Research - Genre

History

2002
Garage dies. Grime is born

An east London garage super-crew, Pay As U Go Cartel, split up in the aftermath of their single ‘Champagne Dance’ reaching the Top 20. Two of their producers, Geeneus and Slimzee, concentrate on their pirate radio station, Rinse FM. Meanwhile, another member, Wiley, heads off to tinker with beats and ends up inventing grime with an instrumental track called ‘Eskimo’.

2003
No one knows what to call grime

Some people are calling it ‘Eski-beat’ (mainly Wiley, tbf), some people are calling it ‘sub-low’. Others are calling it ‘grime’. Channel 4 even runs a late-night short documentary interviewing MCs to find out its name. Just in case all this wasn’t confusing enough, Wiley later releases a single called ‘Wot Do U Call It?’

2003
Grime gets its own version of MTV

It’s not just the songs that grime fans can’t get enough of: it’s also the low-budget videos. Cue satellite music TV station Channel U, which quickly becomes one of the best places to discover new grime music.

2004
Grime gets its ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (and clubs try to ban it)

Punk? Pfft. By 2004, grime has its own tear-the-club-up anthem in the form of Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Forward Riddim’, better known as ‘Pow!’. Not only is it the first grime single to break the UK Top 20, but it makes headlines after the moshpits it provokes see club owners put up signs to DJs saying: ‘Do not play “Pow!”’

2006
David Cameron has a beef with Lethal Bizzle

By now, grime is such a vibrant social movement that it’s even reached the ears of the leader of the Tory party (still a few years off being elected prime minister). He criticises Tim Westwood for playing lyrics with violent content, so the Guardian gives Lethal Bizzle a column entitled ‘David Cameron Is a Donut.’ Astonishingly, Cameron shoots back with a whole article in the Mail on Sunday called ‘You’re Talking Rubbish, Lethal Bizzle’.

2014
Skepta throws his Gucci clobber in the bin, reinvents grime and wins a Mobo

Skepta puts out a big musical ‘fuck you’ to the mainstream, with ‘That’s Not Me’ , in which he announces that he’s done with the bling lifestyle. Its deliberately low-budget video (it cost just 80 quid) duly wins a Mobo. ‘Grime,’ he seems to be saying, ‘is now for the masses!’

2015
Kanye sneaks grime’s finest on to live TV

When Kanye West performs ‘All Day’ at the Brits, he unexpectedly brings a 40-person tracksuited mafia of London grime artists on to the stage. Is he exploiting grime? Is he boosting its profile? Either way, it shows that the genre has some serious fans across the Pond.

2016
Drake signs to Boy Better Know

Back in the day, grime artists tried desperately to get cred by being acknowledged by North American artists. When, in February, Drake instagrams ‘the first Canadian signed to BBK’, the internet goes mental. ‘Finally!’ they squeal, ‘they’ve come to us for credibility. The roles are reversed!’ Grime’s journey to global mega-ness is complete.    

Stormzy

Fast-rising London Grime artist, with Ghanaian heritage, Stormzy launched his career clashing at youth clubs around his home town of Croydon where his performances evolved from Grime-only music that showed a love of artists like Skepta and Wiley, to more Rap oriented material that reflected Stormzy’s growing appreciation of artists like Drake, with the artist also citing the likes of Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill as influences on his sound.

Examples of Stormzy music; 'Where do you know me from' 'Shut up' Lethal Bizzle feat Stormzy Lethal Bizzle 'Black the ripper'

'Skepta'

Chip feat 67

Research - Digipak

What is a Digipak? 

A type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. It is a marketing tool intended to offer the buyer an incentive for purchasing the hard copy from a high street or online retailer than downloading/streaming the music. The incentive is basically extras added to the CD in addition to the actual disk and its case with front and back covers. 

What is the layout of a Digipak? 

6 Panel Digipak 

Advantages

- The fact that there is multiple panels means that the digipak can be 'filled' with more extra content that can encourage more fans to buy the product, maybe also people that has just started to listen to the band. 

- There can be more exclusive artwork within the digipak which helps to enhance the experience for the fans that buy the product. 

Disadvantages

- The 'extra' panels can make this digipak quite thick, in a sense that if fans wanted to place these on a shelf with other digipaks/CD's these types of digipaks would take up quite a lot of shelf space. 

         

4 Panel Digipak 

Advantages

- The fact that it is 4 panels shows that it can be compact - which appeals to fans that are avid collectors of CD's as they can help to fit on people's shelves or in a place where they keep their CD collection. 

Disadvantages 

- Due to the fact that this is only four panels this limits the amount of content that can be placed within the digipak is limited - which doesn't really encourage fans to buy this as they aren't really getting their value for money - there wouldn't be any point so they instead buy either the digital download copy or stream it.  

Digipaks include:

- A Front Cover 
- A Back Cover 
- A Spine 
- At least four other panels within the Digipak itself 

The Additional will comprise of some or all of these things: 

- Membership Postcard/Flier 
- Lyric Section 
- Disk Impression 
- Band Info Section/Booklet 
- Free Image/Poster/Set of Postcards 

Retailers 

HMV (Online/High-Street Retailer)

Amazon (Online Retailer)

Examples of Digipaks

Digipak Analysis: Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang - 36 Chambers (1993) 

Research - Digipak

Research - Digipak

1. Element of Real Digipaks

Front Cover:

Back Cover:

Internal Panels:

Spine:

2. Retailers: High street and Online

In terms of High Street and Online sales, streaming is the cheapest and perhaps currently the most widely used method of consumption due to the amount of streaming websites available and the efficiency of them;sites such as Spotify are hugely popular with people of the younger demographic.

In recent months, Vinyl Records are making a comeback as they are seen as trendy thus distributors can make these fairly expensive as they are aesthetically pleasing and once in a lifetime pieces. 

Research - Digipak

What is a DIGIPAK?

It is a marketing tool intended to offer the buyer an incentive for purchasing the hard copy from a high street or online retailer rather than downloading/streaming the music. It is particularly important as sales of albums have dwindled as buyers often prefer to download their favourite tracks rather than pay out for the full album. 

Elements of real Digipaks:

Front Cover                                                                                              

• Basic
• Simplistic
• Muted colours 
• Album cover art
• Eye-catching

Back Cover       

• Tracklist
• Name of record label
• Barcode
• Album artwork
• Artist/ album name

Spine

• Album name
• Band name 

Internal Panels

• Booklet
• Name of band 
• Names of band members and instruments played
• List of songs on album
• Additional artwork
• Artist information
• Song lyrics
• Personal messages

Retailers

In the first half of 2015, CD album sales in the UK fell 5.7% from 22.68m to 21.38m. In the same period, sales of digital albums dropped 6.6% to 13.86m.

Close Textual Analysis of DIGIPAK

Chris Brown - Fame

• The main image is of Chris Brown himself in a painting effect. Perhaps, this could be a representation of his artistic life and interests. the colour effect is multi-coloured which also gives an artistic tone to the album cover. His facial expression is serious as he glares into the camera. This can be inferred as the connection he wants to build with his fans and the seriousness that his music within contains. I may be that the album is passionate about his feelings towards his success and his fans therefore he undertakes a rather serious tone to guide his audience with the emotions they should withhold whilst listening to his music in order to connect with it. 
• The background is seen to be quite busy containing images of himself and possibly his views. It includes images such as children and some of his artwork that he has produced himself. Therefore, I would depict that the background is an illustration of his background information that has made who he is. The background also features pictures of a younger self, either side of his current picture which could be an attempt to portray how far he has come since his younger days.
• The multi-colours used overlapping the black and white images of himself could be a representation of the old him going through a change due to his fame and him seeing a new oath of his life which is colourful and positive. 
• There is a parental advisory sticker. This gives a warning to whoever buys this DIGIPAK that there may be language and intent that could cause offence. Always seen in the bottom right hand corner on the front. 
• The font of the word FAME is written in a thriller/horror font which contrasts with the rest of the DIGIPAK, full of bright and vibrant colours. 
• The back cover features a list of all the songs that are on the album and also includes some institutional information. 

Research - Digipak

Digipak
1.Initial research into real digipaks
Digipak

The main purpose of a digipak for a band is that it promotes an album and shows everyone the content that is on the album. The digipak should be eye catching too, the more eye-catching it is, the more people will see it and potentially buy it. the digipak should be something that links with the band or artist, whether its to do with one of their songs or a symbol that they may have to represent them. The digipak should use pictures and messages to entice people to them and make people realise is that specific band. Another purpose of a digipak is to only attract their fans but to appeal to a wider audience so they become more know and therefore sell more. Inside of the digipak should include additional advertisements, booklets and posters about that band so the fans will appreciate this more.


1. Front- band image and band name as well as the title of the album
2. Back cover- additional images and required legal information such as barcode
3. Spine- producers name, logos
4. Internal panels- addition information such as summery about the band or images of the process
2. Research into retailers, both high street and online.

Global revenue from music downloads and subscriptions has overtaken sales of physical formats for the first time. In 2014, digital revenue grew nearly 7 percent to $6.85 billion, while physical sales — of which CDs make up the vast majority — fell 8 percent to $6.82 billion. These figures, from a report from the international federation of the phonographic industry 



(IFPI), also reflect the growing popularity of digital music streaming, with revenue from services like Spotify growing 40 percent to $1.57 billion.
Shops such as whsmith still stock a range of CD’s both online and in store online the CD’s are divided into a range of different categories which are displayed on a left hand side panel in alphabetical order.
 
 
3. Research digipak nets
This is a basic net of what our digipak could look like. When opened up the disc would be placed in the center while other information such as tour dates, band profile and lyrics can be found supported with various images of the band and our video production.

 
 
 
 
 
 






















4. Close textual analysis of digipak of own choice.

Above is an example of a digipak that features all the different aspects including the front, back, spine and a pull out poster because i did't find this DIGIPAK very exiting i decided to do Rhianna album 'Loud' which is show cased below.