Ancillary Text Research

INDIE FOLK ALBUM COVERS

I started looking at various other indie folk album covers for inspiration and to see the common features of this specific genre’s album covers.

I looked at a Noah and the Whale’s album cover for ‘The First Days of Spring’ as they are the band to the song I’m making a music video for. I thought taking inspiration from what they had already done was a good idea. I like the idea of taking the photo outdoors as it gives it a kind of fresh feel. The outdoors also adds to the folk genre, which seems to be a common feature.

I also looked at Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros album cover for ‘Up From Below’. This looks like a very quirky type of album cover and I feel it fits really well with the indie folk genre, due to the warm, outdoorsy colours.

The last album cover I looked at within the indie folk genre was Daughter’s ‘If You Leave’ cover. This was my favourite of all three as I feel the longer you look at the cover, the more you see. At first all I saw was trees and woods, but looking carefully enough I see a figure moving. I thought this idea was really cool and really brought out the genre of the music.

Overall, all three covers seemed linked to the indie folk genre in terms of the visuals of the album covers. I felt a common theme with these three, and with many other covers of the same genre was that the photos were mainly taken outdoors. The nature aspect links back to the folk genre, as it’s a well-known stereotype/fact that people who relate largely to the folk aspect of things (such as music and style) enjoy the outdoors and nature itself. My favourite cover of the three was the Daughter cover, as I felt it was very reflective of the genre and the colours are very simple and neutral. I like the idea of having the album cover of an outdoors area, which for my own would be good as well because the music video is mainly outdoors anyway. I don’t know if the blurred image would be good for my chosen song, as it isn’t as reflective of the themes that I’m going for, but I would like to incorporate some of the aspects of all these album covers into my own.

INDIE FOLK POSTERS

I started looking at various music posters of the indie folk genre for inspiration and to see the common features of this specific genre’s album covers.

I looked at a Noah and the Whale poster for inspiration on my own as I felt it would generate some good ideas, due to it being of the indie folk genre too. The photo is the same as the album cover, but this time covers the whole A4 page and has additional text giving information of when the album is released and has a quote from Q magazine. I liked the idea of adding a quote, as it made the whole thing seem legit and helped to promote it.

I also looked at a Mumford & Sons album poster, which was also within the same genre. This poster is set out a lot like a film poster and like many other posters, it also has a quote from a magazine, helping to promote the album. The background on this one is black and has individual photos of the band members. I like this aspect but don’t think it would work well for my own poster as I only have one singer.

The last poster I looked at was Of Monsters And Men. This poster promote both the album and shows that the band will be performing at. The photo is the same as their album cover, but is made to fit the whole A4 page. Like the other posters, this poster also has positive quotes from music magazines, which helps to promote.

Overall, all three covers fit into the indie folk genre and it seems to be common that the posters use the same photo as the album cover, but stretch it out to fit on A4. Another convention is the use of quotes from magazines, such as Q and NME. This helps to promote the album and puts a positive message across about it. Other features that are often available when purchasing/pre-ordering an album from the website is to get a poster that is signed by members of the band. This is done in the Noah and the Whale example and I think it creates a really good effect. My favourite of these three posters is the Noah and the Whale one because I like the idea of having the photo about the same size as the album cover and then having a white border-type thing.

Other genres

I decided to look at some album covers from other genres to look at the similarities and differences between the indie folk genre and other genres.

I really like the idea for Sonic Youth’s ‘Goo’ album cover. I think the photo and quote are really reflective of the genre and the whole cover is really simple yet effective.

I think the album cover for The Wytches’ ‘Annabel Dream Reader’ is really effective. A common feature of many album covers is just having an image and no name. This leaves the photo to give an impression and sell the album. The colours are really reflective of the genre here and make the album stand out.

The album cover for Palma Violets’s ‘180’ is another one done in black and white. This time it has the band in the photo, which I think is a good idea. Overall, I think this cover is reflective of the genre and looks really good.

My favourite album cover of these three is the Sonic Youth one because I really like the simplicity. A big difference that I can see between these covers and the indie folk ones is that these ones look a lot more artificial and fake, whereas the indie folk ones look very neutral and free. These albums are very reflective of the rock genre and I think the artificial nature and bold statements add to this effect.