Week 4 Task: Website and marketing analysis

http://www.katyperry.com/

The first thing when we see on Katy Perry's website is a banner with artwork from her album Teenage Dream, which features on the front cover of the CD. Katy Perry's name and the album title is in a candy font, which relates to the first single from the album California Girls which was inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the game Candy Land. The fun theme runs through the site, with pink and blue colours.

BRAND IDENTITY & TARGET AUDIENCE: Katy's image is very sexualised through all her work, appealing to both men and women as she is a female singer. She markets to a worldwide audience as she is a mainstream popstar, who frequently appears in the charts and on radio. As we are in the UK, the wesbite automatically loads in a British format, but there are other options available for lots of other countries, allowing a wide audience to buy into Katy and her music.

APPEAL TO AUDIENCE: The website works in synergy with other sites like Facebook, YouTube,  Twitter etc which shows the technological convergence which allows the site to broadcast to many people. Katy has a live twitter feed which shows her tweets and other people that have mentioned her. Most celebrities use Twitter now, which allows fans to follow their every move and even interact with them.

The website is very fan based, with links to watch parodies that fans have made. This benefits the fans and Katy, as both are working symbiotically as people can view fans interpretations of her work.

STRATEGIES TO BUY INTO ARTIST: There are many ways to buy into Katy Perry, the main one being to buy her latest album Teenage Dream, with 'available now' and 'available everywhere now,' repeated all over the place. 


The audience can buy ringtones, visit the store to buy merchandise, view tour dates and buy tickets for live performances. There are links to specific songs and some are from her EPs and previous album, which shows that the website is allowing the audience many options. Again, there is an appeal to an international audience with a UK and US store.

INSTITUTIONS: The record company behind the website and Katy's new album is capitol records, who are featured at the bottom of the page. Katy's website doesn't advertise for other institutions like clothes shops, which perhaps shows that she doesn't need the extra money from advertising as she is so successful or perhaps that she wants the fans to focus on her instead of other things. There are photos of the artist, videos, songs and many other things to appeal to the audience as they have visited the site for her and not anything else.

Week 2 Task: Album cover analysis

Jay-Z's last album, The Blueprint 3 was his eleventh and last in the Blueprint series. The album has a colour scheme of white and red, which makes it stand out from others. The front cover is a photo of painted instruments, not just modern ones such as the keyboard but older ones like gramophones. Jay-Z is a rapper, with hip hop influences but we can see in that the album has many influences, with keyboards and synthesisers and even jazz instruments like the saxophone. Intertextuality is key, as we are drawing from all genres of music. There are 3 red stripes on the front and back, branding the album which is key iconography. Anyone who knows Jay-Z will see the stripes and instantly think of this album. The core target audience for this album would be fans of hip hop and Jay-Z in general.

The instruments take up the majority of the cover, with the text providing as anchorage. and are in black text, with his name in bold as HE is what the fans are looking for. This album, was long awaited and like others, the artwork was realeased before the actual album, giving a chance for the audience, especially die hard fans to get to know the album, building up hype.

Jay'Z is a household name and all audiences will know who he is. He doesn't need his face on the cover or his name plastered all over it because fans will seek it out and most people will recognise it. His last two albums, Blueprint 1 and 2 fit the usual conventions of album covers, with the artist pictured and the name on the front, but this new ablum breaks convention, like he was doing at the time (e.g. appreaing at a festival like Glastonbury which created controversy.)

The back cover continues the colour scheme and features the red stripe logo, which is iconic for Jay-Z. The tracklist is featured so that people know which songs are on the album and who is featured. Artists such as Pharrel, Kid Cudi, Swizz Beatzz, Rihanna etc are all people that are recognisable within the R&B/hip hop genre, although Mr Hudson is more of an indie artist who frequently collaborates with rappers, showing that Jay-Z is expanding his genres like he has done previously with bands like Linkin Park.

The record companies involved in the album were Atlantic Records and Roc Nation, Jay-Z's own label. Both labels are indicators of the American music scene, although they are not purely hip hop or rap, as artists such as The Ting Tings, Mark Ronson and The Darkness are under these labels.

Making the cover:

Week 2 Task: Intertextuality

Kanye West ft Lupe Fiasco: Touch the sky

In this video, Kanye plays 'Evel Kanyevel', a parody of stuntman Evel Kenievel. Donning the trademark American red, white and blue jumpsuit and flying in the 'death rocket,' Kanye is making an obvious reference to Kenievel which makes the video funny and very tongue in cheek.

Cameo appearances by actresses Nia Long, Pamela Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross add to the filmic style of the video. There is an interview in the middle of the video, with a reporter which is then interuppted by Nia and Tracee who says "that's right, girl, I told you, when he get on, he gonna leave yo' ass for a white girl," an obvious reference to his Kanye's song Gold Digger. Another reference is made to the single Through the Wire in the line "I think I died in that accident 'cause this must be heaven," which is constantly repeated.

The big budget video is anchored by another celebrity appearance from Lupe Fiasco who features on the track. Shot with a marching band playing behind him adds to the 70s style parody. Through mise-en-scene such as costume, (american jumpsuit, Pamela's white playsuit and the other outfits, the grand canyon shots, american rocket etc.) we really get the all-american feel.

A test card also appears featuring

Kanye's trademark teddybear mascot, adding another layer of branding.

With the use of moving split screens, we see more 70s style filming and the preparation for the take off, which is another parody of Evel Knievel and his unsuccessful jump across the Snake River Canyon in 1974.