Magazine Adverts

In this ad for indie rock band The View, their live shows are being advertised. The advert contrasts in many ways with the advert for Bombay Bicycle Club's live shows. Firstly, the font is not plain and stands out from the image. The unique and eye-catching font style infers that the band are also unique and stand out from the crowd. The style of the font gives the idea it could have been written by hand, which again shows an independent 'Do It Yourself' approach to an image, typical of the indie genre. As the font is in white over quite a dark background it also jumps out of the page at a reader.

Another way it differs from Bombay Bicycle Club's ad, is that the band members are not alongside each other but seemed to be placed in positions of how well they are known to an audience, with of course the lead singer in almost centre frame and at the foreground. The setting of the image seems to be beneath some trees, with the sun shining through over the lead singer's left shoulder. This is a natural and outdoors setting, giving the impression that the band are not in a studio, and are not manufactured, but have a more realistic image, which is typical of the indie genre. The setting also loosely reflects the name of the band as a 'view' is often connected with the outdoors and nature. The colour scheme of white and green again works with this idea of the outdoors and also have connotations of a calm and laid back image. The facial expressions on the band member's faces are quite serious, showing that perhaps they take their music and image seriously.

Magazine Adverts

This is an advert for the indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club. The advert is advertising their upcoming live shows. The colour scheme of this advert is black and blue, which is a simple combination, and along with the simple font which is inside the square box, infers a straightforward and clear cut band that have established their image well. The fact that the font doesn't stand out as much from the page as that in other band's adverts, shows that Bombay Bicycle Club are well known and don't need to try and catch attention through colour and font in order for reader's to pay attention to their advert.

The photograph of the band shows all four members sitting beside each other, and so as equal, unlike in photographs of other band's in which generally the lead singer takes the centre and foreground. The photograph is also advertising the band's image, in a familiar and informal way, with each member pulling a different facial expression and bodily position. The comfortable expressions and positions of the band put the reader at ease and make them want to read the advert.

The advert as a whole is simple, with a recognisable logo for the name of the band, and an uncomplicated and familiar photograph of the band. These characteristics suggest a typical indie band, who have an independent approach to advertising their music.

Magazine Adverts

This is another advert from NME, for a debut album from indie/alternative/folk band Stornoway, called 'Beachcomber's Windowsill'. The advert contrasts very much with the one advertising Louise Aubrie, instead this advert is much more simple and traditional. The advert does not show the band at all, which means the focus is on the name of the band and the information under it about their album, as well as the descriptions it has from newspapers and magazines. This more traditional approach to advertising the band's album suggests they are quite old fashioned and independent in their approach to advertising their music, and perhaps their music is more important to them than their image, which may be something they want to get across to their audience.

The small pictures on the advert, which consist of a house with a light on and birds flying over head, a jellyfish and some other kind of creature, make a viewer curious as to what they mean and inquisitive about the band, and again also suggests a 'Do It Yourself' band, typical of the indie genre. By not having an image of the band them self, the advert is increasing their mystery and the curiousness of the reader. Again the word 'Debut' in bold letters suggests that the album is new and exciting, and the words 'OUT NOW' in capitals produces an urgency for readers to buy it, making the album seem more exclusive and a 'must-buy'. The advert includes descriptions from newspapers and NME itself, which give the reader a second opinion from reliable sources, and a reassurance that the band are worth listening to. Words like 'magical and majestic' and 'melodically magnificent' excite a reader as well as increasing the mystery of the band.

Magazine Adverts

In order to create our own magazine advert for our bands' album, we need to look at other bands' album advertisements in magazines to find out how the albums are advertised, especially those from the indie genre. I am going to analyse some advertisements I have found in the music magazine NME. NME stands for 'New Musical Express' and is a popular, UK published, music magazine. Therefore its adverts reach a large audience and bands will want to advertise their albums and live shows in NME.

This is an advertisement from NME for Louise Aubrie's debut album. Louise Aubrie is described on her website as 'indie post-punk' and therefore fits loosely to our bands' genre of indie /alternative. The advert has an ongoing colour scheme of faint pink, black and white. The faint pink infers a feminine side to the artist, yet the guitar, hat and the way she has her shoulders showing, imply an edgy side to her also. The mixture of edgy and feminine work well together to create the idea of an independent woman, which also works with the idea of indie artists being independent and standing out of the crowd. The advert is making strong statements about the artist's image and also telling the viewer the kind of artist she is by having the guitar and microphone, this tells us she is a singer and plays the guitar. The actual image on the advert is quite grainy, which suggests a 'Do It Yourself' style photograph, and the artist's elbow overlapping with the section of the image for the font also suggests this. The font itself stands out, the capital letters help to bring out the words, and it is obvious right away what the names of the artist and the album are, which means it successfully and clearly advertises the artist and their music.

Under the name of the artist and the album, the line 'Stunning Debut Album Out Now' is helping to sell the album. The word 'Stunning' suggests the music is beautiful and exciting, and the

word 'Debut' suggests that the album is new and fresh. The way the artist is positioned in the centre of the frame infers that she is the main focus, and important, and the angle of the camera means

that the viewer is looking up slightly at her, again inferring that she is important and a powerful independent woman. The artist's eyes look away from the camera and towards her name and the name of her album, which means a viewers eyes also direct this way as they follow her gaze.