Friday 21 February 2014

Digipak: Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis:

An African-American man with shoulder length black curly hair wearing a black jacket and pants adorned with buckles singing into a microphone with his eyes closed. He is holding the microphone stand with both hands. Bright stage lights are visible in the background.Micheal Jackson- This Is It

Michael Jackson, an American singer-songwriter most commonly referred to as 'The King of Pop'. His record labels include Steeltown, Motown, Epic, Legacy and later his own record company MJJ Productions.

When Michael Jackson was signed to Berry Gordon to Motown, he worked with the likes of Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.
MJJ Music Is an American record label that is owned by MJJ Productions Inc and founded by American entertainer Michael Jackson. It is distributed by Epic Records (for which Jackson recorded) and Work Records.
MJJ Music was founded in 1988. Jackson formed the label to help shape the talents of burgeoning artists.

As a musician, he ranged from Motown's dance fare and ballads to techno and house-edged new jack swing to work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first and only dancer from pop and rock music. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 26 American Music Awards, more than any other artist, including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s"; 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era; and the estimated sale of over 400 million records worldwide.Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music.In what would have been Jackson's 52nd birthday on August 29, 2010, he became the most downloaded artist of all time. Jackson constantly traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism and the 2000 Guinness Book of Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities.



The packaging for Michael Jackson's This Is It is cardboard packaging and uses the traditional gatefold however to make it more modern the CD's go into little slots at the front and back of the case, either side of a booklet which includes both pictures from his This Is It show/ film and track listings of the CD's.

The front cover is quite plain but familiar as it links with the movie poster. It features a silhouette of Micheal Jackson which is filled with bright images from his live show which included all of the songs on this album. This pictures from his rehearsals of his upcoming tour is significant as it was said to be one of his most memorable tours and a part of music history forever (tickets sold out within a matter of minutes), this  is why the album is so important. The image of Micheal on the front portrays a 'typical Michael pose' and lives up to his name as the King of Pop. It also includes typical features of what Micheal would wear such as the one sparkly glove and the trilby hat. The bright background lighting which highlights the image of Micheal makes him seem as if he surrounded by smoke or in a spotlight making the image stand out and gives it an other worldly feel. The font is serif and the title of the album is larger than the rest of the writing on the cover, it is also in bold and in capitals. This is because it actually means what is says 'This Is It' as Micheal Jackson died before the show was able to start his tour. This makes this writing possibly the most important message on the cover.

The back of the album has a similar image to the front- still portraying a pose typical to MJ and filled with similar images from the show as the front. However, in this image he is a finishing pose, a famous pose by MJ in which he spins around and finishes pointing down and tilting his hat- a pose which would feature in the show. This could represent the end of his career and as he looks down it could signify him looking down after his death.

The digi-pak is a Deluxe 2 CD set which includes a 36-page booklet which includes more images from the show. CD 1 includes a range of 16 of MJ's greatest hits that would have featured in the show and in the running order of the live show. The last two songs on CD 1 are 2 new, unreleased songs created especially for the show. CD 2 has unreleased versions of some of his songs and a spoken poem which had never been heard before. On the back of the digi-pak it has a barcode and record label logo and a dedication to his children- 'This album is dedicated to Michael's children Prince Micheal, Paris and Prince Michael II "Blanket"' 

The digi-pak is predominately image led and the only text seen is of the track listing and track information which uses the same small, standard text throughout. All the images are of the show, varying from the performances themselves to behind the scenes images and the band for the show. The images are exactly what you'd expect from a Micheal Jackson show and feature bright colors. There are some pictures which don't actually feature Micheal in them because it reflects the show as a whole therefore may include the dancers, band, crew of the director- Kenny Ortega.








The disk have a similar layout but opposite in color schemes, which creates a link  between them. These disk keep with the theme of the whole album and in terms on relating to other Micheal Jackson CD's this one can be seen to link to a previous digi-pak of MJ's in terms of color and matching disks.













To conclude, the set-up and layout of this digi-pak work well as it portrays MJ in a good way and encompasses everything he is about- it creates a good way and is designed to stand out and attract an audience. This is more simple as a design for a digi-pak, especially when compared to MJ's previous albums or any other digi-pak but it creates a peaceful and nostalgic feel to Micheal therefore succeeds in it's purpose.





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