Homework Task - Analysis of 3 Music DVD Covers

All-American Rejects

The DVD cover for All-American Rejects really captures the bands image as they are young and can be associated with university/6^th form students therefore aiming at the right audience for their music. Connotations of this are shown as the DVD cover is called “SCHOOLED” and using lined paper as the background. Yet it still keeps the theme of music as pencils are represented as part of the guitar and the drum is at the front displaying the name which ties in with the band. This makes their market very big and popular, thus creating high sales and popularity. Due to the colours used on the front cover it isn’t sexist as it uses blue – for boys, pink – for girls and green to be neutral, which follows stereotypical values. As a result targeting all gender and keeping their market wide. The codes and conventions used on the cover are the band’s name “All-American Rejects” and their logo which is “AAR”, which is a rocky design which suits their image and their genre as they are a rock and pop band. As a result the A and R are lighting like but the other A is smoother for pop. This makes their image very symbolic to their genre of music. Throughout the DVD it looks like there are mirror images as there is two of everything on either side of the cover e.g. two school buses and two guitars which are opposite to each other. This gives the front cover an equal layout and making the middle the main focus, where the band are. As a whole the spread of the DVD cover appears very spacious as there are a lot of empty spaces and white line paper showing, as a result minimalist is the idea here. Also this makes it not over powering to the eye and appealing to look at as it is very art like.

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World’s cover is very unusual as it doesn’t actually show any images of the band on the front which shows that they have confidence in their name just being on the front cover. This is probably because the red is very dramatic making it stand out and it is not easily missed due to it having a black and white background. Also due to the success of the band and their image they know that their audience will recognise them. The DVD has conventions like a barcode on it therefore I must look back at my analyses and follow this when doing my own music DVD cover. This is the same with its DVD video logo. I like how it uses different types of shots for its front and back cover as a result only using two shots so it looks very sophisticated. For example they used a scenery/long shot for the front and a group shot for the back. The minimalist colours suit the costumes as they are wearing suits therefore the black and white theme goes and the red over the top sticks out like sin City which it only shows the colour red for blood. I don’t like the barcode of this DVD cover because it seems out of place as it is portrait when it should be landscape to fit in with the layout. Also traditionally barcodes go landscape therefore this would relate to today conventions. The white border around the cover creates a highlight around the DVD and not letting the black fade in with the background. To make it easier and more like a traditional CD, the tracks/songs are shown as a list format by using numbers to label them, therefore in a way the consumer may know what order then go in with them having the CD already. As a result the band is trying to make a link. Because the cover is mostly black they have to be careful with what they wear and they are wearing black suits, due to this they can’t fade into the background or the image will be ruined. Although because they are wearing a white shirt this lightens up their faces which is the main focus as they want to see this to recognise them, yet it looks odd because all, but one is wearing a black suit, as he is wearing a white shirt alone. Thus breaking the band image slightly and loosing it power against the audience.





Britney Spears

Britney Spear’s DVD cover is very different from others as she is a solo female artist therefore she has to make this her own image, by herself. I like how the common colours black and white are used a lot but in reverse for example there is a white background on the front and a black background on the back, therefore the font colours are reversed. Which I find really striking to see together like this. On the back lots of images are displayed in a 2 x 4 form this shows a lot of information in one place, letting the audience see all the pictures from her music videos at once. To save space Britney’s song tracks are in sentences rather than bullet points, as a result stars are used to separate them giving the DVD cover a girly touch and a hint of her own style as she is very young. I have annotated this DVD so I know what must go on my DVD cover later on in my project, for example in the yellow ring there is the barcode, by looking at this the barcode always goes on the back so the front looks its best and it isn’t seen. Also in yellow is the artists name and the name of the DVD these must be displayed on the front of the cover to attract and label it so the consumers know who and what it is e.g. “Britney Spears”, “live and more”. The red ring tells me that when doing my DVD cover I need to consider other pictures to put on as I am only creating one music video therefore, I am going to have to set up a fake music video scene. The introduction represented by the blue ring, the uses a lot of persuasive language to make the artist sound good.