This document discusses conventions of magazine articles, album digipaks, and music videos for R&B albums. For magazine articles, it notes conventions like including the artist, album, and release date. For digipaks, it discusses using close-up photos of the artist and bold text for the name. And for music videos, it outlines conventions like using colors to represent mood and having the artist dress conservatively for songs about relationships.

1. Q1 - In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
By Charlotte Baker

2. Conventions of a magazine article
The main conventions of a magazine article for a album are:
• Make the artist/band name clear.
• Make the album name clear.
• Make the release date of the album clear.
• Have the album cover picture on the article.
• Keep it simple, with small amounts of writing.
• The type face on the Digipak should match that which is on
the article.
• Use promotions such as rating scales and quotes from
critiques on what they think of the album.

3. Band’s name is clear
Picture from album is used as
the main picture so people will
recognise it when they see it in
shops.
Album name is clear
The date of release is
clear
This article on Florence and the Machine’s album Lungs is a great example of a conventional magazine
article. It clearly states the band name, album name, date of release and shows the album cover which
helps the audience to find it in the shops. However, it lacks any promotional qualities and could be seen
as too simple. The date of release is also quite small and may be hard to notice.

4. Artist’s name is clear
Album picture has been
used
My group and I feel that our magazine article
follows most of the conventions, however it is
missing the release date of the album which is a
vital part of the advert. It follows the convention
of being simple, however it is very colourful to
attract the reader’s attention.
Additional information has
been used to promote.
Album name is clear
A rating scale has been used
to help promote

5. Digipak conventions:
R&B albums usually display a close-up, airbrushed photo of the artist as the main focus of the song is
usually around them. Artists such as Rihanna often have a particular identity that they have created
as well as particular motifs they have had since the beginning of their career; this is always shown in
their album covers. For example, Rihanna is often changing her hair styles to create diversity and
different fashion styles, in the album cover ‘Loud’ which is shown above her red hair is shown to
frame a close-up of her face. Within the Digipak, on the inner panels, there is one large picture which
has been stretched over all three. The red roses blend in with Rihanna’s bright red hair which may
suggest that the album is telling us she is a rose herself. R&B digipaks are usually very simple, stating
the artist/band and the name of the album clearly. This makes it look more bold and helps the
audience to remember the front cover and the album’s name and it stands out to them.

6. Our digipak:
After researching the conventions of a R&B digipak, we decided to do an additional photo shoot
to get some more professional looking close-ups of our artist ‘Leksi.’ We used our favourite close
ups to put on the inside panels. By doing this we were starting to create a Digipak that was
conventional to our genre. In addition, we wanted to keep our front cover simple and with
inspiration from the Rihanna digipak we decided on just having our artist name ‘Leksi’ and the
name of the album ‘Love and War’ on it. As ‘Leksi’ has only just started in her career we made
motifs between the music video and the ancillary products. For example, in the music video we
used different colours as our background as well as a star background, a wall background and a
background made from four different colours which was inspired by the Marilyn Monroe picture
by Andy Warhol. These background have been used on our Digipak, such as the star background
behind the song names and the coloured lights behind the CD.

7. Conventions of R&B music videos:
Nowadays it is conventional for stereotypes to be broken within music videos. For
example, women are no longer seen as physically or intellectually inferior to men but
seen to be independent, strong and powerful. It is also conventional to use tones and
colours in the video to show the mood in which the song is trying to portray. For
example, our music video is about love but also about fighting so some parts are very
colourful to portray the happiness that the love brings, however some parts are in a
sepia or grey tone to show unhappiness about the fighting. Typically, women in the
R&B industry often have envious bodies and wear little clothing to show it off, however
in songs about break ups and love, women usually cover up their bodies with clothing
such as long fashionable dresses to show dominance. This is shown in Rihanna’s ‘Take a
Bow’ video. To follow this convention we have decided to keep our artist covered up
with a button up denim top, shorts, tights and boots as our song is about fighting and
love.
Our music video: http://youtu.be/ebAhZdi7X_U
Take a bow by Rihanna: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3UjJ4wKLkg