Dance Digipak Analysis- Calvin Harris: 18 Months

This digipak for Calvin Harris' 18 Months, along with most other dance digipaks, vary greatly from pop and rock digipaks. While there is a picture of Harris, he takes up a very small proportion of the album cover and is turning his face away. Therefore we cannot see him clearly. This shows that the artist's appearance is not important to his brand; his music is. The way his arms are held, Harris points up to the album title as if to say 'Don't look at me, listen to my music'. The overall colour scheme and mise-en-scene are not very bright, but in fact mostly brown, grey and slightly dull. The lack of extravagance attracts the target audience, as they feel they can relate to him more. This is very different to Nicki Minaj with her Pink Friday digipak, as her target audience is younger and therefore are looking more for a role model to aspire to be like.

Harris uses the same font as the cover in his singles. This works as a logo; even from far away the viewer may recognise the layout of text and therefor recognise the album as Harris'. Furthermore the text fits the band at is fairly basic, however the capital letters make it stand out. The way the words are laid out on a brick background, the title almost looks like graffiti, giving the digipak a slightly rebellious, blasé look.

The text on the disk remains the same to that on the cover, keeping the digipak consistent. While the pop, rock and dance digipaks are very different and follow different conventions, it is obvious that most artist keep their digipaks very consistent. When I make my own digipak I will keep the colour scheme, font and costumes constant throughout as it makes the album look well thought out and professional.

The use of black and white keeps the CD looking very simplistic. This flows with the lack of extravagance in the digipak. Like with Green Day's American Idiot digipak there is no image of the artist, showing Harris' modesty. However unlike American Idiot, there is no image at all; this album is targeted at more mature listeners.

 

The back cover is very similar to the front, with Harris sitting in the same place. This time his arms are down and he is looking at the camera. To me this suggests that while he has been modest, it is now his chance to be proud of what he's produced.

The houses behind the wall are fairly small and unattractive. This shows that while he is now successful and wealthy, he still goes back to his roots.

Furthermore Harris uses the track list to appeal to a larger target audience. On 18 Months he has collaborated with 11 other artists. By clearly stating this on the back cover, fans of other artists like Rihanna will be more inclined to by the album.