Five digipak that I have analysed to understand the codes and conventions of the digipaks.

1. DIGIPAK
ANALYSIS

2. ‘Teenage
Dream
by Katy Perry
The playlist at the back of the
digipak is in bright red contrasting
with the light muted colours in the
back. This is to draw attention to
the playlist and make it stand out.
On the inside cover
the main image is of
the artist, Katy
Perry. This clarifies
to the audience that
they have bought
her digipak.
The CD’s are reflecting the theme of the
whole digipak. The theme is on sweets, such
as, candy floss, lollipops, donuts, etc. This is
why both CD’s have a donut and lollipop on
them.
The main cover
has Katy Perry as
the main image,
which has been
taken from the
music video of her
song in the album.
This conveys to the
audience that the
digipak relates to
the album. This is
intertexuality.
The main image is seen as
being sensual and this attract
men to the digipak through male
gaze and the music attracts
women.

3. ‘Loud’ by Rihanna The theme of red flowers has also being used
on the digipak due to it being significant in the
‘Only girl in the world’ music video. Just like the
colour red, the red roses are making Rihanna a
more recognisable artist. It shows that both the
hit single is linked and brands Rihanna.
The featured track, ‘ Only girl in the world’ is shown to influence the
digipak due to the similarities of the two. Both digipak and music video
feature close-up shots of the artist and are both consistent with the
colour red. This synergy associates the colour red to Rihanna and
makes her more recognisable as an artist. In addition, the shade of red
used stands out and grabs the audience’s attention.
In the extreme close-up shot,
used on the digipak, Rihanna
has her eyes closed. This
suggests she is vulnerable
due to her unreadable facial
expression.
The image inside the digipak shows Rihanna
lying across a bed of roses, which is
publicised to be more appealing than the front
cover. However, it makes less of a statement,
as it is less clear than the cover image. Across
three panels of the digipak, the image can be
seen in full capacity and is presented to be a
more exclusive image of the artist for those
who bought the digipak.
The red theme is shown
again with an extreme close
up of the artist’s face,
showing her vibrant red hair
and make up that is
deliberately illuminating the
red on her lips and cheeks.
Rihanna is known for her sex appeal,
which displayed in some of the artist’s
music videos for her singles. She
displays her sex appeal in the ‘Loud’
digipak covers by being shown in the
roses. This gives her a more delicate
sex appeal due to her having less skin
showing.

4. ‘Overcome’
On the front cover, the title is
bold and black, making it
stand out and eye catching for
people to notice. This
emphasises the artist.
The main image on the front
cover is an image of her,
showing she is they main
attraction for the digipak and
making the digipak
recognisable to her. She is
dress in a seductive manner,
wearing what looks like an
unnatural and uncomfortable
dress. This shows hoe pop
genre uses clothing and
accessories to make the
artists more appealing to
audiences to maximise sales.
The dress Alexandra is
wearing is silver and
shiny, trying to portray
her as attractive. This is
conforming to the codes
and conventions of artists
under the pop genre.
Throughout the digipak, the
same theme has been used.
Alexandra continues to be
the main attraction. Having
all texts around her and her
in the spotlight shows that
she is the main feature of the
digipak. In addition, the same
colours and style is used
throughout creating
continuity.
Each panel of the digipak shows the artist alone. This
emphasises Alexandra and makes her the main
selling point of the digipak. The images are clearly
from an official photo shoot that has been done for
the digipak.
by Alexandra Burke

5. ‘Born to Die’
by Lana Del Rey
The front cover, of Lana Del Rey’s digipak, displays
a simple medium close up of the artist’s face and
outfit. This focused the on her beauty and
voyeuristic features. This is common to be seen
within the indie genre. The simplicity of the cover,
aims the focus at the artist’s vintage style. This
shown through her clothes, hair and makeup.
Continuity is seen throughout the artist’s
promotional media texts, with her iconic wavy hair,
nude lipstick and pout. These features make her
recognizable to her audience and is the norm with
the genre.
There is continuity with the colour
scheme throughout the digipak, creating
a style and making it recognizable, to
audiences. The font used for the artist
and album’s names is simple, which
adds to the vintage style. Same font is
used for the track listing and various
other features. This is continuity and
shows visual style.
The back cover does not follow the colour scheme to the rest of the digipak. This is
because bright bold colours are used to display the tracks on the album. The red
and white colour scheme on the track listing panel, could suggest powerful
emotions as is it much more bright than the rest of the panels. This connotation
could link back to the actual album, meaning that the album songs are emotional.
The inside of the digipak keeps the same theme as the rest of
the digipak, except the track listing. Using the same styled
images and colours creates continuity. Again, using simplistic
colours and backgrounds to draw attention to the main image,
which is in this case, the artist. The audience pays attention to
the facial expression on Lana’s face, which is shown to be
quite serious. This could represent how she takes her music
quite serious and how the album could be powerful and
meaningful. The close up shows Goodwin’s voyeuristic theory
where the audience can have an insight into the artist’s life.
The digipak contains lyrics to each track. This is a convention
of digipaks as it allows audiences to join in with the song and
sing along to the lyrics. The font used is the same style as
type writer. This is shows that the digipak is vintage and retro
style. This follows the style of the rest of the digipak. The
worn out background of the lyric book also adds to the
vintage look.

6. ‘Trilogy’
The digipak has a simple colour
scheme that it follows throughout.
The black and white colours could be
a representation of the style of music
the artist makes. The black
background signifies how his music
is dark. This is the style of the
digipak, which is linking with the
actual music.
On the digipak front cover, you
are able to see the artist as the
main image. He has no facial
expressions, which shoes that
he is . This contributes to the
dark style of the digipak and
displays continuity.
The audience is notified that the
album is unsuitable for children
without parent’s permission.
This is because the album
contains some rude and
inappropriate lyrics. This is
shown by the parental advisory
sign at the bottom on the
digipak cover.
The main feature conventions
of a digipak is shown on The
Weeknd’s Trilogy digipak. The
panels include a barcode,
logo, rights, record label and
credits. These are the
conventions I would also have
to include when making my
digipak.
The
Weeknd