A-Level media studies coursework

1. Halsey-
Badlands
Background information
Halsey is an American
singer and songwriter, of
which Badlands was her
first studio album debut.
This album was released
on 28th August 2015 by
Astrelworks records and
within the first week,
97,000 copies were sold
and it reached 2 on the US
Billboard 200 chart.

2. This album is clearly within the indie-pop genre, we can tell the genre as the album
cover is kept looking rather simplistic, in the terms that they have stuck to the same
colour theme: pink, blue and white. However, whilst simplistic, these colours are
bold and light- which give positive connotations. Although, the title of the album
connotes to us that the 'Badlands' is her mind, due to the font being written boldly
on the top of her head.
Similarly to why the artist is positioned in the middle of the album. Which also
explains why the front cover is empty- its representing her mind. This metaphor
allows the audience to synthetically personalise with the artist and understand the
meanings behind the album. Additionally, the bold font allows the name of the
album and artist to stand out. However, the colour of the font is a faded white and
so it fades into the picture of the artist, which draws more attention to Halsey.
The album also has a rugged/distressed look to it around the edges of the album,
which follow conventions of the indie-pop genre, where it is a little more edgy
than general pop.

3. The inside cover features another picture of
the front, so they recognise the album from
the inside too. The colours are once again blue,
pink, white/grey and brown. Meaning the
theme has stuck throughout the digipak-
sticking to the generic conventions.
The disk matches the artists outfit that she is
wearing in the front picture, showing that the
album is her own and she relates to it.
It also looks like it has a description of the album
or a message from the artist included in the inside,
whereby, Halsey is reaching out to her audience.

4. The back cover of this album
follows the same theme as the
front cover, whereby, the same
colours, blue, white and brown
are used. This is so you can tell
what album it is as they link.
The font used is very basic,
similar to the font on the front
cover. The basic font makes it
easier to read for the audience,
and it is all written boldly in
capital letters, so although it is
basic- it will catch the audiences'
eyes.
The bottom of the album
includes information about the
record label, including their
logo. It mentions the producers
of the album, copyright laws
and any other important
information. These are always
seen on the back of album
covers.
The image on the back cover also
has a distressed look to it, where
it looks like it has been hand-cut.
Which the front cover also has
the same distressed/rugged look
to it- so once again the album
follows the same theme closely.
A barcode is also featured at the
bottom of the cover, which is
conventionally used in every
album cover so they can sell in
stores.

5. Reflection
Through analysing this
digipak I learnt many
different conventional
techniques that I can
embed into my own
digipak. I learnt that to
make a digipak visually
pleasing for the audience
you have to stick to the
same sort of theme, and
that would contribute to
making it more successful.