Indie Record Labels

Record labels are used in the music industry to brand and market bands/artists. It is also the company that manages the band/artists promotion and copywriting of their music, however they differ from the band/artist's manager. The record label may be independant or international, and the research i did on two Indie Record Labels are both independant.

Beggars Banquet

An independant British record label, which began in 1977 after founders Martin Mills and Nick Austin were inspired by the punk movement and their DIY attitude and opened a chain of record shops. The consistent success of the label with groundbreaking records secured the formation of "sister labels", such as 4AD Records, signing artists from other genres, such as dance. The Lurkers, a punk rock band, were the first on the Beggars Banquet label, with current artists such as Biffy Clyro, The Cult and The Dylans.

Chemikal Underground

Chemikal Underground are another independent record label, set up in 1994 by Scottish rock band The Delgados. The label was set up by the band so they could release their own songs and then later signed Bis, who were hugely successful and enabled the label to expand. Current artists signed to Chemikal Underground are The Radar Brothers, Aereogramme and Sister Vanilla.

Analysing a music video

This is the music video for the Arctic Monkeys - 'When The Sun Goes Down', directed by Paul Fraser, which is illustrative and narrative based.

The song begins with just vocals and simple guitar chords as the characters are introduced, with the clear lyrics being very illustrative with the visuals. For example 'Who's that girl there' is cut with a MCU of a young girl who we then see prostituting herself (leaning on the car window) which illustrates the subtle lyrics 'I doubt she does receipts'. There is then an artistic shot of a square-shaped spiral staircase from the bottom of the stairs looking up through the middle of the staircase, which could be a reflection of the creative image the band want to portray of themselves. We are then introduced to 'Scummy man', again with an illustrative relationship between the visuals and the lyrics as the handheld camera tracks forward to a MS of the man with his arm round the young girl followed by him taking food off her plate 'He'll rob you if he can'. The video then goes deeper into the narrative of the young prostitute trapped by the 'scummy man', who appears as sleezy as he swaggers up in a black shirt and then carries the young prostitute towards a taxi.

The music then increases in tempo, as does the visuals and the camera is a POV shot from a car window (possibly from the view of the girl), which speeds along the road and the shots are mainly of blurred traffic and street lights. The shots are cut to the music, for example the girl walks to the beat of the drum and the shots are cut on time with the beat, which makes the video more flowing and ties the visuals to the music. There are further illustrative visual and lyrical shots, such as when the girl 'makes a subtle proposition' to one of the Arctic Monkeys, and this is the first time we see one of the members from the Arctic Monkeys although there are later shots of the whole band loading their equipment into a car, allowing for the band to be recognised.

The visuals and the lyrics are less illustrative as the young magician is introduced, although we still get the sense of the scummy man jealously interfeering with the young prostitute, as he interupts her meal with a man and puts his arms on her shoulders as if to take claim to her and when he beats up the magician who makes her 'delighted when she sees him'

Even though this music video is about a young female prostitute and there are often CUs of her, she is not presented in sexual way as for most of the video she is draped in a coat with tied back scraggly hair and without makeup to make herself look pretty, but instead she looks tired and supressed.

Inspirational ideas for music video

For our music video, we talked about having people dancing that are comical and humerous. This video has two men dancing who are quite funny and possibly inspirational for random dancing.
Le tigre - Deceptacon



The other idea for our music video was to have people dressed up in animal costumes and this video, although it's a bit pervy, has people dressed in bear costumes.
Aphex Twin - Donkey Rhubarb

Childlike Album Covers

Here, Bjork's album cover for 'Army of Me' states on the front of the cover that the music on the album is directed at children who have suffered due to the destructiveness of nature. The album consists of fans different versions of Bjork's song 'Army of Me' and the childlike drawing is assumably of Bjork. She is well known for her dreamlike and often mesmerizing music, a childlike trait who at a young age are full of dreams and easily amazed. However, despite being a very childish drawing, the sinister facial expression and holding the world - connoting controlling the world - as well as the sharp edges, draw out the darker meaning of the song, which is the destructiveness of nature.

The album cover for Captain Beefheart's 'Doc at the Radar Station' also has a very childlike image, although it is unclear what the picture is of. The simple and scruffy pencil drawing dominated by the black scribble on top of the picture reflects anger and irritation possibly from the artist or a reflection of the music. The black creates a sinister/ confused edge to the cheerier yellow, which could be a connotation of the sun and a child's happiness.

Punk Rock album covers

These three covers from punk rock bands have connotations of rebellion and aggressiveness - associations of the punk culture. The main similarity between these three covers is the photograph of the band, standing tightly together and in a similar pose, connoting unity. The locations are all reflective of the rebellion punk culture, train track, pub and by a wall covered in graffiti, further portrayed in their distinct clothing, such as tight trousers, ripped clothes and unique hairstyles, although there is a greater sense of modernity in The Paddingtons.
The band poses are very unviting, most often standing with their hands in their pockets and not smiling, again reflecting the aggressiveness and distancing from 70's rock of the punk culture.
The title font on The Clash album cover is simple, in the style of army font anchored by 'Combat', and the title 'Combat Rock' seems to show the direct purpose of their music. The font for the Sex Pistols and The Paddingtons, however, is much bolder and stands out from the photograph, creating a contrast between the bright font colour and black and white photograph.

Similar album covers

This is the album cover for Black Grape, 1995, which is bold, vivid and eye catching. The fluorescent yellow and large sunglasses dominate the cover and are reflective of the rave/electro genre. The image has been edited to make it look like an Andy Warhol style portrait, famed for his creative and individual art (pop art), therefore also portraying the band as creative and funky. Black Grape were formed by members of 80's band Happy Mondays and their music is known for it's humerous lyrics, 'It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah', title of the album, presenting the band as comical, amusing and lighthearted.

Calvin Harris' album cover is very similar to Black Grape's and again reflects his uptempo/electric music. As Calvin Harris was influenced by music from the 80's, the distinct similiarities between his album cover and that of Black Grape's, (former 80's band members) associates his album and music with electro/dance. The image of Calvin Harris isn't as large, providing room for his name, in a digital/techno font. Calvin Harris' lyrics are also humerous, 'I Get All The Girls', and his album title reflects Clavin Harris' reinvention of disco.

Album Covers

Features of an album cover

Title of album
Name of artist/band
Photograph or graphic image, normally of band/artist both on front and back cover
Track list
Barcode
Record label
Place of market/distribution
Copyright
Website link to band/artist

Function of an album cover

To market the album - eyecatching, bold, photograph of band/artist
To attract consumers
For artist/band identity - e.g use of logo/style of font
To represent the genre of the artist/band
To identify the style of the artist/band

Categorising album covers

By era
Solo artist/band
Photograph/Graphics
Self titled/album name
Colour/black and white