Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine advert analysis 

Music artists promote their new music, albums or tours in places such as magazines and adverts in order to get their music across to their target audiences. The purpose of artists using magazines is to promote their albums in order to help market their music and themselves as an artist to target audiences. This means that the artist is able to reach a wider target audience, e.g. the people who read that chosen magazine and listen to they genre of music. If the artist has chosen a mainstream music magazine such as billboard or Rolling Stones, then it will reach a wider audience as the magazines cover a wide range of music genres and branch out the mainstream music audience, making the artist more well known and gathering more fans and audiences. Music artists also use magazines to act as a constant reminder that they have an upcoming tour or album coming out so audiences don't forget if they have seen it before but not realised and the dates, songs, important information etc, is stuck in audiences head. They also help to link in with other advertisements of the album to create more marketing and to get support from other companies to help push sales further. This benefits the artist as they get help in the marketing aspect of the album from powerful companies that are affiliated with the music industry and multi media companies, as well as improved advertising and marketing for the album. The advertisements also link in with any articles within the magazine on the artist. This benefits both the magazine and the artist as it allows the magazine to publish new an exciting articles and stories and allows the artist to give more information about their album and sell themselves and their service to their intended audience. Magazine advertising is also a benefit for the artist and their media product or service they are advertising as the magazine companies have the ability and knowledge as to where to display these advertisements and to make them high quality, represented with full colour and gloss giving a clearer message of what the artist is advertising and allowing the audience a better idea of the message they are trying to give and an idea on the artist. By advertising in magazines within your industry, you are almost guaranteed to reach your intended target audience and magazines are have a huge influence in todays society and are a major media platform, therefore people are influenced by magazines will engage with them and take on board the contents of there magazine as it is a constant growing form of multi-media and highly popular media platform that artists use to promote services. 

Album or tour advertisements are created in order to give audiences vital information on the artists publishment or new service (album or tour). It is also has to be conventional to their particular genre and relate to their target audience whilst giving audiences a clear understanding in to the artists character and the concept or nature she is trying to portray in the album or tour advert. The advert I have chosen to analyse for my own artist Gabrielle Aplin is a picture advertising her latest tour, with information on upcoming gigs, ticket information and information on the artists, record labels and tour organisations websites, social medias etc. I have chosen to analyse this tour advertisement rather then an album or song advert or any previous tour adverts as I feel this advert gives a better representation of her character and has more conventions that can be analysed. It also includes details on her new and latest work therefore it gives a representation on her as an artist now and her current music meaning none of the analysis or conventions of the advert our outdated or on her previous character and music. The lighting used on this tour poster is dull and somewhat low key with a black and white effect. This could connote that the background doesn't particularly matter to her and that she wants to be the centre of attention and wants the audience to focus more on her actions and the representation of her character. The black and white filter on it is used to match the dim, isolated background to create a mysterious and conventional feel and setting towards the poster and as a representation of some of her music as it is quite depressing and meaningful. This also helps when linking in with the her choice and genre in music as her indie, acoustic style is seen as quite subtle and not out there, giving an insight to her as an artist and possibly what to expect from the tour she is advertising. Gabrielle's positioning in the tour poster gives us a representation of her character. We see a long shot of Aplin which is unusual as we cant see her face. This subverts the stereotypes of indie artists that we can always see their emotions and close ups of music artists however it shows Aplin is independent and unique. You can also apply the male gaze as she is showing some of her body. She is not using direct gaze which also subverts her genre stereotypes. This also connotes that she is secretive and has a sense of mystery about her. The location and setting of the poster is also a very secluded and lonely environment, much like herself in the poster. It looks very vintage and old fashioned which is a connotation of acoustic music and the indie genre. The iconography in the poster such as the colourful umbrella signifies whatever she touches gets better and brightens up. It also symbolises she's a fun, loving character and has many different characteristics. This allows the audience to relate to Aplin and find her conventional as she can get across to a variety of people and show true emotion in whatever she makes or does. The font and typography in the tour poster looks sophisticated and the English rain title appears to be in a handwritten font which is common in the indie genre. The name of the tour is also the name of her album and  a song in her album therefore it doesn't draw attention to itself with a quirky and irrelevant title that a lot of pop artists whose titles have nothing to do with their songs. It is also a good promotional way of getting their song ore album names across to their target and the mainstream audience. There are connotations of the advert that the artist is promoting in this tour poster as well lots of different tour dates and information displayed across the bottom of the poster. The language used is, "plus guests" which shows the audience that at the concert there will be other guests; however, she is the main focus. Not having the names of the actual artists shows that they probably aren't well known so they're not put on it in case it puts the audience off from watching Gabrielle Aplin. Her debut album is also mentions; however, it is at the bottom and it isn't described by adjectives to make it seem amazing, which could be because the artist doesn't want to sell her music through an idea of how she perceives it because she wants everyone to have their own take on what she sings about. This advert promotes her by showing her as bright and colourful compared to the rest of the world, which could be implied as other artists showing that she is influential and her music stands out compared to the mainstream genres such as pop because she stands out in the picture of her on the advert. These connotations would make the audience relate to the artist as they will see her as an idol because she is different from others so the audience will want to listen and follow her songs and what she says.

I have also chosen to analyse the magazine advert for indie artist 'Birdy's concert poster. I have chosen to analyse a advert from the artist Birdy as she is very similar to Gabrielle Aplin in a number of ways, including her style and genre of music, artist characteristics and the way the conventions of her promotions and music videos. Much like the magazine advert for Gabrielle Aplins tour poster 'English rain', this concert poster is very similar in the way it represents Birdy as an artist and how she makes it conventional to herself and the indie genre. First of all, her costume in the poster makes her stand out as it not an ordinary or popular piece of clothing that you see many people wearing in the style that she does and with those colours. However, this helps the audience to build a relationship with the artist as it shows her unique style that helps to portray her personality and conveys the unique style that her music also has. The audience will relate to the clothing as it is conventional of the indie genre and each piece of clothing is recognisable. The artist is also represented as feminine due to the colours she is wearing as they are stereotypical female colours as well as her attire being a dress. The overall feeling and assumption when looking at Birdy's image and clothing is that she looks very feminine. Being represented as feminine will attract a female target audience as they will feel as though her music will relate to her because the artist herself is trying to relate to the audience due to her gender. This representation is also shown through the way the audience  build a relationship with the artist through the colours and outfits she wears as it conveys her personality and represents and gives the mainstream audience and the buyers of the magazine an insight what her music is like, very girly and quirky like her magazine advert. The colours used on the advert are green, off white and brown. Although this is the decor of the house in the setting, it also represents the indie genre as they are very natural colours, which has connotations of the earth and the distressed look to the colour could show the artists views about the world. This helps the audience relate to her style of music as they will be able to tell what her music will be about due to the colour on the advert and they will be able to build a relationship with the artist because they can understand her music more by the way she advertises herself, showing that she is passionate about the narrative and concept of her music videos. It is also a representation of the setting in the poster with Birdy standing alone in a plain, simple room with nothing to suggest about her character unless audiences begin to listen to her music to understand these conventions more. The layout of the advert is very clear as it initially shows the artists name which leads onto a large photo of her. The name ends where her face starts so that the audience can straight away see what the artist looks like if they don't already know which will help them connect to her as they believe they know her more. Underneath her name as the important dates and information that the audience will need to know about. The typography used in the poster is very large to introduce the artists name and make it stand out and is displayed in an off white colour to stand out from the other writing on the advert and to show the artists tinted view of the world and to give consumers an insight into her music style and emotions. This will help the audience to relate to her as they can see her views and see the unique style she has as well as helping them build a relationship with her by understanding more about her such as her style of music which is conveyed through the off white colour meaning her music is different compared to the mainstream genres. The advert is a good form of promotion as it shows that the artist is a good singer as she has a tour at the Shepard's bush empire, which makes the audience think they should listen to her music and is able to preform at big and popular venues. It also promotes the artist by promoting her debut album as well as promoting her through a full length image of her so that the audience can see what she looks like and therefore build a relationship with her and relate to her style through her facial expression and clothing.

In conclusion, I will use the research I have taken and inform it into my planning by following the codes and conventions of the indie genre i have identified in Gabrille Aplin and Birdys magazine adverts and use them in my own work. For this I will look at the micro elements they have used and how they produced the piece of work and whether i can replicate it when using photoshop or make something similar following the same structure, colour schemes, cinematogorhy etc. To be specific, i will take a similar photo for my own advert as in the Birdy one where it is a still, simple shot of the artist wearing conventional clothing and having little expression or i will have a close up of my artist with more emotion and more dramatic effect for the audience. I will also use similar fonts and typography as in the Gabrielle Aplin magazine advert as this is a similar representation i want my artist to have and it suits the idea i have for my own and the representations that go with it. Furthermore, I will also inform the same colour schemes into my own advert as the two i have researched are successful and popular conventional adverts and if it was to make them similar mine would also be as conventional, e.g. the dark colours and dim lighting make the artist have a dark mysterious side to there characters and make the audience want to engage with their music and listen to them to find out more, making them take notice of the advert.