Digipak and poster research

This is the digipak for Lady Gaga's album 'The Fame', the typography is  a clear, block letter font, this was chosen to emphasis the image of the artist. The red on black background contrasts well and makes the artists name very clear. This has connotations relating to the artists star persona, through the rule of thirds we can identify that the artist is located in the centre of the frame; this is continued as we look at the other frames of the digipak, there are 8 frames of which 7 include the artist, this connotes the importance of artist. Looking at the mise en scene, through costume, there are links to ideas relating to female empowerment, Lady Gaga looks in control of her image as she stares out from the page in one of the images at the viewer. However the costumes, the latex suit,  and stances, that emphasis and exaggerate the female form, are ones that seemingly invite the male gaze. This creates a tension between inviting the gaze and being made aware of looking. The repeated use of the artist's image, a variety of shots ranging from closeups to long shots, and the spacing, ensures that Lady Gaga's image is always in view. In all the pictures there is only her in the picture with a mainly dark backdrops but with the shots of vibrant red, purple and blue. The colours do not overpower the artist's image which is symbolic of the Lady Gaga image where she is always displayed 'centre stage'. This digipak represents the genre, one way this is achieved is by using one of the conventions of popular music digipaks. The use of colour schemes that include prime colours, grab the attention of the audience, which is one of the main points of digipaks. Another way in which the pop genre is represented is through the repeated and multiple image use, this is a convention in similar pop music digipaks, for example the digipak for Rihanna's album 'Loud'.

Rihanna's digipak is similar to Lady Gaga's 'The Fame'. There is a clear use of the primary colour red, which has connotations of sex, and also almost all frames are predominantly filled with the artist. Though the difference is that Rihanna's has a conceptual feel due to the disc and three sections of the digipak including roses, which have connotations of romantic love, the use of red in Lady Gaga's digipak have no such connotations. Through the use of close ups and the rule of thirds we see the importance of artist, which also has links to the mise en scene, The costume through use of the red incorporated with lipstick and hair dye links Rihanna to the red roses and gives the digipak a more edgy sexual feel, counteracting the 'romance' of the roses. The close up and performance, seen in the facial expression, makes the audience almost feel an emotional connection to the artist, this has connotations to the genre of R&B, which conventionally aims to work on achieving an emotional response.