Magazine Advert Research

Below are some magazine adverts for albums with the original album directly beneath. They will differ to those of adverts for singles, but only in the amount of information given, e.g. it would not say "including the singles..." New bands like Shrouded Violet are likely to want to advertise their first single as much as possible, so an advert like the ones below would likely be produced.

This is the magazine advert and album artwork for Friendly Fire's self titled debut album. Being their debut album they have chosen to name the album after the name of their band, which means that the album may not have a specific theme running through it. Their artwork, in this case, is just something that is representative of the genre. This album is considered alternative/disco/funk and so they have chosen to use a picture of a mirror being shattered, which can be thought to represent the intended effect on people who listen to it - they are a brand new band who will shatter people's expectations of them. Being considered alternative choosing an unconventional picture, which has no obvious meaning, for their artwork will conform to the conventions of the alternative spectrum of music.

The magazine advert is the artwork of the album with the name of the band above the picture in a much bigger, more visible font. This is likely to be because they are a new band and want people to remember their name. They have chosen to tell the audience what singles will be in the album so that they know there will be something familiar to them in the full album. For people who have heard one of the songs on the radio once or twice they may come across this advert and notice that the song is part of a debut album and if they liked the single they heard, then they may be tempted to get the album. They have also chosen to put quotes from various newspapers and music magazines to give the audience an idea of what they sound like and that the album is well worth getting. This is also an advert that has been made after the release of the album, so they have put dates of their tour at the bottom, which potential customers can see and also find out that they might be playing live near where they live.

This advert has taken the album artwork and rotated it to catch the attention of the reader. It could also be said that this has been done to reflect the genre of the music - electronic pop. A genre which is known for unconventional artwork to reflect the music that is on the album - edgy, funky etc. They have also taken the name of the band and bent it around the bottom left hand corner of the artwork, which is also eye-catching as it is at an unusual angle and is more noticeable than just having a horizontal header.

Like the Friendly Fires advert, they have added quotes from magazines about the album, to give a more authentic feel and encouragement from an authority that knows a lot about music. They have also chosen to include the logo of HMV (a high street retailer that sells CDs, movies and games) and the the logo of the record label to show that they are not independent from a record label and to give them credit for signing them up as well as for copyright and licensing reasons.

This is the artwork and album cover for the Kings of Leon's fourth album. Like the all the adverts, they have chosen to make the album artwork the main feature of the advert so people will be able to recognise the album from seeing the advert. They have kept the font used in the album artwork and made it considerably larger to anchor the name of the band to the picture an ensure potential customers associate the name of the band with the album image.

They have decided to not add quotes from any magazines, newspapers or websites. This may be because they have not allowed anyone to listen to it yet or it could be because they are already a well known band. From listening to the radio and the news when this was released, it was evident that there was a lot of hype about this album and everyone was talking about it. This probably meant that quotes were an unnecessary use of space on the advert and they were mainly informing readers about the release date.

This has a technique employed by the other adverts - that is to take the artwork and rearrange it so that the name of the band took the main focus of the advert. Like the others, they have kept the same font and formatting and just scaled up the size to fit the advert. Also included is a quote from a magazine complimenting the band, which readers will see and possibly want to buy the album if they think that the source is trustworthy.

The way they have approached their album front cover is slightly unusual as they have chosen to put the track listings on the front as well as the back, which is the place that the track listing usually is. They probably did this to stand out and for people to see if they were just browsing in a record shop. Most designers choose to have the track listing only on the back because it has become a convention and in many cases it is more aesthetically pleasing to have just a picture, the name of the band and the album. It could also be considered a reference to old style records, which had the track listing on the front.

Here are some common similarities between the four adverts/album covers.

• One thing most of these adverts have in common is that they all have the artist's name in large letters (larger than all the other words) in an eye catching place in the picture.

• They also have the date of release in a large font so that the audience can know when they can get their hand s on the album.

• Another similarity is having quotes from magazines, newspapers or radio stations praising the album for being good.

• All the adverts contain the album artwork in some form, although The Vaccines advert does it slightly more subtly. In a lot of cases the advert is just the original artwork expanded and the words enlarged and moved to a more noticeable place.