The Futureheads - The Chaos Digipak analysis

The Chaos is the fourth album by The Futureheads, released in 2010 on Nul Records. It features a front cover, a back cover, a booklet and the CD.

Front cover

The front cover features the band's name, the album name and an image of the Earth being pulled apart, revealing the core. The black-on-white text, boldness and size makes it stand out clearly. The font itself is subtly miscoloured in places, adding to the theme of imperfection and chaos. The image is large and the red core draws the eye to the centre of the cover.

Front of the booklet and CD

The image on the booklet is similar to the one on the front, furthering their concept of chaos being balanced in nature. Again, the core of the Earth is also the centre of the page. The CD artwork uses the arrow motif from the front cover, where the disc tray in the centre takes place of the Earth. The disc itself has the song listing on it, helpful for listeners who keep the CD in something other than the original packaging. The sans-serif font is constant throughout, in keeping with the dissonance between order, chaos, regularity and inevitability.

Image inside the booklet

The booklet image is like a mathematical drawing, showing that chaos occurs when there is a bending of time and space. The idea of chaos existing naturally is confirmed further. The font and arrows on the drawing retain the damaged look of everything on the album. The arrows show the Earth heading towards chaos.

Back cover

The back cover has the legal information, barcode and a full track list. This is on the back rather than the inside as it allows potential customers to see what tracks are on the album before they buy it. The text is centralised as it takes up more space on the cover, keeping the amount of white space to the minimum. The radio waves make a return from the front, telling the customer in no uncertain terms that they have a message to tell.

The Digipak

The Digipak



- What is a Digipak?

A Digipak is a storage device for optical discs, a modern alternative to the jewel case. While the term Digipak is a trademarked term for a specific product, the lack of recognised competition led to Digipak being used generally. What sets it apart from jewel cases are the folded cardboard segments inside.

Digipak for Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

- What are the advantages of the Digipak over jewel cases?

• Artwork can be more vivid as it is printed on cardboard rather than paper.
• The cardboard segments can make one large image when unfolded, allowing artists extra room for creativity in their designs.
• The extra space for artwork can cement their image and message to the audience, both of the album itself and the band.
• The cardboard segments can hold additional CD's or DVD's. 
• The packaging becomes as much part of the purchase as the CD does.
• Digipaks can be cheap to produce in bulk.
• Digipaks can be sold to consumers as a special edition at extra cost, making more money for everyone involved.
• The cardboard can be made from recycled materials whereas the plastic on jewel cases can not.

- What are the drawbacks of the Digipak?

• The cardboard deteriorates much quicker than the jewel case due to the folding process placing pressure on the hinges.
• The cardboard rip and tear relatively quickly.
• They can be expensive to produce in small numbers, making them unviable for smaller artists.
• A Digipak is thicker than a jewel case, making them less portable.
• They can take a variety of shape, meaning they can't be stored in a typical CD rack.

Despite the negatives of the Digipak, they are now in a duopoly in the market alongside the jewel case, bands opting for the Digipak where they feel applicable. It is vital that we create artwork that ties together our song, band and our video in a way that is eye catching and appealing to our audience.

Post-Punk genre breakdown

Odd Shaped Head's style of music is post-punk revival, which is a modern take on the stripped down, raw music of the 1970's and 1980's, mixing together garage, grunge and rock elements. The term relates to bands active at the turn of the 21st Century that tried to defy the bland nature of music at the time.

Among the pioneers were The White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs which proved to be so successful in America, UK based bands followed suit. These include Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys.

These bands had a definitive image, drawing on the fashion of the 1950's and 60's, with skinny ties, black belts and shaggy haircuts being commonplace. The garage-rock style lent itself well to provocative lyrics, such as the themes of politics and racism.

The end of the 2000's saw a decline of the post-punk movement, with many bands splitting up or going on hiatus, to be replaced by slower, more emotionally fuelled artists such as Arcade Fire and Mumford and Sons.



The White Stripes

Yeah Yeah Yeahs


The Libertines


The Arctic Monkeys

The Futureheads - Skip To The End video analysis

The Futureheads - Skip To The End

Skip To The End was released in 2006, at the height of Odd Shaped Head's "fame". Since this was also at the height of post-punk's popularity, the video should use many of the tropes associated with the genre.


The song uses few close ups, opting to go for medium and long shots more often than not, and the frame is composed into two shots. This is amplification of the lyrics, which are about the break up of a couple so the long shots show the lack of emotion and personalisation.

The setting is a large snowy field with dead trees dispersed throughout. This, combined with the black wedding suits, create an almost entirely monochrome colour palette. The dashes of colour are reserved for the roses the bride is holding and the children, a visual metaphor for the vibrant love they once had. The whole frame with the children has a slight sepia filter on it, adding further to the nostalgia value. The costume and props in this scene are those of cowboys and Indians, a game often played by children.

As the song is not particularly fast paced, it gives ample time for the band members to establish themselves as characters within the video. The performance and narrative strands of the video are interwoven, with the band members singing or playing instruments within the story. The band members are often seen together singing and each member sings alongside the characters, who are not singing themselves. This gives a clear indication to the audience who is in the band and who the story within the song is being re-enacted through.


The video opens and closes in hypnotist's office, and through the course of the video, we learn the relationship will not end well, signified by the pensive look the groom gives the bride in the final two shot. The director has created a spooky atmosphere by using ghosts in cutaways, giving the groom long arms and making the children eye make up which has ran. The imagery aligns itself with the lyrics, telling the audience the relationship will not end well, hence the title "Skip to the End".

Analysis of a band similar to ours - The Futureheads

The Futureheads are similar to Odd Shaped Head, both in genre (post-punk indie rock) and in location, being based in Sunderland.

The band consists of:
Ross Millard (vocals and guitar)
David Craig (bass)
and brothers Dave (vocals and guitar) and Barry Hyde (drums)

The quartet have released five studio albums between 2004 and 2012. The style of music, on stage persona and interviews have created a "cheeky chappy" image of the band, one Odd Shaped Head seem to emulate.

A large part of their fanbase is located in the North East, due to their extensive promotion in the area. This approach, while not unique (Maxïmo Park doing similar work in Newcastle), gives them a solid base to work from and a good point of reference. Examples of such promotion are the band supporting many acts that play at The Stadium of Light (Sunderland Football Club's stadium) and creating and playing at a music festival in Sunderland (Split Festival).

The band's representation in their music videos is typical post-punk fare, wearing mostly dark clothes with unfastened jackets. The style used in their video is similarly typical, with the singer possessing an almost hilarious level of swagger at times. As with all post-punk bands, they wear clothing that is similar to their fans' and rely on energetic live performances.

The clothing worn by the band in four different videos, displaying the prevalence of the clothing that I described earlier.

Questionnaire Analysis

I surveyed 20 people in my form group, with ages ranging from 11 to 17 (and the 27 year old teacher). There were 12 girls and 8 boys surveyed.



We hoped that finding out the favourite film genre would give us an insight to what conventions they like and what could be transferred into our muisc video. The popularity of the comedy genre tells us that our video should incorporate some comedic aspects to entertain the viewer. The other dominant genres are thriller and action, the two sharing similar defining features. We should try and make the video fast paced (through the use of quick cuts) to stop the audience getting bored looking at the same shot for too long.



There was a mixed response in regards to this question, with no catagory being particularly dominant. Traditional media and the internet are equally popular, meaning our music video and Digipak has the potential to appeal to a wide audience.


The majority of people surveyed are attracted to the music video through means other than the song itself, which means our Digipak has the potential to reach a large market with people who have not heard our song or artist before.



The favourite genre within the sample group is pop, which may have something to do with both the high proportion of girls and the younger age of the group surveyed, which pop music is marketed towards. As our music video (and the song itself) is geared towards an older demographic.


The questionnaires were answered in a manner in which we expected for the most part, however, the popularity of the artist does not seem to impact on the exposure to a music video. This is good news for us, as our audience will not be prejudiced against our video as they haven't heard of the band. Another interesting response is the equal exposure radio, television and the internet to music videos, with friends coming a distant fourth. This means both our digipak and magazine advert need to be of a high quality as they have equal reverence to potential customers.

In regards to the open questions (asking why the genres and videos where their favourite), the answers were quite self explanatory. For example, one answer to "Why is this your favourite film genre?" (answered romantic comedies) was "because they are romantic and funny". While not particularly enlightening, results like these show that the audience like their media at face value. These types of answers were particularly common in younger students (11-13), showing either their lack of understanding of what they like or simply not being able to articulate their feelings into words.

How humour is used in music videos

Humour in music videos, outside of actual standalone visual jokes, comes in the form of either parody or pastiche. While similar in format, a homage is usually more of a love letter to the original text and is not meant to be enetertaining in itself. Intertextuality is a form of an inside joke, as referances are inherent in their nature that not all viewers will "get it".

A parody is has a more acerbic tone than pastiche, as it makes fun of certain features or stereotypes of other media texts. It encourages the viewer to laugh at, rather than with, the original text. Parodies are usually less subtle than pastiches, as they can go as far as to be an entirely different song with the same instrumental.


The Beatles Live Rare - Smack My Bitch Up

A simple but effective parody of The Beatles' family friendly image, overlaying the less upbeat Smack My Bitch Up (The Prodigy) over archive footage of The Beatles preforming live. A main benefactor of why this video is so effective is the care that has went into syncing the song and video together, making it actually look like they are playing the song. The original crowd reactions (girls screaming and fainting etc) remain, seemily euphoric at hearing The Beatles preform their classic hit.

Macklemore - Thrift Shop Music Video (Parody)

 

This video is made under the pretence that the viewer has an understanding of both the original song and its music video. It both alters some scenes from the origianal video and changes the lyrics to tell its own story, again based off of the original song.

 

 

Another method of introducing humour into videos is to take amplification and illustration to their limits. This works especially well if the song in question either is humourous or has a self contained narrative.

 

 

Tenacious D - Tribute

 

 

An example of this would be Tenacious D's Tribute, which is a visualisation of the lyrics, word for word. The only thing the video adds is some slight context, with the song being performed inside a photo booth. It uses special effects to amplify the lyrics. This also has the effect of linking the song to the video, giving extra meaning on that line to those that have seen the video.

 

Beastie Boys - 3 MC's and 1 DJ

 

                                     

 

 

 

In typical Beastie Boys fashion, the video for "3 MC's and 1 DJ" is as entertaining as it is promotional for the song. The video opens with the aforementioned 3 MC's stood in the above pose perfectly still, cross-cutted with the DJ holding a record and walking down the street, going into a building and putting the record on. There is about a minute and a half of watching the DJ walk and the MC's stood still before the music starts. After the music starts, there is very few camera angles and it is all shot in the same room, meaning this style of video making would be replicable in our own production.