2. TEENAGE DREAM: KATY PERRY
Teenage Dream is Katy Perry’s third studio album and it was released on August
24th 2010.
This album was debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.
It sold 192,000 copies in the first week.
It was later certified two times platinum by the RIAA, selling more than 2.6 million
copies in the United States alone.
It has also sold more than 6 million copies worldwide.
Teenage Dream earned Katy Perry seven Grammy Award nominations
including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and she also won International
Album of the Year at the Juno Awards in 2011.
Teenage Dream is the second album in history to have five number ones from
one album, she was the first female to achieve this and this album was the third
album in history to produce eight top five hits.
3. DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
Teenage Dream is a pop-rock album and the colours that are on the digipak
are bright and colourful, which represents the pop side of the album.
The pictures that are on the album link in well with the title “Teenage Dream” as
there are pink clouds which you would associate with dreams and cotton
candy, which is very sweet, innocent and childlike.
The contrast of the bright, vivid colours and the black hair and eye make-up are
shown to represent the two genres that are associated with the album.
It is clear to see that the target audience for this album is teenage girls as the
title includes the word “teenage” and it is covered in pink items which is the
most popular colour for girls.
This digipak comes with two CDs and an inside booklet.
4. FRONT COVER
The front cover of this album contains lots of “pop” conventions, such as the main colour
on the album being pink and purple, and very little “rock” conventions, therefore the first
thought from the audience would be that it is just a pop album. However, the songs on the
album encourages the “rock” part of the rock-pop genre to come out.
A typical convention of a pop-rock album would be that it shows the artist on it and they
are the main focus. This album does this perfectly as Katy is placed in the middle of the
album allowing our eyes to immediately draw towards her.
The audience that this album is trying to target is clearly teenage girls and they do this by
making it a brightly coloured album with very feminine effects such as swirly writing.
However, there is a hint of the target audience being teenage boys as Katy is lying naked
on the clouds which would attract teenage boys as she is a sex symbol and so it
immediately grabs their attention. This album gives off the impression that the songs
featured on it are going to be happy and fun; this is done by making the colours of the
album very girly which is a pop convention.
The effect of the writing where it has sweets inside it gives you the impression that the songs
are very sweet but the fact that it is drooping down gives it a rocky kind of feel as it’s being
drained. So this album gives the impression of both genres.
5. BACK COVER
The theme of the pink clouds run through to the back of the CD.
The title of the songs are named and they are put in categorical order.
The colour of the writing is red which allows it to stand out and it contributes to the pop
genre as it’s bright and colourful.
The “O” in the writing is replaced with sweets which also gives the album a “pop” feel as
sweets are associated with fun and happy times which links with pop songs.
The list of the songs on the bonus CD is in blue writing which allows it to stand out from
everything on the back. Blue isn’t a colour that is associated with “pop” songs but it is
associated with pop-rock songs as it’s a bold colour; so this is a typical convention of a
pop-rock album.
The production team are mentioned on the back of the album which is a must for all
genres of music as you have to give them credit for helping produce the album.
The links to Katy Perry’s website, Myspace and the management companies website are
placed in the bottom corner of the album so that the buyer can access more information
about the album or the artist if they wish to.
6. CD DISK
The first CD disk is supposed to represent a doughnut with sprinkles which gives
off the impression that it is a pop album as it is colourful and bright which are
conventions of that genre.
The second CD disk is supposed to represent a sweet which is also a pop
convention as it is brightly coloured.
The target audience for this album is teenage girls and we can see this by the
way that the CD disks are designed as they would attract girls more than boys
because they are bright and girly.
Katy Perry has a distinctive style which incorporates sweets and candy and she
uses this advantage when designing her album so that people would be able
to tell who the artist is just by looking at it.
Interestingly, Katy has decided not to put her name on the CD disks like most
artists would, this tells us that she is such a big star that she doesn’t need to
place her name on every product of hers in order for people to know its to do
with her.
7. INSIDE BOOKLET
As I have previously mentioned, Katy has a very distinctive style and it is mainly
based around sweets and candy.
The inside booklet allows her to show off this uniqueness of her as she is
surrounded by sweets and cakes.
The candy theme targets young teenage girls to the album as they’re bright
and represent happy, playful times.
Katy is the main focus of this inside booklet which is a typical convention of a
pop-rock digipak as it attracts the audience directly to it as they’re able to
recognise who the artist is straightaway.
Katy is wearing a princess crown and is sitting on a very unique thrown; this
shows the power and authority that she has over all of the other artists as she is
such a big star. The crown is made of sweets which adds to the candy theme
that Katy constantly promotes.
8. INSIDE THE ALBUM
The inside of the album shows the rock side of the pop-rock album.
The background is black which is a colour that is usually associated with rock as it is dark
and mysterious.
There are still elements of pop, the costume that Katy is wearing is bright and very girly
which represents the pop side of the album.
Katy is the main focus of the inside of her album; this allows her to make her mark on the
album and so that the audience would instantly recognise her. The fact that only Katy is on
the inside of the album is a typical convention of a pop-rock album, as you would always
see the artist on the front, back and inside cover of the album and this is what Katy has
done.
Katy is wearing a crown and a necklace made of sweets, this shows her authority and it
gives her power and it allows her to live up to her name the “pop princess”.
Katy’s costume isn’t too revealing which is a typical convention of a pop-rock artist.
However, if she was wearing revealing clothes then that would be a convention of a pop
artist as that’s the type of clothing that they would wear, especially as she is seen as an
icon towards her young audience.