Digipak - Rock

 Green Day - American Idiot

The conventions of the rock genre are very different to pop. This is shown on the Green Day album, which does not feature an image of the band on the album cover. The font used looks distressed, reflecting the nonchalant, rebellious attitude of the band. This appeals to their male primary target audience. Initial inspiration for the image came from propaganda for the Communist Party of China, and then later the film poster for the Man with the Golden Arm. The image explores the line between love and hate. In the image the heart is being squeezed and shattered by the hand, causing it to bleed. The heart is also a grenade. This mixes two antithetic symbols- one of love and one of hate, suggesting that the two are very close; one leads to the other. The image suggests that love is destructive and quickly conveys the tone of the music to the audience. Furthermore red is a prominent colour on the cover. It is often used to represent passion or hate, however here it can be used for both. While the grenade and the blood immediately appeal to the target audience, women are attracted to the heart and the powerful message as a whole. Therefore the album appeals to a wide range of people. 

 The colour scheme of red, black and white is used throughout the digipak. The black background reflects the punk rock genre of music, and so will appeal to people whom are likely to enjoy the music. Furthermore black generally has rather negative connotations of death, loss and despair. It also highlights the bright red and white. On the back cover the track list is white. This discretely looks quite rebellious- text is usually black on a white background. By simply switching this around Green Day are showing that they don't play by the rules and are possibly more exciting than other bands. The magnifying glass suggests that they are looking for something, further implying that they are lost; perhaps they are trying to find themselves. Magnifying glasses can also reflect crime as they are used to search for clues. This reflects the band's rebellious brand.

 Green Day's booklet involves the lyrics of each song on their album. Alternatively they have opted to hand write the lyrics, making it appear very messy and chaotic. This works well for their brand, as this is how they aim to come across to fans. Furthermore the little doodles and emphasised words are quite fun, and the handwriting male the booklet feel very personal and intimate. The band show that they are not trying to polish themselves up to be something they aren't.