Ancillary

Ancillary Research

We are conducting ancillary research as it is not only important to analyse the conventions of indie

seen in different artists music videos, but also because we need to analyse the artists as a whole

and the image that they are trying to portray to the audience. I have looked at the website and

album cover for each artist I previously looked at to identify particular themes throughout their

brand image.

SynergyThe main aim of any artists website is to promote

the artist. It will also give information to the viewer such as tour dates, news, videos and new single releases. The website should make it easy to immediately identify the artist with their most recent songs and videos and all products of the

artist should have a recurring theme. We will need to consider all of these things when

conducting the ancillary projects for our artist.

Haim generally are portrayed to be a carefree wild girl band. The first thing that emphasises this is the page you see when you click on their website. This is a whole page video of the girls dancing and whipping their hair around which represents their fun and crazy nature. This could also make them relatable to their target audience as they are showing they are care free teens/young adults

The Haim website and album cover unconventionally do not feature similar themes. The main thing all of their products have in common is that they all feature images of the three girls posing in different settings. However this could be emphasising how there are not stereotypical and are very different to existing girl bands as they want to portray themselves to be alternative and unique.

The Haim website also has links to Facebook, which emphasises that their target audience is young adults social networking is often used by teens. Haim use social networking to attract and engage with their audience.

One thing I liked about the website was every time you refreshed the page, the background image of the girls would change. This means each time you went on the website it would look different which helps keep the audience interested

Conventionally, Nina Nesbitt’s album cover and website are very similar and feature the same themes using the colour lilac and also the same image.

Firstly the colour lilac could connate that her music is quite soft and gentle to listen to as she only uses soft colours on her website rather than harsh dark colours. The colours used may also help attract her target audience of females as she uses very feminine colours.

The same typography is also used on her website and album cover which shows synergy as the artist is being consistent in her style over a range of different products.

Similarly the website features links to social networking which again can help attract the target audience, teens.

The Neighbourhoods website is the most conventionally ‘indie’ website I have looked at so far. Firstly the main thing to notice is that they always use a filter. Filers seems to be very stereotypically for indie videos, however the neighbourhood use a black and white filter on every single one of there product therefore creating synergy as all the products have a theme in common.

Secondly the neighbourhoods website looks more like a blog rather than a website. This could help to attract their target audience of teens/young adults a we are the ‘blogger’ generation meaning that we would be able to relate to their website. Overall, I really like the

brand image of this band as they are extremely consistent with themes and the style they use on all of their products which makes them easy to recognise on a video, picture, album or website. This is something we could consider doing when creating our ancillary products.

There is a synergy created with the website and the album cover as they both feature the same image and the same typography. This makes it easy for audiences to instantly recognise the album from the website. Also similar colours are used on each product to again provide a connection between the two.

The first thing I noticed about the ‘Bat for Lashes’ website is that it is very similar in terms of layout to a Tumblr page. I think they have done this to attract a specific type of audience, alternative/hipster teens who often use sites such as Tumblr. This shows a large amount of thought has gone into the planning of their website and how to attract their desired audience.

I also like how this website differs from most normal websites as it has the navigation bar at the bottom of the page rather than typically at the top. This creates emphasis on how they want to be different and stand out from other similar bands and also other websites. Their site is also very interactive which I think is a good element to keep their viewers interested and entertained.

Summary

In conclusion after looking at the four different artists album covers and websites, I believe that a consistent theme is one of the most important things we need to consider when conducting our ancillary tasks. This is because it is easier for the

audience to make an immediate connection between the two products and it also helps to

create and promote a particular brand image for a specific artist.