Analysing Similar Artists

Lykke Li:

Album Cover:

Although Lucy's album cover is very bright and colourful, in comparison to this dark album cover of Lykke Li featuring very dark colours and shades of grey it also shares similar features in terms of its obscurity. The dark shades of grey, white and silver suggests it's quite a dark, depressing album. The abstract nature of images alongside a  lack of images of the singer suggests she is trying to sell her music, not so much herself. The artsy image combined with the abstract boxes connotes that she is trying to sell herself as an arty alternative singer.

The boldness of her name an use of font typography also connotes a seriousness about the music with an artsy edge, lack of images of artist on front page is symbolic of dance or act who tend to be more faceless.

The abstract imagery is very similar to work of Pablo Picasso who was infamously known for his use of various shapes and colours in his artwork. To draw a comparison, see work of Picasso below Lykee Li's

Website: 

Lykee Li's website is extremely simple. When you first access the page we are mad aware of an abstract image, which is full of pastel colourings, highlighting how her music is soft and soothing. Likewise, Lucy's track 'Stay High' is also tranquil. 

On the bottom of the home page, there are 5 icons listed, which give hyperlinks to her social media pages such as: Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, SoundCloud and YouTube. The beauty of this is that it creates an effect of tidiness about her as an artist. Each social media page has varying information on her that people can follow if they would like to. 

It's key to get fans subscribed to the mailing list so that they can find out key information on album/tour updates or general information about Lykee regularly. This option is constantly at the bottom of each page to remind those who haven't signed up to do so.

Lastly, the only other page to the website is her 'Contact' page which maintains the pastel colouring of a 'washed-out peach'. Through this page, fans can have contact with the artist showing that she is someone who doesn't leave their fans in the dark and is able to maintain contact with her supporters, even through social media. It is definitely a key to her success as she is seen as an organic artist who genuinely cares about her fans.

Music Video:

Key Points:

Through watching the music video 'Dance Dance Dance - Lykke Li' I have been able to analyse various features of the video from camera shots to editing. This music video is majorly performance-based with parts of contextual basis, which shows the artist throughout the whole video and is especially ideal if on a low-budget. Similarly, we've used aspects of performance based shots as well as narrative-based in order to tell the audience a story, often linked with the lyrical content of the song. In 'Dance Dance Dance', it is shown simply by dancing around in a few locations such as a train station and high street. Editing with the slow-motion whilst the actress is spinning to accentuate the coolness and to attract the attention of viewers to the action in shot. Similarly, in our music video 'Stay High' we took a shot of Lucy spinning around (dancing) by herself around Shoreditch with a bottle of alcohol in hand, which was then emphasised later in editing via slow-motion effects.

In addition, the entire music video of Lykke feels slightly abstract, meaning the music video is not represented explicitly, but instead via the effective use of colours and textures. For example, in 'Dance Dance Dance' the poor quality camera shots accompanied with the bright colours of yellow and oranges signifies warmth and happiness in emotions. From this we can infer that the artist is not bothered about having a high-quality animated Hollywood music video, she cares more for her music and fans rather than the production side of videos. 

Throughout the video we are made aware of a few POV shots, such as: spinning around, as well as at the end of the video, the inner artist of Lykke comes out a she chalks a design into a wall. Similarly, we use POV shots in our music video, at the beginning when Lucy graffitis on the wall. The use of these shots allows an audience to identify with the protagonist as we see life through their eyes, and is a useful way of creating a connection between and artist and their fans.