2. BACKGROUND
Lines Vines and Trying Times was the 4th studio album by the Jonas Brothers.
It was also the third and last album released by Hollywood Records.
The album was released on june 16 in the US.
It sold over 247,000 copies in the first week of being released!
The genre is mostly pop/rock and was produced by John Fields.
The album was debuted 1st on Billboard 200
On an interview with Rolling Stone, Nick Jonas announced that they came up
with the lyrics to the songs of the album on set of their TV show, Jonas, because
they were writing down some poetry.
Jonas Brothers stated that the album name had meaning:
Lines are something that someone feeds you.
Vines are the obstacles that block the path you’re aiming towards.
Trying Times is the boys’ attempt to bring light onto the world.
The boys promoted the album in many ways, including performing the songs live
at the 2009 Much Music Video Awards, and also on TV programmes such as the
Today Show, Jimmy Kimmel, etc…
3. DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
There are contrasting black and
white colours in the front and back
covers of the digipak
Which emphasises the meaning of
the title of the album.
The name is all about trying to
bring joy an happiness into the
world (trying times) and facing
The obstacles that might block your
path (vines). The colours therefore
help convey this.
The font is quite fancy and elegant.
The colour of the font changes acording to
The background.
The elegance of the font could be to portray the
Album as quite mature and meaningful;
Perhaps the Jonas Brothers want the fans to take
The album seriously and could also represent their
Aging and making their music more mature as they
grow up.
The genre of this album is
Pop/rock and from the
Digipak this can definitely be
seen.
The album is quite simple and
natural
which reflects most pop/rock
genres. The natual colours of
black, white and brown/golden
can represent the idea of hope
and obstales.
The image of the front cover is of the
brothers staring directly into the
Camera, staring intensely. This would
attract the target audience of teenage
Girls as it could be seen as eye candy
that is the focal point of the album.
4. FRONT COVER ANALYSIS
The front cover gives the Jonas Brothers recognition
in two ways. They have their band name on the cover
but also an image of themselves. This will make them
much more recognisable towards the audience and
they will become more memorable. The image will
also help with the target audience as teenage girls
will be more tempted to buy an album with three
handsome boys on the cover rather than without.
The genre is pop/rock and the image helps convey
this by dressing the boys in simple clothing, with
nothing too extravagant. The costumes can be seen
as simple, yet effective because the colours not only
help with the genre but are connotations of the album
name. they represent the hope that people have
despite all of the upcoming obstacles they will
inevitably face.
The Jonas Brothers have quite stern and intense
faces which can be seen as a denotation. The reason
for this is because the actual meaning of this is them
trying to influence the audience by obtaining their
attention through their expressions. It represents the
seriousness of the album and how it might be
personal.
The overall composition of the front cover of the
album is very effective. It is not at all over the top like
some pop albums but also not too dark like most rock
5. BACK COVER ANALYSIS
The contrasting of black and white colours continues onto the
back of the album. The black colour here is more rocky
whereas the white is bright and represents the pop aspects of
the album.
The simplicity also continues onto the back cover. The
background is quite plain with just the Jonas Brothers logo
faded into the background. This could have been done to show
representation of the band. On top of the background there is
just white writing of the song names featured on the disk.
The order is quite random and isn’t in alphabetical order but is
in categorical order. However for the last song there is a gap in
between the one on top because it is a bonus track and makes
the album seem more appealing.
White, black and golden are the only colours shown on the
album, showing that there is a theme and keeping it consistent
helps with the composition as it looks more appealing to the
eye.
The back cover also contains information in a golden colour
about the producers and record label. This is to promote not
only the band, but also them because other artists might be
interested. It is also written as a credit to show thanks for
producing and helping with the creation of the album.
The barcode is placed in the middle of bottom.
There is a link above the barcode of the Hollywood records
website. This Is where fans can go to get additional
information about the band itself and the record label.
6. SPINE ANALYSIS
The spine of the album is very basic, with just the name of the band and
the album name. When placing the album on a shelf in a store, it makes
it much more easier to locate because the font colour is bright and
visible and stands out from the background. It follows the natural
conventions of a generic album cover but the theme of the album is
continuous on the spine, meaning that the colours, font type and style
are the same. This makes it more diverse and unique to the other
albums.
7. DISK ANALYSIS
•The disk is what contains the 13 album tracks.
•The target audience
for this album is
mostly
teenage girls and so
the elegant font and
pretty layout
would appeal to
them and make it
more special
towards them.
•The simplicity is also a convention of pop/rock
because the audience can relate to it more,
It is not too extreme, which can mean that the
audience won’t expect over the top, extremely loud
Songs playing in the album.
•It is a dark blue with
the name and logo of
the band, along with
The name of the
album. This makes it
more recognisable if
not kept in the digipak.
•Like with the rest of the
digipak, the disk fits in with
the
pop/rock genre of the album
because
of the dark and bright
contrasting colours,
representing
Pop and rock.
8. INSIDE CASE (DISK IMPRESSIONS)
Other than the colours of the other albums and
TV program symbol, it follows the theme of the
rest of the digipak, making it attractive and eyecatching. Having too many coulors would be
confusing and unrecognisable.
Underneath where the disk
is supposed to go, there is
a lot of advertising of the
band. This includes
images of their other
albums so that audiences
can go out and purchase
them.
The logo is shown here also.
This is so that the fans are
constantly aware of who they
are and it will make the symbol
stick in their heads.
The picture of the three shadows on a road represent
the journey
the brothers are on. It can symbolise their progress and
how far
they have come from their first album to this one.
They also have an
advertisement for their TV
show, Jonas. So this part of
the digipak is all about
promoting the band and
making them more well
known. It gives the target
audience an opportunity to
find out more about the band
if they want too.
9. INSIDE BOOKLET ANALYSIS
Inside the booklet, there are mainly images of
the band who have evidently taken part in a
photo shoot. This would immediately grab the
attention of the target audience as it can be
seen as eye candy and fans would be keen to
buy more Jonas Brother products if they think
they will have other images of them.
The images of the band also follow conventions
of generic teenage boy bands. They take
pictures that would appeal to teenage girls and
this would also gain them more fans who would
be interested in both their music and their style.
The images give them an edge and make them
more memorable. They all have curly hair and
wear similar clothes which are extremely
fashionable but simple.
Something which is completely unique to the
Jonas Brothers that they include in their booklet
is the lyrics to each song (as shown in the image
to the left of the song ‘Much Better’). They
include a few sentences describing why they
wrote this song and its meaning, and then go
into the lyrics. This makes it individual to them
and would be a unique selling point to them.
10. REFLECTION:
From analysing the digipak of the album Lines Vines
and Trying Times by Jonas Brothers, I have gained
knowledge about the importance of representation in
a generic digipak. Everything is done for a reason
and has to appeal to the target audience. I now have
a better understanding of the different coulors I am
going to use in my own digipak and understand that
simplicity is key. In this album I think it was the simple
structure and layout that made it even more effective
and went extremely well with the genre of pop/rock.
The album includes a variety of conventions of both
the pop and rock album through the use of colours,
costumes and font and I aim to do the same when I
create my own.