Mumford and sons Magazine cover analysis

Mumford and sons Magazine cover analysis

When looking at the magazine advertisement to the debut album of Mumford and Sons "Sigh no more", one notices the predominant vintage aesthetic seen throughout this promotion to promote Mumford and Sons English folk style. The folk music is a very old genre of music, with the term "folk music" being coined during the 19th century yet the term has been used to describe similar sounds of music that was released before the coinage of the term. Hence, here with have graphics on the magazine advert to communicate the genres some would say classical origins and style.

One such example is the overall layout of the ad using a minimalist look of a limited colour palette of black and white excluding the album art as well as a simple border, which does not feature crisp straight, stokes and shows some inconsistency in the line weight. This features in particular the border conveys the look of a traditional printing press rather than a graphic developed via digital means. These result in the look of a 19th century like graphic or illustration which helps to promote the vintage style of the artist in addition convey them as having more traditional values. To further explain the use of simpler graphics convey this idea that they come from a "simpler time" in which one could assume music wasn't so much about attracting a selling work to mass audiences but rather entertainment; the more simpler graphics convey a more welcoming a less corporate look to the band.

The magazine ad utilities a style similar to 19th century graphics as seen here in this example of 19th century illustration

The band's name has been composed in the top centre of the poster to allow audiences to easily identify whom it is the ad is promoting. Not only this but the font used for the name of the band has been writing in a serif italic font which continues the look of a vintage theme but using more classical graphic design for the poster. The band's name makes use of an archaic language feature such as the ampersand and stylises it with large swashes, which communicates this classical look to the band as well as conveying them as "classy".

In the bottom centre of the poster  we see the release date of the album written in a large font in a similar serif style to the title, around the release date we see more decorative graphics which further conveys this vintage elegant look linking towards the style of the bands genre.

When discussing the overall composition of the ad it features a z formation layout complimenting the natural eye movement of the viewer placing features in order of importance. The name of the band , in order to firstly communicate who is being promoted, the album art to establish what album in particular is being sold, the release date, a review or award to further persuade viewers to purchase the album and finally the logo of the record album possibly for copyright reasons.

The album art featured on the ad depicts the band members standing behind a store, which by doing some research is the Pimpernel and Partners store which specialises in 19th century furniture.  Firstly, one may suggest the reason why the artists are featured on both the magazine ad and album art is because of the fact that Sigh No More was the band's debut album therefore the Band need to promote them and sell their faces in order for audiences to know who they are. Secondly, the significance of placing the band within a furniture antiques store further conveys there vintage image as well as somewhat making an intertextual reference to what is arguably folk music's stylistic origins to easily communicate to audiences that this band is more classical based then other types of artists.

Finally this classical theme is further communicated via the title of the album itself which is a quote from Shakespeare's play Much ado about nothing which thus connotes the band as being cultured by utilising a reference to classic literature as there title.

When looking at the music videos attached to songs featured on said album, video Little Lion Man further explores the vintage theme to convey the bands folk style. The video features a greenish brown colour filter, which connotes an old film look to the video. Said old film effect makes the video look not only vintage but in some ways homemade like a "home movie" which in turn fits in with the folk theme of making it look like it was produced by local people.

The band members seen in the video in particular are dressed in classical fashion such as waistcoats and plaid suits not only this but in terms of mis en scene the video is set within a barn, which further gives off the cultured look to the band as established on the cover. Such clothing gives off a Victorian like look to the band whereas the barn setting makes the band seem very simple yet feature a country like theme towards them which conveys a friendly human look  to the band.

 

In conclusion, from looking at this magazine ad it seems that a useful device to use would be to link your graphics and styles to that similar to the artist or rather to connote the artist's style or genre i.e. using classical design to allude to folk music and its older origins. Furthermore, a z formation structure would be useful in organising features in order of their importance. Finally based on this design it would be wise to feature the album art on the cover in order to both keep synergy between the album and magazine ad. Not only this but also possibly keeping the synergy strong with the music video as well if the album art features themes borrowed from the music videos attached to the as previously seen in some Digipak research such as my Calvin Harris research and Eric Prydz research.