Representations within music

adverts: Plan B & Mumford and Sons.

Representations: Mumford and Sons-Firstly, the style of font seems quite simple and also quite professional which could possibly be representative of their image and also possibly their style of music, which is also quite simple when compared to popular modern music artists. The style of font is also slightly traditional but also has a brand reach due to the fact that this type of text is similar to what appears what on their other albums, which may also help their audience identify with them as they may recognise the type of text from another album or poster that they may be interested in and then they might possibly make the connection between the two albums which might give them an urge to listen to the new album.As for the pictures, the layout of the pictures is quite neat, with each picture being aligned next to each other in a square, the neat layout of the pictures could also possibly be representative of the style of music that Mumford and Sons indulges in. The styling of the pictures also seems to represent old style photographs, similar to polaroid pictures and the layout of the photos seems to represent an old photo album which seems to look quite reflective, this could appeal to a target demographic as this may make them feel intrigued and curious about the band and might want to go ‘on a journey’ with the band. AN older demographic may also feel a sense of nostalgia due to the styling of the photographs which may make them remember about their own life. According to Katz and Blumler’s Uses and Gratifications Theory, the pictures also seems to create a sense of escapism for the target demographic as the pictures seem to represent an almost perfect setting (a broad field, calm, quiet, tranquil) which seems to represent an ideal for their audience. An older audience may especially like the pictures due to the fact that conventionally, older adults’ lives are often very busy so the ideal that is shown in the pictures could look aspirational to them.

Representations: Plan B-Plan B’s advert uses a simple colour scheme consisting mainly of black and white, creating a binary opposition, while some of his text is red, the red could’ve possibly been used to create a contrast with the black and white which could be representative of his music style, with the different colours showing his old and new music style while the contrast in colours could be used to represent the great difference in the two music styles. The red text is also very eye catching to an audience and it stylised with a simple, bold font, on the advert the text that is red is his name ‘Plan B’ and a critique of his new album, calling it ‘The Multi-Platinum Album of the year’, the critique, along with star reviews which also appear on the poster could entice his audience as the reviews seem to give him a sense of credibility which ultimately justifies their purchase of his album. However, sometimes the size of the text can possibly juxtapose the impact of the text, for example the reviews are quite small and for an audience could be quite hard to spot on first glance, this seems to reduce the impact of the reviews as they are meant to be there to help persuade his audience to buy the album however, if they can’t see the reviews then this isn’t possible; moreover, the text that says his name ‘Plan B’ is the biggest text and displayed at the top-middle of the poster, this could possibly be because he wants his name to have the biggest impact on his audience so that it will be remembered easily but also because he might possibly want to emphasise his image. The image that he is trying to create seems to be representative of old musical style (1960’s style), which, for an older audience could create a sense of nostalgia but his style could also represent the type of music that he makes.