Digipak analysis

 

 

 

A bit of background:

Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tré Cool and guitarist and backing vocalist Jason White, who became a full member after playing in the band as a session and touring guitarist for 13 years.
Green Day was originally part of the punk scene at the DIY 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases were from the independent record label Lookout! Records. In 1994, its major label début Dookie released through Reprise Records became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands Sublime, Bad Religion, The Offspring and Rancid, with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States.

Reprise Records was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra.One of the label's founding principles under Sinatra's leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom, and at some point complete ownership of their work; including publishing rights. This is the reason why recordings of early Reprise artists (Dean Martin, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, etc.) are (in most cases) currently distributed through other labels. In Martin's case, his Reprise recordings were out of print for nearly 20 years before a deal was struck with Capitol Records.
Other artists signed to this record company:

• Michael Bublé
• Depeche Mode
•  Stevie Nicks
• Never Shout Never
• Oasis

...and many more.

Reprise Records represent a variety of music genres, they do not seem to have a specific type, however there are definitely a lot of punk rock artists under their control.

Green Day is a very famous band, they have their own site and have even created a game:

http://www.greenday.com/

http://www.rockband.com/games/greenday

Back to the digipak:

 

This is a cardboard packaging. It has 3 panels: two for the CD and one for further information or something about the band, it is not clear from this photo. The layout looks quite traditional; there seem to be a booklet which contains 2 pages. Most digipaks have this layout- the CD on one side and a little booklet on the other. In my opinion it is too predictable and the designers should make more usage of the creative opportunities this type of art offers.

The back and front cover are not very different, they both follow the pattern of the colour red and contain a picture of a concert- the front is just the artist on the stage (his siluete) and the back is the crowd-from the artist's point of view- and a line of pictures of the band members on the stage. Using pictures from concerts is very common among rock bands, because everything looks more natural and in the heat of the moment, which gives the consumers of this digipak the feeling that when perceiving it they are going to gain the same excitement and emotions that the crowd got on the concert. The two covers have a fresh and exciting look, not too cheesy or dark, keeping the band's cheerful image and still indicating that the genre is rock, through the colour scheme and the concert images. The font has a very simple but solid look, it is white and thick, which makes it stand out on the red background. It is rotated a bit, creating the same gradient as the one of, what appears to be, a dancing person at the background. All this, combined with the circles around that person, in different shades of red, gives a vibrant look to the cover, making it almost look like it is actually moving.

The CD has 19 tracks, the DVD contains the performance of the songs on live concert. Some of the songs are very popular and my personal favourites: American idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Boulevard of Brocken Dreams, Minority and Wake Me Up When September Ends. Some of the names of the songs sound quite lonely, pessimistic or rebellious: American Idiot, Boulevard of Brocken Dreams and Minority, which fits perfectly in the punk/rock genre. There is nothing specific about the language used, there are no taboo words or anything romantic, it's mostly random.
Other things we see on the back cover are the logos of the record label and other sponsors or companies being a part of the creation of the CD. Then at the bottom, next to the labels we see te 2 main sites for contact- that band's and the record company. At the top there is a list of people who are given credit for directing and producing the DVD. Last thing- we see the barcode. The only details on the front cover are the parental advisory and the DVD logo.

The inside of the DVD contains the 2 CD panels and the little booklet. The background is again red and presents shots of the band members playing as if at a concert. The combination of black and red creates the sense of comfort and romance, but also looks vibrant and engaging. The inside of the booklet is only text and no photos. The shrift is small and unreadable at this point, but the thing that drabs the eye is the ''bullet hole'' on one of the booklet's pages, which links directly to the name of the album ''Bullet in a Bible''. This also brings out the question if with this image they are referring to their album as the bible? That

either means that they are a religious or the complete opposite; which would be typical for a rock band.

In this case the CDs are very unusual, because they do not follow the theme of the rest of the digipak. One of them is black and white with red writing (darker red) and the other one is green and yellow, which is completely random. It is true that both of them have the pictures of the artists at the front. The black and white one is actually the clearest of them all and is very important because that way the audience can see their faces and recognise them. The other one is taken on the stage again and just one artist is shown in a mid-shot and a low angle, but the projectors more or less hide his face, creating that gloomy, moody light and giving a sense of the atmosphere at the concert.