Blink-182 - Neighborhoods

Magazine Advert Analysis

The advert for the Blink-182 album “Neighborhoods” has been done in a very

simplistic style with little variation in the colours used. The band have clearly

established themselves within the rock genre through the use of dark colours

and only having a range of colours between black and white. This range of

colour is a convention of the rock genre and creates connotations of the band

being dark and not being very warm. It may also relate to how they have grown

and shows a more adult style after their reformation as a band. Through the use

of these colours, it makes all of the text and the image of the album cover stand

out so it is easy to read and understand.

The main image for the advert is a picture of

the album cover. It takes up over half of the

page and is a stark contrast to the black

background helping to make it stand out to the

reader. Through doing this, people will

automatically recognise the album cover when

in a shop or going to buy it and they are more

likely to take notice of it and look at it when

reading through the magazine. This is a good

marketing technique as more people will look

at which means that more people are likely to

buy the album – this is assisted by the band

name being on the album cover so the

audience are likely to recognise the band

name and want to buy it.

This advert has gone against the conventions

of an advert though as it does not feature any

images of any of the band members – either

together or as a group. This could be due to

this being their first album out after a 6 year

hiatus. Because of this, it does not show the

band together as they have been separate for

so long and instead focuses on the album

that they have created together. By doing

this, it shows the audience how important this

album is to them and how they want them to

focus on the music they have done instead of

the actual band (which is a running theme

within the rock genre).

The only text on the page tells the audience

the name of the album, the band, the

“featured track”, the release date and the

bands website. By including such little text on

the advert, it pinpoints all of the most

important information that the audience needs

to know and gives nothing extra. Through this,

the advert has connotations of mystery and

creates a sense of curiosity in the audience

which are two character conventions of the

rock genre. This is also likely to encourage

people to buy it to find out more about it and

hear about the other songs included on the

album. All of the text is centre-aligned as well

so that the audiences eye is automatically

drawn toward it and means that they are more

likely to read it and consider buying it.

The fonts used has clear connotations to the rock genre. This can be seen

through how some of the letters have been mirrored and how they are

compromised through mostly straight edges. This style of writing is commonly

used in adverts for albums in the rock genre as it goes against the conventions

of other genres and is very different to what you would see with other genres.

By doing this, it clearly defines the band as part of the rock genre and makes it

easily recognisable to the audience as well.

Blink-182 – Neighborhoods, advert shown in Kerrang! magazine in early 2011