Digipak Analysis - Two Door Cinema Club

Tourist History

Tourist Histroy is Two Door Cinema Club’s debut album released in 2010. The image on the front is of a cat, the image itself is very a sic and doesn’t look like anything taken in a studio or even professionally, it looks like an image that pretty much anyone could have taken and this makes the album look less artificial and the band more down to earth (This makes sense considering this is the band’s debut album so they aren’t particularly well established yet). The image is also repeated on the disc itself, except the cat’s eyes have been photoshopped over a low angle image of a kitchen cupboard, this again connotes normalcy. The image could also be taken of what the cat is hypothetically looking at or in the same room as the image of the cat was taken. Another thing I noticed was the fact that the way the text is arranged below the cat’s eyes makes it look like a cat’s nose (the upside down triangular shape) making the disc look like the cat’s face. Also the image on the leaflet part uses what looks like amateur photography aswell, linking back the image on the front of the album. This could also connote a more personal feel, making the user feel like the band has put something personal into the design of the album instead of letting someone just design it for them completely professionally.

Another thing to note is the fact that the band aren’t actually pictured on the album at all, and in particular their absence from the front. This shows that their music is more important than their image. They don’t want the audience to see them on the front of the album and buy it because of them (which is something more commonly found in pop music) but instead because they see their name and know their music or want to listen to their music.  

The text is also consistent throughout the design. The font used has a circular theme. The C’s and O’s are thin and circular whereas the rest of the letters and bolder and more condensed. This is something used across the album pack. There is also the placing of the two O’s in door over the cat’s eyes, this intensifies them and captures the eye of the audience more. It also links to another consistency in their work, as the artwork for the singles they released matches the same theme as the album artwork. This consistency makes the band’s work recognisable to the audience. 

Also the colour scheme is consistent throughout. The colours cool blue and purple shades. Even the images used in the booklet are taken as the light is fading so that the tone of the sky is a purply-blue colour. This keeps the appearance clean and gives it a running theme. 

Beacon

The second album case shows a slight change in the band's style, this is the album following the release of tourist history and it shows how the band have matured and changed. First of all, biggest change is in the photography. The image on the front is professionally created and obviously uses photoshop. It is still taken in a normal looking room, so some of the normalcy of the band's style still remains, however there is a noticeable artificial quality to it, for example the lighting and the way the woman's legs are highlighted and the green light coming in through the window, this indicates to the audience a more professional and less personal feel. 

The font has also changed from the last album. instead of being placed over something it has been slipped between the legs of the girl in the image and it has also lost the circular theme and is instead a lot more clean cut and minimal. This again connotes a more professional and artificial element to the album. This shows the change in the bands status and the fact that after the success of their first album they've made it a lot bigger. 

However another thing to note is the continued absence of the band themselves from their album covers. Again the album uses abstracted and interpretive photography instead of images of the band themselves, showing again that the music is still what is important to the band and that they do not consider their image as part of their music. It also shows that they do not need to promote themselves to promote their music. They are well established enough on their own for them not to need to plaster their faces over everything they release. 

Music Analysis - Other Artists

Enter Shikari - Destabalise

The music video starts by jumping immediately into the introduction of the song, swinging down onto a scene where a man, dressed with his face covered, is climbing down over a metal fence. The location is dark so the video is set at night and as the man walks by he points a crowbar directly at the camera. The camera tracks him as he walks towards a set of doors where two more men are waiting. As he walks off the lead singer walks into the shot with his mask pulled up and his face in clear view as the lyrics start. The entire atmosphere of the first few seconds of the video implies a situation where the 4 band members are breaking in to some sort of building. This connotes rebelliousness and non-conformity which, to a fan of the band, fits with their general style and ethos. 

Also, the camera is being held on foot and not on a tripod or stand of some kind because the camera moves a lot and as the song starts there is a lot of movement and jerky sudden zooms. This fits with the music genre because the band fall under post-hardcore/metalcore and this means their songs contain a lot of heavy sounds. Their music also contains an electronicore/dubstep/trance element to it though and this gives their music a more electronically manufactured sound alongside the raw instrumental metalcore sound. The zooms fit with the beat of the song, sometimes small, sometimes zooming completely in to a close up of the band member’s faces. This gives the music video a more homemade feel, instead of being something manufactured by a record label. Which, again, fits with the bands style and ethos. They maintain a very ‘do it yourself attitude’ despite their huge success, sticking faithfully to their sound and their beliefs. This is mirrored in many of their videos as some of their other videos even mock the music industry and the systems by which our world rely on to work. 

Once inside the building the band run in past the camera, actually knocking it, keeping up the ‘homemade’ side to the video. The band are then in a well lit warehouse, walking towards something taking off their masks. This is when the camera cuts to a high angle shot in black and white with a ‘rec’ sign in the bottom corner, almost imitating a cctv camera. This reinforces the theme of non-conformity and rebelliousness as the band are obviously not meant to be in the warehouse but are, and don’t even care if they’re being watched.

The shot then cuts to a long shot of the band playing in the warehouse with all their instruments, this lends a ‘live band’ element to the video as the band are playing the song as if live but set in the warehouse in the video. This fits with the conventions of the genre as most rock/metal bands are mainly about the instruments, compared with a pop group where all the members are only singers, bands rely on their instruments as detrimental parts of their performance and so their music videos are often in a ‘live band’ format.

Also throughout the video there are intended visual glitches. Like at the point just before the chorus, their’s a break where the lyric is simply the word ‘destabilise’ but in a computer manipulated voice, making it sound robotic and ‘techno-y’ At the moment the shot cuts to the drummer mouthing ‘destabilise’ but as he does the screen glitches the colours separating slightly and the face of the drummer pixelating. This happens at points throughout the video in correspondence to the beat, relating back to the bands electronicore, dubstep and trance elements as these sounds are created electronically (so by computer) so the visual glitching relates back to their music style as does their ‘live band’ format relate back to their hardcore and metalcore elements. 

The video then cuts between the various band members as they play the song and jump around energetically in the warehouse. It also cuts frequently to close ups of the lead singer, but again in black and white with the ‘red’ sign in the bottom corner, constantly affirming the anti-establishment attitudes the band maintain. Then, as the song reaches the end of the chorus the lead singer screams ‘We need to fucking erupt!’ with the shot being a close up of his face but this has been sped up as in the time it takes him to say this he moves across the warehouse, the band receding behind him,but with the camera still fixed in a close up on his face. 

This is when he electronic element to the song comes in and there is a break in the lyrics. This part of the song is filled with various shots of the band members, always relatively close up to them, that keep cutting fast to the pace of the music. The electronic element is also linked by the visual shot of the lead singer behind a laptop and various other electronic equipment. The energy of the band in the video also fits the song as they jump around and their is even a sped up shot of them climbing and jumping off the walls of the warehouse during a short electronic break in the song. 

The song then reaches a break from the electronic sounds and a short and slow verse starts with very little of the intense and hard layering of multiple instruments that the rest of the song has contained. The shot is of the lead singer and he starts running towards the camera in slow motion but as he gets to a certain point the camera starts retreating from him but moving up and down with him as the person holding it is running along with the lead singer. This then fades using the glitchy colour separations into another shot of the lead singer standing still and looking up as the camera moves in towards him. This fits to the music as the lead is stood in a sort of angelic pose looking up as if some sort of heavenly light is shining down on him and the music at this point is very light and calming. 

The song then dives back into its heavier sound again and the video cuts to a montage of shots of the various band members all screaming at the camera in black and white with the ‘rec’ sign in the corner. The camera stays in the same place but the shots change to various different members rapidly cutting again to the fast pace and beat of the song. 

The finally it cuts back to the live band layout to a shot of the band members jumping in unison to the beat of the song, this is something else they do throughout the video, the cuts have been timed so that the physical movement of the band members meets the beat of the song and this makes the video flow more seamlessly in correspondence to the song. The shots continue to cute between different band members and different angles of the band on a whole till the end of the song. Then the song goes back to the slow and light sound from earlier and shot is of the lead singer singing into the camera again but it is also crossed with other shots oft he band members as if one is glitching into existence and the other out of it. Two separate shots of different people but the camera kept in the exact same spot.