Digipak Analysis #2

The artist name is Wang Lee Hom. He is an American singer-song writer, actor and a film director based in Taiwan.
The font/lettering is best described as authentic italic, this is because it reflects this genre and style of music as his music are a mixture of traditional Chinese opera, classical orchestra joined with R&B and hip-hop. This represents his area of music and his lifestyle of being brought up in America with a traditional Chinese background.

The physical appearance of the star is represented as a powerful self-fulfilling artist. The pose he is presented in is a self portrait of him. The mid shot angle used in this pose represents Wang Lee Hom as a powerful person; the expression on his face shows seriousness and power with this music. The colours used are red and white which represents fierce and elegant.
The dominant image within the front cover is of Wang Lee Hom as this is the only image on the cover. The image suggests that the album is going include an effect of R&B/Hip-hop genre with the authentic Chinese tradition (based on the front of the writing and the colour red is also a very popular colour used as a celebration or a happy moment in the Chinese tradition.

The title of the album is Lee Hom, yet again this signifies his own personality towards music as this is his first album released. Dominant colours include red and grey. These connote a traditional sense of music with mixture of the two American/Chinese lifestyles. The grey represents his American side as America is most popular for Hip-hop/R&B music and the colour grey represents a deep serious tone, whereas Red is often used and seen in the Chinese traditional as a special occasion, a celebration which therefore is based on his career.

The artist fits into the genre of R&B, Hip-hop, and Pop; this is signified by the design of the cover and the colours used. This artist would appeal to audiences who are Taiwanese as the language is different and those who like the R&B/Hip-hop genre. The cover is appealing to this audience because of the colours and the image used to represent the artist as this would be an appearance of which target audiences would look for as an interest in Lee Hom.

Digipak Analysis #1

The artist name is Jolin Tsai. She is a Taiwanese singer, dancer, designer and an actress.
The font/lettering is best described as italic and futuristic as it represents the personality of the artist and her background as an artistic artist.

The physical appearance of the star is represented as a powerful image. The pose she is presented in shows the standard of her performance and the type of artist she is (pop genre). The high angle used in this pose represents Jolin as the spotlight; all attention is brought towards her as the selling target is based upon her music. The costume she is wearing shows that she is passionate about her dance career as well as the music, striking the expression of a real class dancer. The whole cover really brings out the personality of who Jolin Tsai is and how she wanted to express her vision into her arts.
The dominant image within the front cover is Jolin herself, striking the image of a dancer. This suggests that the album is going to be very personal to her as there are no other effects or images contributing to the cover.

The title of the album is Dancing Diva, yet again this signifies the personal statement that was put into the album, as Jolin sees herself as a Dancing Diva.
Dominant colours include a light sky blue, glowing soft pink and yellow. These connote a bright sense of tone the music would include; the bright colours could represent the upbeat, soft music the album includes.

The artist fits into the genre of Pop; this is signified by the design of the cover and the colours used. The language of the album “Dancing Diva” also gives away the genre idea. This artist would appeal to audiences who are Taiwanese as the language is different and those who like the pop genre music. The cover is appealing to this audience because of the colours and the image used to represent Jolin as a dancer, this would be an appearance of which target audiences would look for as an interest in Jolin Tsai music.

Star Image Analysis

The artist I’ll be analysing is Christina Aguilera as this is because she’s been one of my top 10 artist who I’ve always enjoyed listening to throughout her the years. Christina Aguilera is 29 years and was born in Staten Island on December 18th 1980 therefore she is the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. Christina has worked through various music genres from the Blues, Dance-pop, Soul, R&B, Pop; she is mainly focused with Pop, R&B and Electropop. Not just being an artist and performing, she is also a songwriter, actress, dancer, producer and a model. After all the fame and hard work had died down, Christina is now married with a little son called Max Liron Bratman. After taking some time out to spend some time on her personal life, Christina has now released a new album Bionic and is currently working through the album, and performing concerts all over different cities.



June 22, 1999 – Age: 19 November 18, 2002 – Age: 22
The earliest video that was released by Christina Aguilera was her first single, Genie in a Bottle. The images above were from the earliest time of her career when she first began the fame. After achieving 17 years of producing, singing, acting and dancing, she has transformed from the innocent girl look in the Genie in a Bottle video, towards more of the R&B genre image with the rebel, powerful phase such as the video Dirty; image shown on the right. The two images are just 3 years apart and you can immediately tell the massive transformation Christina Aguilera had experienced from being a teenager into a young adult.

As the years goes by Christina Aguilera becomes more stylish and her interest for the 50’s introduces itself from the music video, Candy Man. She had also starred in the theme song Car Wash that was played in the DreamWorks production, Shark Tale.
Viewing a few of her music videos from the early ages to her recent music videos, she is seen as a sexual identity to those who are inspired by her looks and figure.
In her music videos there are many focused close-up shots of her figure, costume and movements as she performs such as in the music video Dirty.

All the costumes used in her music videos is reflecting her own image and style. Such as with the new album, Bionic, it is focused more on the Electropop genre side as this reflects the personality of herself and the style represents her as a person not because it’s the style of the song.

Animated Video: Kate Voegele - Say Anything

Music Video Analysis 2 - Genre

The video I’ll be analysing is Talk You Down by The Scrpt, who is represented by Sony Music. The director of Talk You Down is unknown as I was unable to find the director of this music video but it is a soft rock genre based on the performance and use of instruments such as the drums, electric guitar and a keyboard. This is a similar genre as the artist that i'll be focusing on who is Kate Voegele. The video to this song is also similar to the storyboard I made for Kate Voegele - Say Anything as it's about a couple who had fallen out and things are leading towards seperate ways which is similar to Talk You Down storyline.



These instruments represent the genre of rock but as the music is not as heavy or aggressive it is known to be soft rock because of the melody.
Throughout the music video the lyric almost exactly follows the visuals as the song goes along.

“Grab your suitcase call a taxi
It's 3am now where you gonna go?
Gonna stay with friends in London
And that's all I get to know.”

During the music video, as it sung these lyrics the visuals shows the exact meaning when the girlfriend leaves with her suitcase and calls a taxi as the boyfriend runs after but just misses her. The background scene is presented cold and dull as it’s representing the time of day to be 3am, yet again it shows obvious visuals towards the lyrics. As the music goes on, the visual continues to follow the narrative.

When these lyrics are sung it shows the girlfriend who’s leaving, in the taxi on the way to London where she’s planning on staying and the focus of the boyfriend chasing after her in his car behind.

“Just a cigarette gone
No you couldn't be that far
I'm driving my car to where I hope you are
Maybe I can talk you down
Maybe I can talk you down
We're standing on a tiny ledge
Before this goes over the edge
Gonna use my heart and not my head
And try to open up your eyes
This is relationships suicide
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...”

The visuals amplifies the lyrics as it represents the meaning of the lyrics as he’s chasing after her, wherever she goes he will follow as all he wants to do is “talk you down” which shows that he’s trying to pull her back and talk things out.
Throughout the video it mainly focuses on the ride between the boyfriend chasing after his girlfriend so the only visuals will be of this as the whole meaning of the music video is chasing after the person you love to get them back.

As the music video is based on a soft rock genre, the music and visuals also shows an obvious statement. Throughout the video there are numerous cross cut of a performance base scene of the group playing together with instruments of an electric guitar, keyboard and drums. These equipments represent the genre and its music type.
Throughout the music video it does not display any notion of looking or sexual display in any way so therefore there’s also no references of ‘looking’.

In the video is includes close-up of the leading singer at the beginning of the video as he performs the song. His emotion as he performs is represented in a vulnerable, weak state as the music and lyrics is based upon a heartbreak situation.

As the music video is a performance base video, the record company is looking to sell toward listeners who enjoy the lyrics rather than the visuals of the song. It is also promoting towards an audience who likes the Script genre base, such as soft rock, and their fans as well.


In conclusion I think that the music video itself is too vague as it follows the exact words being sung therefore we know what we are looking forward to a video which could be a boring outcome for some as they might want to see something different from the Script. There was not much to talk about in relation to the genre as it did not show much but just the instruments that are used. Also “Talk You Down” is focused as performance base which could be found as a less motivated group to present something rather than a video of them performing most the time as a music video is suppose to be something you would want to watch as it shows a story behind the song yet all it performs are The Script on stage. But yet this could be one of the record company’s factors as he’s trying to reach out to listeners not those who expect visuals. Overall I do enjoy listening to The Script music but the video is really basic with an obvious story image behind it, as follows with a few others of their songs which has made me to stick with listening rather than watching their music videos until a different one is released. The genre of the group is a suitable scene for the them as they perform it well and I really do enjoy their music.


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As Kate Voegele has various genres that are related to her type of music, I will also be analysing a music video in relation with the Pop/Rock genre which Kate Voegele is also classified as.



The second video I’ll be analysing is When You’re Gone by Avril Lavigne. When You’re Gone is a Pop/Rock genre which is also in style of the same genre of the artist, Kate Voegele, therefore I’ll be analysing the aspects of this music video in relation towards her music. Avril Lavigne is also a Pop/rock artist and her song, When You’re Gone is about losing a loved one because of situations which might have torn them apart and having to leave because of heartbreakers, war or accidents.
When You’re Gone was realised on June 19th 2007 and it was directed by Marc Klasfeld. The genre of the video is a Pop/rock theme as you could tell by the costume of Avril Lavigne outfit, and her make-up as she is wearing a dark, thick patch of black eye shadow and eye liner to represent the vulnerability of the song as it is about having to be apart from you’re love ones. Her costume also, is a long ivory white dress which looks worn out and old to present a past remembrance of the song theme, and with the dress being long so it covers most of her body, this could also represent her in an insecure person, based on the genre and the background of the song. The dark make-up that is on the artist image also represents a dark affect of the genre as a Pop/rock genre usually uses the colours red, black, white or any format of dull, depressing contrast such as the background colour also, there was not shown any sunshine in the daylight until the very end when all breaks out. The tone of the music is very soft as it only used one instrument as the main focus which was the Piano. A Piano is known for soft symphonies and this can visualise the pop genre of the artist and the music.

The relationship between the lyrics is different from the previous analysis to The Script, Talk You Down, as Avril Lavigne song does not follow any exact visuals towards the lyrics. The song When You’re Gone follows a story behind it and represents the features in three different scenes. One is when a husband/boyfriend has to leave their lady who is also pregnant to go into war for the protection of his family, and represents the hardship that she has to cope with while the father of her baby has gone into war with such danger hovering around him and worrying that he might be gone forever because anything can happen there, even the worst but all she has is nothing but hope. The second scene shown was of a girl and boy who are in love with each other but then the girl’s mother caught them together and restricts them from seeing each other by pulling the girl away from him and separates the both from being together. It also shows the struggle that the girl goes through and the emotions after having to leave her boyfriend which affects the relationship between the mother and daughter. Lastly the third scene shown was of an old man who has lost his wife and the grief he’s suffering from to just see her for one last time yet all he does is stay at home.

“And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor
And they smell just like you, I love the things that you do.”
As these lyrics are sung, the visuals shows the old man looking through his wardrobe and finding clothes of his wife that still smells exactly like her which makes him remember his wife all over again, as though she was still there.
The relation between the music and the visuals is that whenever the song comes to the chorus the music becomes more stronger and louder rather than a soft tone, this represents the genre and the visuals focuses on each different scene, representing the hardship and memories they had such as for the woman who had to send her husband into war, she’s seen to be watching the battle of this war and expresses her emotion and suffer through this, the visual of the teenage girl is presented dwelling onto memories and looking through old pictures of the couple, and the old man is seen to be going through past memories and features of his wife such as her clothes and just keeping them close to him so he can keep her close.



As the lyrics and the tone of the music comes to the end verse, the music starts to become stronger and the visuals begins to be shown brighter with the walls being knock down. This represents freedom of everyone’s pain and heartache that they’ve been going through and as this happens the music becomes more upbeat as though something good is releasing and their answers are being listened to. The visuals of these acts are represented with the characters becoming more happy rather than upset and depressed as the wife went to the war group and as she’s been waiting for just one text message from her husband to let her know that he’s fine, it is at that moment she receives it and felt all burden and worry disappearing from the gray cloud that was hovering over her. The teenage girl was then set free and went back to the place they always spent with each other and where their engraved initials were on a tree birch and let her heart free with all the memories kept in her mind, this became a relief for her to see this. The old man built up courage and presented himself well into a suit and gathered up courage to visit his wife at the graveyard and spent some time with her spiritually.

Music Video Analysis 1

The music video I’ll be analysing is Love Story by a young country pop artist, Taylor Swift which was directed by Trey Fanjoy who has also directed numerous others of Taylor’s music videos. Love Story is a country pop music based on a typical high school romance which the aspect of Romeo and Juliet is used to reference the love story between them. The instruments used in the video were the drums, banjo, and violin; these instruments are mostly common in country music as it is usually played acoustically.
The lyric used in this song shows the exact visuals to the video, word-by-word, meaning-by-meaning, and act by act.

“See the lights
See the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
And say hello, little did I know”

During these lyrics, the visual presents the two lovers at a ball gown and showing Romeo walking towards Juliet, passing through the crowd to greet her. This shows an amplify visual as the lyrics are illustrated as it’s told.

“Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes
Oh oh”

At the chorus of Love Story, it shows and represents direct visuals of the play Romeo and Juliet. As well as the obvious use of “Romeo” in the lyrics, the scene of the video is based in a castle or a highly secured tower, re-acting the scene of the play Romeo and Juliet. The scene when Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s home and Romeo standing below with Juliet standing outside on the balcony, both trying to reach each other’s love, this visual is exactly shown as it’s in the play. Another characteristic that the lyrics relates with the visual are the costume. The costumes worn were in the same style as the year 1500-1600 during the Shakespearean times. The women wore corset tight dresses and the men worse well represented ruffle shirts suits if you were wealthy or the casual look of a rough top and leggings as it was the trend then.

“So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while”

As this lyric is sung, the visual amplifies with direct meaning of Romeo and Juliet escaping into the woods, escaping to a place where they can’t be found and spend some time together.

“Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess”

This lyrics refer to the moment in the video when Juliet had to let go of Romeo and head back home again as they was not allowed to be together as it was against the both families policy. Yet again this refers back to the Romeo and Juliet play where the two families would disagree upon their love as they are from two different sides but yet they are both fighting for each other’s love regarding any barriers. However Juliet in the video is crying out her Love Story upon the castle top, which is how it relates to the Shakespeare scene through Romeo and Juliet.



The relationship between the music and visuals communicates with each other so when an upbeat tune is played the visuals of the video are more fast pace and when the motion of the song slows down, the visual of the video is always viewed in a slower pace. Such as at the beginning of the video when it introduces the Taylor walking around the school grounds as well as staring at the boy, this was viewed in a slow motion act with flashbacks of which could be their fantasy in a cross-cutting shot as this represents the history or intimacy they have between those moments of staring into each other’s eyes. Another scene is of Taylor Swift standing on top of the tower, the motion between these scenes is intact with the pace of the music. As the pace was leading through the introduction of the video, the banjo, which was the background instrument, was kept at the same pace as there was no change with the rhythm and the tone and pace of Taylor’s singing was also slow and steady. Throughout the verses the same tune of the banjo playing is constant as this can perform an intense feeling of a story being told, hence by the song title Love Story. As the music leads towards the chorus, the visual becomes more fast pace and cross-cutting camera shots are made often as the visual of the relationship between the characters of the boy and girl aka Romeo and Juliet builds.

Throughout the video there are numerous of close-up shots taken of Taylor Swift such as at the beginning of the video where flashbacks were shown, the image of Taylor with a fan covering her face but the eyes, represents a strong contact with the audience as well as to represent as though she was looking directly at the boy. Close-up shots was also taken of Taylor and her lover at the ball gown dancing together but only the view of them two holding hands were made clear as a representation of their love. As the music video follows from the high school building to Taylor’s fantasy of her up on the castle balcony, a focus close-up image of just her face was fixed on just her for a while as this love story is about her so the main role will be focused on Taylor and her love story that she is telling. By Taylor Swift performing her own style of a Romeo and Juliet love story, the company is looking to reach out to her fans and audience who listens to her music and see something unique and different about her video and herself, as in this love story it ends with a happily ever after rather than a deadly, depressing end such as the play. This could also reach out to those who are interested in the Shakespeare genre and their style.
Throughout the music video it does not display any notion of looking or sexual display in any way so therefore there’s also no references of ‘looking’.
The whole music video and lyrics used are linked with reference of the play Romeo and Juliet and their teenage love story they experienced throughout the Shakespearean times and their fought for each other’s love. The costumes and background settings used in the video was referring to the style of the play yet relating to modern times today as a typical love story between two young high school teenagers and their fantasy for a perfect happy ending.
Throughout the video it displays a concept-base performance of both narrative and performance. Most of the time during the video it focus on a narrative-base role as most of the camera work was focus on Taylor Swift up on the tower, waiting for her prince Romeo to save her but involved hardly any movements or performance yet there was various flashback shots of their fantasy in the ball gown dancing together however the Love Story had no other performance-base displayed therefore it was more narrative base.
In conclusion, after viewing the concepts of the music video, Love Story by Taylor Swift, this video was drawn to create a typical romance genre in a style of which mostly everyone knows the famous story, Romeo and Juliet, to relate a typical love story of two lovers fighting for what they can’t have or want but in this love story, they do live happily ever after.

I believe that what made the video become a typical love story was especially the use of camera works. At the introduction of the video it displays an establishing shot of a high school, which could reveal to the audiences an obvious hint of the scenario of a love story, as a high school building is a typical scene. Another obvious statement of the use of the cameras was the cross-cutting shot that was focused only on the boy and girl, and the continuous shot of the two looking at each other, catching each other’s eyes and a quick flash back of their fantasy, this gives the audience an obvious view of the whole story of boy meets girl, girl meets boy and they both lived happily ever after.

After the introduction of the video, the scene then moves along and focuses on the intertextual reference of Romeo and Juliet for most of the video. This is shown through the characters costume in the style of 1500, Romeo and Juliet. The camera used are repeated throughout the scene of her fantasy in the ball and the display of Taylor Swift standing on the tower with a reverse shot viewing continuous back and forth shots of the two scene at the ball and of Taylor standing on the tower. A close up was also focused on Taylor on the tower, which represents an introduction of the characters as well as the obvious view that it is her fantasy, love story that she is telling. Another close-up shot of the boy to represent the other character. There are numerous views of Taylor Swift on the tower, displaying two-shot, close-up shot, long –shot, and low angle-shots to view the emotions and feelings she is revealing from this love story. During the ball scene, a two-shot was displayed numerous of times to represent the intimacy and sparks between the lovers, the commitment. This also represent a typical style of a happy ending romance. Another statement of a typical love story used in the video was the statue of an angel that was quickly viewed when it was moving along to the scene of the fantasy and being back to reality. The angel used can represent happiness and fortunate events, which in this video represents the fortunate opportunity of the two lovers finding each other.
During the end of the video, it shows a long-shot of the two running towards each other in the field to represent a feeling of happiness, commitment and passion between Romeo and Juliet that the two characters and representing. But without a deadly ending, her fantasy came true and lived happily ever after with each other.

At the end of the music video it goes back to reality at the high school scene and shows a mid shot of Taylor Swift, where the scene of the high school left off, showing her looking at the boy which then brings in a close-up shot of the boy, which represents the image of the perfect guy for her, and fall into a two shot of the two finally coming together. During these scenes it displays reverse shot to the fantasy of the Romeo and Juliet scene of Taylor Swift upon the tower balcony and back to reality, to represent the intertextual reference of Romeo and Juliet as the theme based on the 1845 love story of the famous play about the lovers. To end the video it displays a close-up shot, focusing on Taylor Swift, as she is the artist and main role as it is her fantasy, her love story.



Overall, after bringing my thoughts and analysis together, the music video is a typical intertextual romance video and I review that it was a well attempt and an enjoyable song to listen to as well as to watch. It also includes well representation of the reference and brings the audience into the whole play scene again. Most preferable, the song is suitable for those who like country pop music, listeners who could connect to the lyrics and most of all, her fans.

Music Video Planning

The video we plan to do is for the song ‘Say Anything’ by Kate Voegele. The video will be a mixture of narrative and performance; this is because it contains conventions of a pop-rock music videos. One of the most known pop-rock artists is Pink, who also followed this in her music video ‘So what?’ Kate Voegele’s previous music videos are mainly performance based; this video ‘Say Anything’ could be seen as a change of the artist’s image as we are putting some narrative in the video for the first time.
The narrative story was inspired by the lyrics. Before the audio starts we hear the actual voice of a couple arguing. As the drum beat starts at the beginning of the song, the guy starts to pack his things but the girl keeps trying to persuade him to stay. A crosscut to her performing in a studio or a gig will come in when the chorus starts, and then back to the narrative again. As she says ‘Say anything. Please’ on that line we get close up on the guy’s plain facial expression, and he doesn’t answer but instead walks out of the house; a still camera focuses on him as he walks down the street without looking back until he is out of the camera’s sight. As the next verse begins the story continues we see her crying in her bedroom looking at their wedding plans and their photo frame; the camera closes-in on the photo and a faded edit takes place. A flashback is then used to illustrate the words ‘you used to be so careful with me, making sure that we would always be each other’s missing piece’; this shot will show the couple in the morning wakening together in bed. The flashback ends and the pictures become clearer; she gets the phone and texts him and we get a cross-cut of both of them as she is texting, he is clubbing when she sings ‘this is our last chance and you’re all I have, don’t let me slip through your hands’. Once again at the chorus we go back to her performing, as the line of ‘you know I miss you, you know I wish you missed me too, baby tell me you do’ We see he has received the message but because he is in the club and does not notice it. A cross-cut to the performance for the chorus and as the song comes to an end where it says ‘Say something, say anything, please’ a cross cut to the last shot of the narrative as she opens the door, he is standing in front of the house.
The beginning of the song is an inter-textual reference to Pink’s music video ‘Please don’t leave me’. In the music video the couple are having an argument, and the guy is packing his stuff to leave; the same for Pink’s song, the difference is the guy does leave.
Because the music video is both narrative and performance based we will need actors and instruments. Mainly there are two actors needed, male and a female with other backstage actors for the club parts. The main setting will be in and outside of the house, down the street, at a studio or a gig for the performance, and a club.
Props that will be used:
• Mobile Phones
• Instrument for the performance (Microphone, Guitar, drums)
• Wedding plan book
• Photo frame
• Pack bag and clothes