HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN

PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Personally, I think that our ancillary text and media products link well in terms of colours, theme, conventions of British Rap and the main aim of it attracting

our target audience.

THE SONG & VIDEO

The genre of our song was British Rap which typically is known to have aggressive and unpleasant language however our song

seemed to go against thing and had a more comical touch to it with lyrics such as “Summon up the power of banana clan,” yet

also manages to go completely against the stereotype of rap artists rapping about violence and instead talks about avoiding it

therefore still has a deep meaning to it.

We then wanted to carry this on to our ancillary texts by showing the artists' personality and characteristics. The children were only

actors for the video and represented what the artist wanted to portray in the video (a hidden message and comedy).

FRONT OF DIGI-PACK

The CD cover of our digi pack is a main image of our artist to show independence. Also, unlike most artists who face the camera in their album covers, (such as Tinie Tempah in the image below) but our artist is facing away putting on headphones to show he is avoiding the world around him and focuses solely on his music, hence why he ignores the camera. This could also link back to our media product (video) as he is not shown in it

and instead is away from the camera.

Furthermore, the album cover is very simple just like other British rap artists' albums which could highlight the artists personality of being very simple and likes to be bold/ get straight to the point, which ties in with the reasoning for the bold font on the front cover which adds emphasis to the artists name and album cover rather than on himself. This could be because most target audiences tend to be attracted to the look of a certain artist and are then attracted to the music, however our artist wants the main focus of the target audience to be on his music rather than appearance.Also, the font is in a ‘graffiti’ style font portrays the genre he raps for or could be his signature symbol, e.g. In the Tinie Tempah album, he is known to always have his name written in that certain font, just like many other British artist, hence why we chose to do the same for ours.

The colours of the album fade from dark to light which represents perhaps the movement from a hard life to a more successful one (being in the music industry)

The colour ‘pink’ is normally not a typical colour used by British rap artists as they tend to stick to the darker colours such as black and grey however we chose to add the pink which suggests a softer side to him and to highlight the fact he is different (also shown in the way the video has been directed) therefore helping to attract the target audience. Also, successful artists such as Tinie Tempah have also included pink colours in their albums and still remain highly respected British rap artists.

INSIDE OF DIGI-PACK

The inside of the digi pack reflects the artists emotions. The main expression given off by these images is ‘seriousness’ just like most other typical rap artists. This could highlight the fact that the artist is ‘serious’ about his music and is all that matters to him, hence why again, he is facing away from the camera, similar to other artists such as Professor Green.

The clothing is very simple, which reflects his personality and also links back to the simplicity of the album cover. However, it manages to also link to typical rap artists clothes such as wearing a vest and necklace.

The effects on the image are a continuous theme which is reflected throughout the digi-pack as well as in the video.

INSIDE LEFT OF DIGI-PACK

Most of British rap albums, or any album, tend to have a section dedicated to their fans or people who have helped them create the album.

We decided to instead of writing paragraphs like some artists do, we chose to show pictures of the artists' personal life which normally, for an artists is kept private, however we decided to show the artists outside life and that as most rappers tend to come from ‘troubled backgrounds’ and prefer not to show their personal life , however, our artist is different and likes to show his friends/family , possibly to show his success from the life he had before.

The fact that he is different is shown throughout the digi-pack as well as the colours , background and some clothing.

INSIDE MIDDLE OF DIGI-PACK

The middle of our digi pack shows the area in which the artist grew up which relating back to previous research has been shown by other British rap artists such as ‘The Streets’.

Most stereotypical artists like to represent where they are from either by rapping about it or by showing images. This inspired us to show an image of where the artist grew up but in a blurry way , to highlight the fact that it is now the past and something he won’t go back to but is however, still a part of his life and could potentially be what inspired him to get out of that lifestyle (normally council estate places) and create a better life for him.

CD COVER IN DIGI PACK

The CD cover reflects the themes used throughout the Digi-Pack.

Most British rap digi packs keep their CD plain, and keep it to just their name and album name, hence why we chose to stick to this design.

BACK OF DIGI PACK

Typical rap artists tend to write in ‘slang’ and abbreviate most of their words as they think it sounds ‘cool’ to do so, hence why our artist has also done the same.

‘Parental Advisory’ has also been placed as most British rappers tend to use aggressive language in their songs, although our artist is not as aggressive, we still felt it would be appropriate to do so as some song could contain words inappropriate for some of the target audiences.

The artist again is facing away from the camera, yet is more noticeably facing himself away from other people which emphasises the fact that he like to stay focused on just his music.

He remains to keep up the ‘gangster’ look by wearing his hat in the opposite direction ( a style most rappers like to do to show they are different and don’t follow things the way they should be) and also hides his face with his shades.

The colour scheme and split screen as seen on the magazine advert remains continuous in hiding some of the artists life and only shows us what he wants us to see. The pink on the photographic side of the image shows his softer side- possibly the happier side to him whereas the area covered in black could show a more darker side that he prefers to hide.

MAGAZINE ADVERT

As seen from the previous slides and digi-pack covers, the colour schemes, background and fonts all remain constant throughout the pack.

However, this image is different from the others as the artist is facing towards the camera, with an emotionless expression on his face , suggesting he is serious and the fact that half of his face is being shown also suggests that people should already know who he is, therefore there is no need for him to show his whole face and is also reflected throughout the pack.

The main focus of the advert is to sell the album cover which is what the other half of the advert focuses on doing. Most other British rap artists prefer having more of themselves on the adverts rather than information of their album, however as previously said, our artist focuses mainly on his name and music rather than his appearance in the media.

Our magazine is quite unique compared to other magazine adverts as they tend to have either too much information to look at or hardly any, however ours has an equal balance, and gets straight to the point, just like the artist likes to be.

Example of simple advert. Main focus on the artist rather than information.

OVERALL…

I believe that our media product and ancillary texts are combined effectively through constant repetition of themes, colours, backgrounds, camera shots, and other variables such as Photoshop, that were used to create the digi pack.

It also manages to also be relatively similar to some British rap conventions, however also avoids some to make our product unique.

Furthermore, the video and digi pack is more appealing to a wider range of target audiences as it is suitable for everyone in the sense that it doesn’t contain any aggressive language or violent images.