This document analyzes the conventions and themes found in CD covers, digipacks, and a poster for electronic dance music artists. It finds that CD covers commonly feature the artist's name, album title, and images that suggest themes of futurism and escapism through depictions of outer space. Digipacks similarly include key information but also track lists and barcode information. They often use consistent color schemes and computer-generated imagery fitting for electronic music. The analyzed poster catches viewers' eyes with large bright text announcing a new single against a dark background, mimicking rave lighting and intriguing people to listen. Common across formats are emphasis on the artist and futuristic themes reflecting the genre.

1. – DIGIPACK AND POSTER ANALYSIS
I have chosen several CD covers ,digipacks and an
advert from artists that share the same genre that I
have chosen for my A2 Media Music Video – Electronic
Dance Music

2. TYPICAL CONVENTIONS OF A CD COVER
 Artists name
 Album / single title
 Main image
 Age restrictions
 Use of a different colour for the band name
compared to the rest of the cover

3. CD COVERS
Dada Life LTJ Buckem Electronic Light Orchestra Pet Shop Boys
Each of these CD covers share common themes as they all seem to be out of this earth; either viewing
the earth from an outer perspective or futuristic elements such as the electronic dog-looking figure and
the spaceship on the ELO album cover.

4. ANALYSIS
This album cover is for the Speaker of the
House’s remix of Dada Life’s ‘One Last Night on
Earth – the song that I have chosen to do my
music video to. The original cover was of the
earth without the golden symbol surrounding it –
the symbol that the remix DJ has used to ‘place
his stamp’. This gives a significant symbolic
meaning that will be shared with the fans of the
EDM music.
The clear,
bold font
gives clear
titles and the
song title
conforms to
the image –
the earth.
This
recurring
theme
perhaps
suggests that
the music is
‘out of this
world’.
Both CD covers share a
similar colour theme – dark
blues of the universe and
the bright lights of stars.
This theme is simple yet
effective.
LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression Album cover
uses an image of the earth’s surface from a
space perspective – also suggesting an ‘out of
this world’ theme. The bright light may be a
star but could also be some kind of futuristic,
space bound object.
The writing on this album cover is simple and plain,
with the name of the album capitalised. This helps
for the main focus to be on the image of the planet
earth.
As both album
covers are in
outer space,
they give the
sense of
escapism. The
images could
be suggesting
that the music
also gives this
sense.

5. ANALYSIS
Electronic Light Orchestra’s album ‘Out of the
Blue’ also takes an outer space, futuristic
approach.
The Pet Shop Boy’s Album ‘Yes’ is a
very simplistic album cover. It uses
eleven bright colours to form the main
image: a tick, suggesting ‘Yes’.
The artist and album name are simple
in bold, black writing and are put
together to form a sentence: Yes, Pet
Shop Boys.
Their initials ‘ELO’ are illustrated in the
centre of the space ship and then
written in yellow font in the top right
corner.
Both album
covers use bright,
vibrant colours to
illustrate the band
and their music.
The variety of
colours stands out
as very bold,
perhaps
suggesting that
the music is bold
for it’s time as the
growth of
Electronic Music
was largely
influenced by
these artists.

6. TTYPICAL CONVENTIONS OF A DIGIPACK
 Name of artist
 Name of album/single
 Pictures of artist
 Artist information - Vocalist, Guitarist etc.
 Track list
 Bar code
 Record label
 Copyright
 Consistent house style - font, colours etc.
 Spine - featuring artist + album/single name.

7. ANALYSIS
Daft Punk’s digipacks are significant in their electronic themes where they have used computer made
images. The images look as though they are computer codes and functions, which is fitting as Daft
Punk’s EDM is essentially based on computer functions to produce the sound as Daft Punk DJs.
Digipack number 1 uses three main colours: black, purple and yellow. The song list and small print is
in white to make it clear and easy to read and the bright yellow CD stands out against the black to
emphasise that it is the most important aspect.
Digipack number 1, however, uses all of the colours of the rainbow consistently through the imagery,
the song list and the length in time of each song. Although it does not make it very easy for the
viewer to read, it does massively stand out to the eye and perhaps suggests that there is a variety of
hits in this album that need to be listened to.
1 2

8. ANALYSIS
Similar to the CD covers analysed
previously, this main image also appears
to be in space – also connoting a sense of
escapism that the music within the album
goes hand in hand with.
The Nero digipack consistently uses
dark colours to conform to the EDM
genre.
The artists
feature in the
distance.
Special effects are used to create
the main image on the CD cover.
This could be to appeal to the
younger target audience that this
music is aimed at.
The name of the artist is made
significantly larger than the rest of
the text in a unique font to
emphasise the importance of the
artist.
The most salient feature of this digipack is the font used.
The bright orange colour used stands out against the
black brick background on the back cover and the font
style is very unique and original. This gives the band their
own ‘stamp’ that the consumer is unlikely to forget.
The main image appears
to be a sort of plane,
perhaps once again
returning to the theme of
outer space or futurism.
The title ‘The Prodigy’ is
significant as this font
type is used consistently
throughout all of the
Prodigy’s albums etc.

9. POSTER ANALYSIS
This is a poster for Deadmau5’s new single
“Right this Second”. We are given this
information instantly in large font in an
electric blue colour. This colour contrasts
against the black background – perhaps
replicating the bright, strobe lights that
would be found during raves or festivals
against the dark of a venue or the night.
The text is clear, but minimal, catching the
eye of the viewer and causing for them to
feel intrigued about the song and will
therefore listen to it.
The image/logo of a mouse-like figure
dressed in a suit is used universally by
Deadmau5 and therefore helps for viewers
to identify the artist without even having to
read the text.