Jagged Edge Digipak

Textual Analysis

A digipak is a type of dvd or CD packaging.

The Jagged Edge digipak I will analyse is a 2 cd of their album “Hard”. The pack includes a booklet of the band members and information about their songs including lyrics and the producers and writers of it. With additional information such as make up artists and direct messages from the band members. There is a long shot of the group, showing all their faces with a message from each of them thanking people for buying the album and thanking people such as their family or people they have worked with for helping get them this far. This lets the audience know more about the artists as individual people.

It's a double sided booklet that folds out 7 times. On the other side there are close ups and mid shots of each member with their name in bold chrome typography. Showing each band member as an individual. The chrome matched the overall theme of the CD and artists. On the front cover they are shown in suits and hats shot from a low angle long shot, showing superiority. It is night time and they appear to be in the back streets somewhere. They are posed alongside a classic car in all chrome, including the rims. This justifies the typography style.

The digipak helps to establish the artist and their star persona and image. Jagged Edge are presenting themselves as mature men and their songs shown through their costume and body language shown in the CD cover. They all have at least one hand in their suit pocket. Their individual close up and mid shot pictures shown on the inside show conventions of their R&B genre. Their shown wearing baggy clothes. Typical American long t-shirts and long jewellery also known as “bling”. One of the band members “Brian” particularly stand out as he is shown closest to the camera and we as the audience see more of his face than any of the others, provoking the thought that h is the lead vocalist. He is shown in a black vest and tattoos down both of his arms, which is a typical aspect of the R&B genre. All of the jewellery they are wearing is silver/chrome, which carries the mature image from the front cover.

The inside of the booklet is a list of the sings and the lyrics to them. Also including information about the individual song such as who produced it, mixed it, the companies involved in the creation of the track and copyright information. The continuous theme throughout the digipak and CD itself is dark, mature yet conventional. The typography and background on the inside of the pack showing the lyrics is a strict black, grey and white/chrome theme. The contrast between black and chrome could mean the conflict between presenting themselves as mature adults whilst maintaining their current music feel and conventions of the R&B genre. Or the difficulty to break though with an older image.

The digipak itself is a good way for an artist or group to promote themselves as a group or individuals shown thought their own “thank you” messages and individual pictures. The lyrics posted on the inside are good promotion for the songs themselves as it would provoke audience members to sing a long with the song.