Spotify Song Suggestions 26/2/12

Songs most listening to by friends on Spotify

Songs most listened to by the whole of Spotify

Top 5 Pop albums

I'm going to look at the top 5 pop albums and write about what I think makes it a good album cover.

1.
I think this is a quite a creative and eye-catching cover. The colour scheme is simply shades of grey, black and white. It features the artist like I have noticed most in this genre do. She is dressed in very fancy clothes as has a fashionable hairstyle. She's a new entry into the charts, so this artist needs to make a good impression to stay there and release more successful songs and albums.

2.  This has quite a vintage look, which I think would stand out on a rack of CDs. I think this by the way the artist is dressed, the simple and bold font, the simple background, and random yellow square around the image. She is also dressed quite fashionably, just like the last album. Similarly in another way, she is a new artist in the charts who got popular through a recent song of hers. She also has an impression to make through music, fashion, and album covers.

3.

Adele is an incredible successful artist, and this album has been in the charts for 56 weeks! It's simple, and again features the artist on the front. It's very simple and the picture of the artist is very beautiful. As a successful artist, many people will often see her album covers so it's important that any more she produces continue to live up to this one, of course music-wise too. Her previous album was called '19' and was designed similarly to this. I think this consistency is good as it helps you to recognize the artists album by a glance when you see the style of it. It is just like logos and fonts for other products.

 4. This is another recent album.

Ed Sheeran found success through one extremely popular song. After that, he had a huge fanbase. I think this is what will happen to Lana Del Rey and Emili Sande.
This album features two of his most popular songs, A Team and Lego House.
I don't think it is a very good album cover. It's simple and features the artist, but I don't think it's very effective. The editing looks a little odd and so does the colour. You can't see the artist very well.
The album title isn't very interesting, and from a first glance you might not even know if it was called Plus. 

5. These are another new entry to the charts. They are very different to alot of artist in the charts, and this is also shown in their album art. It doesn't feature an artist, and it is very creative. It doesn't have their album title on, but their name is down in the bottom corner almost like an artist signature on a piece of art. I do not know if they design this themselves or if someone else did, but it would definately stand out against other albums. I love it!
They are new so it is uncertain how popular they are yet to be, but it looks promising.

Spotify Song Suggestions 20/2/12

Songs most listened to by friends;

Songs most listened to by the whole of Spotify; 

Songs list 20/2/12

POP

1. DJ Fresh - Hot Right Now(Ft. Rita Ora)
2. Emeli Sande - Next To Me
3. Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know
4. David Guetta - Titanium
5. Flo Rida- Wild Ones
6. Jessie J - Domino
7. Alyssa Reid - Alone Again
8. Will.I.Am. - T.H.E (The Hardest Ever) feat. Mick Jagger and Jennifer Lopez
9. One Direction - One Thing
10. Cover Drive - Twilight
11. David Guette - Turn Me On
12. Rizzle Kicks - Mama Do The Hump
13. Kelly Clarkson - Stronger
14. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
15. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

20th Feb - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

Alternative

1. The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
2. Foo Fighters - These Days
3. Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know
4. Chevelle - Face To The Floor
5. Shinedown - Bully
6. Bush - The Sound Of Winter
7. Foo Fighters - Walk
8. Paradise - Coldplay
9. Rise Against - Satallite
10. Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out
11. Volbeat - A Warrior's Call
12. Young The Giant - Cough Syrup
13. Fun. - We Are Young
14. Foster The People - Don't Stop
15. Five Finger Death Punch - Remember Everything

20th Feb - http://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-songs#/charts/rock-songs?begin=11&order=position

Album name

I'm going to need two album names. To do this, i'm going to use a random band name generator, and see if one comes up which can be used as an album title!

http://www.webvivant.com/bandnames.html

Here are some I like for if I were just having one title for both CDs;

Autumn Remix
I like this because photos I have for the alternative side are autumn like, and the other side would be not particularly remixed, but it makes sense for a compliation CD.

Complimentary HandsSome of my photographs for the alternative side have hands painted on a guitar, and I'm sure I could edit something to do with hands for the pop side.

Here are some I like for just the alternative CD;

The Vintage All-StarsI like this because the songs I will pick won't particularly be new songs. Some could be more than 10 years old. I know that is not vintage, but it's not new either,

Here are some I like for just the pop CD;

The Electric Shakedown TeamThis reminds me of artists such as LMFAO and Gym Class Heros. It suggests more than one person which is good for the compilation CD.

National Stereo GoodnessBecause these songs will be on the radio around the country, and they're popular, hence the 'goodness'.

Mike Farrell- Graphic Designer

'I guess graphic design is the umbrella term that covers illustration, typography, and design. Typography is the design and composition of letters or words, just as illustration is the design and composition of images. When all those elements come together it’s referred to as Graphic Design. There’s a lot more that goes into it, but I will leave it at that.'- Mike Farrell.

Mike Farrell is the graphic designer at Fearless Records. I emailed him a couple of month ago, asking questions about his work and his role in creating a CD for a band/artist.
I tried searching for some of his work, and I found he has helped design the quite popular 'Punk Goes...' albums. (Punk Goes Pop, Punk Goes Classic Rock, ect.)

Next I went onto the Fearless Records' website and looked through all their albums.
I printscreened some and grouped a couple from the same artist together for comparison.

I think it is amazing how the only similarities there are are when artists have several or more than one albums and there is a look about them. But if you look at Blessthefall and Mayday Parade, they are completely different.
Looking at one specific artist, let's say Tonight Alive, there are some similarities that create an image for that band. First noticable thing is the main text, where it shows the audience the band name. This is the same on 3 of the album covers I can find. Another similarity is that none feature a picture of the band. They have illustrations which all look like they have been done by the same artist (Not particularly Mike Farrell. He probably did the text on the cover.) They are all quite simple, and very interesting.

Mike is incredibly good at typography, and you can definately see this in these album covers. He was interviewed by Jeff Fuller and the interview was put onto his website; http://www.rebelliousreflection.com/?p=1089

He thinks his first exposure to typography was his childhoods friends older brother. He would write graffiti style letters in a notebook and Mike wanted to copy that. This interested died down during highschool and pick back up again in college. In college he worked in a small graphics shop with a friend who got him back into it. This friend taught him a little more about typography, such as the do's and don't's.
He says he is insprired by sinage in and around L.A. He takes pictures throughout the city when he sees something interesting them tried to incorporate it into his drawings. Also being around his friends and taking inspiration from their work.

Spotify Song Suggestions (1/2/12)

These are the songs that are most popular among my friends.

These are the most listened to throughout the whole of spotify.

Songs list 1/2/12

POP

1. David Guetta- Titanium (feat Sia)
2. Jessie J- Domino
3. Cover Drive- Twilight
4. Flo-Rida- Wild Ones
5. Rizzle Kicks- Mama Do The Hump
6. Gotye- Somebody That I Used To Know
7. Kelly Clarkson- What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger
8. Flo-Rida- Good Feeling
9. Labrinth- Earthquake
10. Pixie Lott- Kiss The Stars
11. Olly Murs- Dance With Me Tonight
12. Coldplay- Paradise
13. Maroon 5- Moves Like Jagger
14. Beyonce- Love On Top
15. Rihanna- We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)

I found this on; http://www.bigtop40.com/chart/ on February 1st


Alternative

1. The Killers- When You Were Young
2. Audioslave- Original Fire
3. Red Hot Chilli Peppers- Tell Me Baby
4. Stone Sour- Through Glass
5. Breaking Benjamin- The Diary Of Jane
6. Papa Roach- To Be Loved
7. Hinder- Lips Of An Angel
8. Thirty Seconds To Mars- The Kill
9. Panic! At The Disco- I Write Sins, Not Tragedies
10. Disturbed- Land Of Confusion
11. Keane- Is It Any Wonder?
12. Angels and Airwaves-  Do It For Me Now
13. Taking Back Sunday- MakeDamnSure
14. Three Days Grace- Animal I Have Become
15. Lost Prophets- Rooftops

I think this is a very good list, as I recognise more on here than the other which is a good sign that they are popular songs. I have even heard of those I haven't particularly heard. I got this list from; http://modernrock.com/charts/