Textual Analysis of CD 1 Chase & Status

7/30/2019 Textual Analysis of CD 1 Chase & Status

1/5

Textual Analysis Of CD

Ancillary task 1


2/5

Clearly we can see how theprimary image on the albums

front cover is of a dog. Distinctly, this does not look like aparticularly friendly dog, there is a clear sense of aggression

permeating from its facial expressions. This is a close up,

arguably even, an extreme close up of the dog for the

purpose of showing the facial expressions that depict hostility.

Very little of the background image is in fact visible. One may

argue that an image of this sort is highly conventional to the

genre, drum & bass, because it possesses this notion of

hostility and danger, danger being a key aspect to the & Drum

& Bass culture.

The colour scheme of the album cover is very interesting, as

there is a clear conjunction of colour and non-colour. The

primary image is in black and white, with the text in bright

yellow. How this is conventional to the genre of drum and

bass is this whole idea of juxtapositions. Bright and dark.

Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous colour, and the use of it

one may argue suggests a lack of safety, it seeks to indicatesome kind of warning. The representation of this colour is

conventional to the genre, this notion of spontaneity in the

music. The black and white image of the dog is arguably

perceive after we see the writing, because of the lack of

saturation. Our eyes are initially drawn the the yellow writing

Chas and Status, represented perhaps as acting as a bright

warning, and the we subsequently see the aggressive looking

dog behind, as if the yellow had warned us in advance.

Analyzing the typography: we can see, how, the artist's name is

of a far greater font than the album name. This is quite

conventional to the genre; many of the drum and bass albums

I am aware of tend to have the artists' name larger than the

album title. What, however, subverts for being conventional to

the genre is the size of the font. Most albums tend to have the

primary image as the focal point, where here the typography

and its size seems to be.

The fontresembles that of Microsoft words IMPACT.The

font appears to be relatively ridged in appearance, thick letters,

and is therefore, arguably a representation of masculinity,

perhaps the masculinity exerted by the dog. It is conventional

to the drum and bass albums to use very hard, sharp, thick

fonts as they are the more masculine of the fonts. The album

designs would skew away from such fonts as Apple chancery &

Lucida handwriting as they are far too fluid and, somewhatweak. The genre is all about the depiction of strength, hence

the font on this album cover.

Front Cover:


3/5

The final thing that is in need of analysis, from the album cover, is thepuff. Yellow

writing above a black long, rectangular box- a design that insure we do not miss what i

has to say. It is to the left hand corner, which ensure it does not obstruct more of the

primary image that is already covered to a certain extent by the Artist's name. Above

the parental advisory notice there are the name of Chase and Statuss most

commercially renounced songs, and through doing this, they attract the audience.

Arguably, puffs are not conventional to drum and bass genres. Of the many I have

looked upon and the three I have textually analyzed, the alluring album artwork is whatakes complete prominence, over everything else, there are rarely ever puffs.

One interpretation towards why chase and status used puffs is because, although they

are still of the drum & bass genre, they are far less underground than they used to be;

in fact, they are one of the most famed drum and bass duo at this moment in time.

Two Inside Panes:

It is evident that the album designer wanted to keep a

pronounced revolving colour scheme through ever pane

of the album. The black and yellow remains. This is an

element that is highly conventional to the drum & bass

album designs, a colour scheme that continues right through

to each pane of the CD. This album exemplifies this to the

fullest with its use of block colours. A plain block yellow CD

background, where yellow is only visible, with a

predominantly black CD. Upon the CD there is yellow

writing which projects the relatively small typography

forward to the audience.


4/5

In stark comparison to the many drum &

bass albums I have looked upon and deeply

analyzed, it appears that this whole album

design is very simplistic. There is no

intensely perplexing artwork such as that of

the Pendulum albums. But what it lacks in

meticulously artistic drawings it makes up in

in shire boldness. The simplicity is perhaps

there to purposely differ from what is

considered to be normal for drum and bass

albums.

The exact same image as the image on the

front cover. Arguably very simplistic, but,

once again reinforces this notion of

aggression- reflected in the aggressive,

blistering sounds Drum & Bass music

provides.

Back pane:

The barcode and institutional information is

situated in the top right hand corner. This isinteresting, as although moving the

information and barcode to that corner is not

conventional to the genre, the notion of

differing from the norm is conventional to

Drum & Bass. Living by no-bodys rules,

rebelling against institutions; Drum & Bass

exemplifies all these ideologies.


5/5

The black & yellow colour scheme

remains. Clearly the designer of the CD

wanted a patent colour scheme, as now

we can see it is there on each CD pane.

In summery, the analysis of this album in

particular was crucial. It has provided me

with the juxtaposition: A far more

simplistic Drum & Bass album design in

stark contrast with the far more elaborate

designs of the other two albums

analyzed. Broadly defined however, I can

understand far more greatly now how a

simplistic idea can be just as bold and

striking as the most intricately, hand

drawn, complex album graffiti forexample.

Track listing in the bold yellow that has been so prominent in the panes prior

to this one. Font remains as Impact. In terms of layout, conventional to

CD album designs, they are towards the left hand side of the back pane.

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Textual Analysis of CD 1 Chase & Status