The 1975 is the debut, self-titled album by the Indie rock/Alternative band The 1975. The album was released on September 2nd 2013 through Dirty Hit and Polydor. It went straight to number one on the UK Albums Chart on September 8th and as of March 2016 has sold 410,981 copies in the UK. Matty Healy the lead singer of the band described the albums style as"pretty experimental, and goes from glitchy R&B to big 80's power-pop to mid 90's soul, but it's done in our way obviously.” Before the realise of the debut album, the band released 4 EPs: each featured a single from the album as well as 3 exclusive songs. This was to help with promotion and get the band a following before the realise of their debut album. When it came to the release the band, release both a standard and deluxe version of the album. The only difference being that the deluxe version also featured the exclusive songs from the 4 EPs on a separate disk.
The front cover of this digipak is very simplistic and basic; the band themselves do not feature on the front cover, instead it shows artwork which features the bands name on it. This is a common feature of indie rock/alternative artists because they don't work so hard on having a star image and therefore don't need to put their faces on their album covers. The colour scheme used on this front cover is very dark, following the grayscale with the main colours being black and white. This connotes the idea of mystery and makes the band have edge. The dark colours can also be seen as reflective of the indie rock genre as it reflects the moody theme which is sometimes associated with indie bands. The basic colours helps to reflect the bands simple image. The illuminated rectangle is the most eye-catching part of the front cover due to the contrasting lighting and its positioning on the cover. The rectangular lighting has become some what of an iconic image for the band; they use it on their merchandise, in their music videos as well as in their live performances. This is very recognisable and will allow their audience to be able to easily associate things with them, which will make them feel like a dedicated member of the fanbase. The band and album name is positioned in the middle of the frame which helps to put emphasis on it. The emphasis is increased by the contrast between the white font and the black background. The name is short and therefore easily recognisable. The font that the band has used has made some of the letters backwards and not complete, whilst this makes it slighter difficult to read it makes the band appear edgy and unique because it goes against the conventions of a digipak front cover. This font also is rather representative of their music genre due to the fact that it is edgy and distinctive yet very simple. Therefore the use of this font will attract an audience who likes indie rock/alternative music because they will like the fact that the cover is different to others. This font will then start to be associated with the band by their fanbase. The simplistic layout and colour scheme of this digipak suggests that the band has a great importance for the music on the album rather than the visual aesthetics of the digipak; this is something that is generally associated with the indie rock/alternative music genres. The simplicity of the cover is essential in establishing the bands identity as it suggests that they are not over the top and like to keep things easy and simple.
The back cover is almost parallel to the front cover which means that the digipak follows a consistent style. This is a common convention amongst digipaks because the consistent style is aesthetically pleasing. The back has followed the same greyscale, black and white theme which makes the covers consistent which the audience are used to. The back cover shows the same illuminated rectangle however the band/album name has been replaced by the titles of the 16 tracks on the album. The font that has been used for the song titles is different and more readable however is still simplistic. The font has been centred so that the songs appear in the middle of the back cover which is the first place the audience would look when studying the digipak back cover. The text is all in block capitals which is something that the band tends to use a lot on their social media sites as well as their merchandise; this will therefore allow their audience to easily identify their album and notice the similar style. The song titles on the back cover will generally appeal to a wide audience due to the fact that they are neither aimed at men or women, however when first looking at some songs such as ‘Girls’ the audience might be positioned to think that the song is aimed at men. On the back cover, on the right hand side there is a barcode, logos of the record label the band are signed to and the publisher of the album. Underneath these logos there is some information about the copyright of the album, however this has been written in smaller font because it generally isn't important to the audience. There is also the bands website written in a bolder font than the copyright information so that it is more obvious to the audience.
The CD for this digipak follows the same theme as both the front cover and back cover; this follows the typical conventions of a digipak. The band don't appear on the disk however the same font that displayed the band and album name on the front cover has appeared on the disk in shiny black font. The CD is matt black therefore the font being shiny gives the disk texture and makes the font stand out. The style is consistent on the CD because it has the same colour scheme as the rest of the digipak, although this time there is no white included. Whilst this can not be seen on the image, around the edge of the CD, the copyright information has been embossed. The text is in the same colour as the CD and can therefore not easily be seen unless you look very closely at the physically copy of the CD This suggests that the band didn't want the copyright information to be particularly noticeable and didn't want it to ruin the aesthetic of their digipak. This information also isn't generally interesting for the audience so they didn't need to make it obvious on the CD.
Inside of the digipak there is a booklet which contains all of the lyrics for the 16 songs on the album. The song names are presented in all capitals which is consistent with the song titles of the back cover. The lyrics are written in white font and are presented on top of different images. Each of the images show a different thing such as a graffiti wall, a bed, a tunnel, a tree and a lock. These images probably somehow relate to the song and are a vague visual representation of it. The images in the booklet all appear in black and white which is consistent with the greyscale colour scheme used throughout of the booklet. The last page of the booklet contains acknowledgements and thank you's which is a common conventions used in booklets within a digipak.
In recent years there has been an increase in the popularity of records/vinyl. This means that more and more bands and artists have been realising their albums on vinyl in order to help reach a wider audience. The 1975 is an example of a band who has released their albums and EPs on vinyl. The record for their debut self titled album is very similar in style to their CD, with only a couple of differences. This is to show to the audience how the products are the same used in different formats.
The front and back cover of the vinyl remains the exact same as the CD covers. This continues to show the bands simplistic style. Unlike most records, these vinyls are clear plastic instead of black plastic. This shows how the band are unique and avoid mainstream trends. The clear plastic still suits their greyscale colour scheme which makes the record digipak and the CD digipak consistent. The only main difference between the digipaks is the inside. The CD digipak has the black disk on the right hand side and then the booklet with pictures and lyrics on the left hand side. However due to the difference in size, the inside of the record digipak shows a picture of the band which is actually in the middle of the booklet available in the CD, once again in black and white to create consistency. The acknowledgements then appear in the top left hand corner. Because there is no booklet within this record, the images used within the booklet have been collaged together in to make up the sleeves which the records sit in. One these sleeves the lyrics have been written in white font in the bottom left hand corner of the image, which once again is similar to the booklet.
Whilst the formats for the digipaks are different they are still very similar and use all of the same images, font, colour schemes and information. This is because the band are still trying to create the same opinion of them but they just want to reach a wider audience with their music. By using the same style and ideas the band create consistency within their products which makes them more identifiable to their audience.
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