Media coursework print productions case study 2 (autosaved)

Media coursework Print productions case study 2

Twenty one pilots are an American band first starting in 2009 and originating from Ohio. There are 2 members of the band, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun who each play an instrument such as the keyboard and the drums as well as being the vocalists in their songs.

Their first album which was self-released was titled ‘TWENTY ONE PILOTS’ which was then followed by another self-released album titled ‘Regional at Best’. Gradually, the band were then singed by the record company ‘Fuelled by Ramen’ in 2012 which led to them releasing their official debut Album ‘Vessel’ and most recent album ‘Blurry-face’ which features tracks such as ‘Lane Boy’, ‘Stressed out’ and ‘Ride’ which were all on the UK charts for a number of weeks.

Their album ‘Blurry-face’ debuted on the 17th of May 2015 and comes under multiple genres such as ‘Hip Hop, Rock, pop, electropop and alternative dance’.

So far, the band has sold over 1 million copies of ‘Blurry-face’ just in the United States which also contains the Billboard top 5 singles out of 100. Their single ‘Stressed out’ reached number 2 on the American charts and their following single ‘ride’ reached 5 th position on the charts. As of march 2016 the band had sold 916,000 albums world-wide but this has probably increased immensely since then.

Twenty One pilots album ‘Blurryface’ was released in 201, making it 2 years old and perhaps not their most recent work and not a true representation of the band’s music. It is their second studio album which is released under a recording label. The album was released 2 days earlier due to popular demand.

Twenty one pilots album cover for ‘Blurryface’ is of a minimalist style and features none of the members of the duo. The main colours of the album cover are red, black and white and this is a recurring motif within the artist’s work including their music videos. In which you can view one of the members wearing a red hat or having red eye makeup, similar to warrior makeup. This could symbol how they feel about the music industry and that they are ready to fight for their position and determined to make it in the industry.

As can be seen by the image above the motif that the band has developed is what most people will associate them with, if asked.

The 9 circles are the focus of the album cover and as shown above are all of different patterns which may not necessarily mean anything but they could to the band. As the different patterns don’t have a meaning, as far as the audience know, they could be a stylistic choice

made by the band to represent them and make them unique and instantaneously recognizable by their fans.

Their album cover for ‘Blurryface’ is simplistic therefore catching the attention of their fans whilst still being low-key and attempting to be something different than what is already out there in the mainstream chart. Their album cover design is different to what can be seen in the mainstream media/charts such as the examples below.

The images above show how the Twenty One Pilots album cover is very different to the ones that were released in the same year.

Although some of them have similar caricatures to the Twenty One Pilots such as not being very realistic and almost similar to a drawing.

But the colour schemes that each of the album covers use are very different such as the Halsey album which use quite bright colours such as pink and blue, although the colours are fairly low key this can be seen because of them being almost pastel-like colours.

The text that is featured on the ‘Blurryface’ album is only the necessities; this reinforces the fact that the album cover is minimalist. The album title ‘Blurryface’ is in extremely small sized font and has a line going through it. This is not the first thing that is noticed on the album cover as it is so minimal even though it is in a contrasting colour of white. This is similar to the band title as although the band title is in a bigger font it is also in the contrasting colour of white but has a line connecting the 2 ‘o’s. This could be to show unity between the two members or to show unity between the band and the fans. Although the font is bigger for the band name, the 9 circles which are centered engulf the album cover and are made to be the main focus of it. Both the album title and the band name are overshadowed by the 9 circles which the band could have done for a reason which could be that they want their fans to focus on the concept of Blurryface which they hint that it will be a recurring theme.