to illustrate the relationship between Noel Gallagher and his then before girlfriend. The women on the front of the poster illustrate a common feature within music videos is the theme of voyeurism which is displayed in the video of the track, which isn’t conforming to the cereal box family of the 1960’s as ladies are seen as desirable products.
The relationship between text and image on the “Don’t Look Back in Anger” magazine advert is that the text on the magazine advert tells the audience that when buying the CD and albums covers tell the audience that when they purchase these albums or CD that they will contain the song of don’t look back in anger.
- How the iconography represents the band, the genre of music and their overall image?
The iconography portrayed in the magazine advert include colours such as blue, red and white which symbolises English ideology and culture but also English nationalism. The colours are used to relate to the music genre of Britpop. These colours represent the band as a band that is concerned with the current British topics and situations which present them as a band that is trying to relate to its audience through English culture and ideologies’.
The tree is used in the magazine page advert, to connote to the tree of life which puts the band as a knowledgeable but creative band whereas the tree has also been used to signify ancestral heritage which I would say relates to the music genres of Rock and to a degree alternative rock. I would also say rock because rock has been used by Oasis from previous influences or inspiration from other bands such as the Beatles. Rock has also been used by the band, as the inheritance of the protest song as this has been associated with political activism as well as battling concerning situations concerning race, sex and drug use and has been used by Oasis as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity. The image of the women on the “Wonderwall” magazine advert and the image of the Gallagher brothers with lights pointed at them that are turned off on the “Don’t Look Back in Anger” magazine advert, signify the challenging of the status quo and is iconoclastic, anti-commercialist, anti-mainstream these are seen as direct links to the alternative rock music genre.
- Are there any signifiers exclusive to the band/genre?
The signifiers that are used exclusively in the magazine adverts, which are exclusive to the band genre, are signs which include:
Trees: tree of life, environment and nature.
Women: Voyeurism- alternative rock
Street culture: Britpop
White and red roses: purity, innocence, secrecy, respect and passion.
Red wine: revolution, anarchy, passion.
Red-masculinity, leadership
Blue-Trueness, capitalism
Black-power, mystery, strength and authority.
The dominant elements portrayed on the magazine advert include elements such as the image, the title of the songs and the text.
How is the colour being used?
The colours are being used in the magazine adverts to illustrate connotations of the band such as white and black is used to connote mystery, rebellious and accomplishment. I would also say that the wonderwall and don’t look back in anger magazine adverts is used to connote the experience of the bands peak success. The colours being used on the adverts are also used to signify the music genres that Oasis portrays throughout their videos.
What is the overall effect of the text?
The overall effect of the text is to tell the audience what type of music genre, the songs are. The text also communicates to the audience what record company the songs are attached, the writing also communicates when the singles will come out etc. In my opinion the overall text on the adverts are used to communicate certain ideals and ideology about the band. The text also gives the overall idea that the band is off the Britpop, Alternative rock and rock genre. The overall effect of the text is also to let people know what type of target audience is being targeted by the band. It also gives us an idea of the themes that are relevant such as social concerns which would relate to the working class audience.
How does the text create meanings through the linking of elements in the layout etc?
The text creates meanings through the linking of elements in the layout by stating what kind of music genre the song such as “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is of the Britpop genre. Text also creates the meanings through the linking of elements in the layout such as the text tells the audience who the group as we see through the logo of the band but the logo is small so the designer of the adverts are expecting us to notice who the band is straight away. I would also say that the text creating meaning through combination of linking elements through layout is that it creates a curious and insightful image of the band as a band that is fanatical, competitive, successful and non mainstream as they are trying to battle the conventional norms of mainstream rock and Britpop and not be a product of control such as Blur by the media.
Globe and TV:
- What does the advert say about the institutional context of the music i.e. the label, mainstream, underground, first album etc?
- What the advert says about the institutional context of the music that the label of the music genre is about affection and love from the 2 magazine adverts. The context of the two songs I would say isn’t mainstream even those genres have similar characteristics from other genres. The songs “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” I wouldn’t say these genres are parts of the underground music genre as don’t contain the generic conventions of underground movements such as alternative rock, New Wave etc but the music genre of Britpop has influenced many other music genres such as alternative rock, New Wave music etc. The first album released by Oasis includes “Definitely Maybe” in 1994 and the songs “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Wonderwall” are included on the albums of “What’s the story, Morning Glory”.
- What can we learn about the potential target audience i.e. specialist, niche, mainstream, compilation.
What we can learn about the potential target audience through the wonderwall and don’t look back in anger posters is that the target audience is of a working class background, of people of the age of mid teens to late 30’s.
- Comment on everything else relevant.
The word “Wonderwall” is defined as someone who thinks about someone all the time, the person with who that person is infatuated with and can also mean an object of fascination. Another meaning of the word includes the definition of a barrier which separates the mundane from the transcendent reality. The meaning behind the word of “Wonderwall” used in the song is about Noel Gallagher’s then girlfriend Meg Matthews who was compared with a schoolboy’s wall to which posters of football and pop stars are attached.
The song was written, 40 years ago from the play “Look Back in Anger” by John Osborne. The main character was Jimmy Porter, who was portrayed the rebellious and angry nature of the next generation. From this there may be irony to be considered as, Oasis see themselves as the new generation of rebels in rock. In my opinion the song’s phrase of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is a reference that you shouldn’t look on past mistakes that you’ve made but you should only think about the present and the future.
I also think that the magazine adverts have inspired me in a way such as by
using silhouettes’ such as the Killers did on one of their CD covers and colour
schemes for the design of my magazine adverts and for the designing of my,
album cover.
Here are some magazine page adverts of bands like The Rolling Stones, the Killers, Gorillaz and Coldplay:
I have chosen these Magazine page adverts of bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Killers, Gorillaz and Coldplay because I wanted to see how a magazine page advert was from the past such as The Rolling Stones can be compared to modern bands of the Killers, Gorillaz and Coldplay by seeing how they were designed, to communicate connotations about the band and the music genres they play. I also wanted to look at these posters to find what the most significant elements of the adverts were and how the text was used on the advert. So when looking at these magazines I would instantly think of how to create a magazine advert of a rock band and be able to design the adverts using significant elements that are portrayed on those adverts.
Here are some ideas of magazine adverts which I have thought of:
The colors that are going to be used in my magazine page adverts are colors such as red, blue, black, white, orange and yellow. From looking at and analysing some magazine adverts I have found that, in the adverts themselves, color schemes are used to communicate to the audience the type of music they are trying to convey. The two magazine adverts that I have found to be the most influential are the magazine adverts of "Gimmie Shelter" song by the Rolling Stones and the Coldplay magazine advert. I have found these magazine adverts to be an influence because eventhose they use color schemes but I like how the pictures have been used, such as in The Rolling Stones advert uses a photograph from their tour whereas in the Coldplay advert a painting has been used to contrast the band with the painting as a band that is rebellious and determined etc.
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