Research - Album Covers (II)

This is the album cover for Iron Maiden's 2006 album "A Matter of Life and Death", the bands name is at the top of the album cover, it sits behind the main image. The main image is interesting to look at and a lot is going on, it would appeal more to a male target audience dude to the violence taking place. The name of the band is in thier own unique font, which is different to that of the album title, which sits at the bottom of the page, in the foreground in front of the picture, utilizing a industrial looking font. This ties in well with the scene which is a military one, this theme ties in with the title of the album. The way in which the Band's logo is positioned behind the scene and the album title at the foreground, could represent how the band is "unleashing" this album to the music world. The unconventional scene also contains undead soldiers, which, for the band is conventional, but for the rest of music, not so. This is Iron Maiden's telltale theme of the undead, which was many of the genre's that Heavy Metal bands used to express their music in video and art. The world also seems to be burning around them, showing effects of war, and the skeleton's represent death.

Research - Chosen Genre.

This lesson i have watched several music videos just to give me an idea of the way in which directors and bands link their video's to their music, or not at all, and how the video is timed to relate to the music in it. In future posts i will post both the video's i have watched and individual analysis for each one. I have chosen to focus my attention on music video's of the heavy rock/metal genre. However I will analyse music video's from several different and varied artists, both in the style of their music and the period it is from to see how the genre and its video's have developed over time to represent their different audiences and their emotions/thoughts. As rock is traditionally listened to by rebellious teens, as it first was when it was introduced, I will see if that teenage following remains, or whether or not the genre has stayed with its first audiences and is not as Popular as its first emergence in the 70's and its Golden Age in the 1980's.

I will look at the widely accepted founders of the Genre, Black Sabbath, and then see how their music changed with Judas Priest discarding the blues roots of heavy metal. The sound of Heavy metal then developed through time with bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Dio, as well as their Glam-Rock cousins Motley Crue and Kiss. To the contempory rock bands such as Slipknot, Rise Against and The Darkness

Research - Album Covers (I)

The central image is one of a bird, an eagle, which appears to be constructed out of metal, the bird could represent the freedom of heavy metal after the recent changes in the genre, this album was released in 1982, the metallic appearence and the direction of the bird gives it an intimidating image, with the bird screaming, this links in with the title "screaming for vengence", the title is relativly small, especially when contrasted to the main image, and the band logo as well, the most important is the Band's name rather than the album title, hinting at the band selling off existing success rather than the album itself, and its content. As the bird is made out of metal and the genre of the music is heavy metal, this again links in with the style and culture surrounding the genre, which is one of a rebellious, almost agressive music time at the time, smashing the established music industry with the new wave of sound, the movement itself was named the new wave of british heavy metal, which is personified here in the agressive metal bird, swooping in on the music industry.