Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto Digipak Deconstruction

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

Mylo Xyloto is the 5th album released by the British alternative rock/indie band Coldplay. It was released worldwide on the 24th October 2011 by the record company EMI which was recently brought out by Universal Music Group. It debuted number one on the album charts in both the UK and the USA. Coldplay are a very established band with a large worldwide audience. There album has been out for almost a year and is still selling strong. For these reasons, I have chosen to deconstruct their digipak.

Here is a quote from wikipedia describing the digipak artwork:
"The album's artworks were revealed on 12 August 2011, inspired on graffiti the band worked again with longtime collaborators Tappin Gofton and, this time, also with British street artist Paris. The band had already started to research and work with graffiti on their home studios, The Bakery and The Beehive, when designer Misty Buckley introduced Paris to them, as they were looking for a graffiti artist to teach them the techniques to do it. Although initially he was supposed to be just a "teacher", Paris stayed on the project until the end, producing part of the final work along with the band.

Coldplay wanted it to be an explosion of vivid colours as a counterpoint to the subdued colour palette of Viva La Vida, and at the same time there were lots of lyrics and codes they wished to add. Researches and development into street art started six months before the work had begun. Then a graffiti wall was painted by the band itself and Paris, formed by nine parts. Tappin Gofton wanted the whole evolution of the wall, so at the end of every day loads of super detailed photos would be taken from it. In the end a picture including three parts of the wall was featured on the front cover, while the whole wall is featured on the centre of the CD's booklet."

The image seen above is  the Inlay of the digipak where the CD would be located.  This image almost looks like a zoomed out version of the one displayed on the front of the digipak. However, once studied closely it is a different image but it has used elements from the front to help create a house style.  The copyright section is located centrally at the bottom of the image in white to help it stand out against the background and to fit in with the house style. To the left of the image the bands name and album name can faintly be seen. This attracts the audience as it provides another element they may not see on their first time of viewing the image giving them a sense of involvement when they do spot it. 

Above is the CD for the digipak. All of the colours which can be seen on the CD have been used in the rest of the digipak to help it fit in with the house style. This blend of colours is more relaxed than on the rest of the album. This may be because of the fact the CD is the most important part of the album, and the audience have now found it so therefore they can 'relax'. The CD is dominated by this black swirl that is coming out from the centre. This helps to make the CD look more dramatic and keeps it interesting for the audience. Displayed in the spiral is once again the copyright statement. This is the third time I have seen this statement on the digipak suggesting it is very important to the producers and distributors of the album. It is always in small text suggesting it is not that important for audiences.

"Paradise" is the third track on the "Mylo Xyloto" album. It was released as a single on the 12th of September 2011 for audiences to buy. Currently, the official music video on YouTube has 157,177,042 views highlighting its popularity. I have already looked at this music video for the lyric sequence which helped inspire my lyric sequences in my music video.

The reason I am looking at this music video is because there are elements within the video that fit in with the house style of the album.

This is a screen shot taken from the music video. The graffiti on the wall helps link in with the graffiti style art which is found on the digipak. Similar colours are also used on the digipak. This helps highlight how their are links between music videos and the digipak style.

In the end section of the 'Paradise' music video, there are shots from one of Coldplay's live performances. These fit in well with the narrative of the music video and help to engage members of the target audience and encourage them to go to their live performances by showing how spectacular they can be. Behind the lead singer in the image above, a large LED screen is displaying images which are in similar colours to those found in the digipak. This suggests the house style of the digipak extends to both to music videos of songs released and to their gigs to fans.

I then investigated other music videos that have been released alongside this album. There was little reference to the house style from the digipak in the music video: "Princess of China - Coldplay Ft. Rihanna". This may be because of the collaboration with the singer Rihanna so therefore Coldplay couldn't use just their elements in the music video. However, I did find the music video for the song "Every Tear Drop Is a Waterfall" has many references to the house style. I found this music video fascinating and very interesting to watch. They had used some of the animation techniques that I have learnt during my coursework such as pixelation.

At the beginning of the music video, the lyrics for the first verse are displayed as they are sung. Stop motion animation has been used to allow this. The use of these lyrics, in a grafiti style links to the lyrics which can be found around the digipak. The second image comes from a latr sequence in the music video. Coldplay are shown playingthe song in the dark with a neon background behind them which is full of words and symbols. There is a extreme close up of the word tear linking to the song name. Tear has been written in exactly the same font as the text on the digipak. This reinforces the idea that the house style of the digipak extends further than just the digipack itself.