Luke Keeler's Year 13 A2 Media Blog: February 2015

The ideology behind this large "double panel" was to create an image of careless teens relaxing; yet to create the now standard epitome of troubled, dangerous and angry youths.

I feel this works rather well as the image is enigmatic and enchanting, the subtle filters create an ore of dynasty around the character's and the ambiance of the surrounding area make the park seem like something from a medieval fantasy film; for example "The Shire" in Lord of the Rings or "Field of Fire" from Game of Thrones.

Field of Fire "Game of Thrones" (2010's medieval fantasy TV drama)

The Shire, Lord Of The Rings

The inspiration for the use of this image was it's resemblance to the front cover of The Verve's 1997 album "Urban Hymns". The reason I wanted to replicate such an iconic album cover is because it is strikingly bold; allowing for a higher chance of an iconic status for our own album artwork, but also because the album was The Verve's real breakthrough into "the lime-light) of mainstream media with such hits on it as "Bittersweet Symphony" "Sonnet" and "The Drugs Don't Work". Therefore I wanted to use this image to connote such commercial success into Adolescent Manifesto and also the cult status The Verve then received from it, as it had been a long time coming. The Verve's story connotes well with the Marxist ideals of class struggle that have achieved the birth of such things as the NHS in Britain. Similarly The Verve had been signed to their record label and producing records and albums for over 5 years before the release of Urban Hymns yet only received the plaudits for being one of the great bands of the Britpop era of British music only a year before the bands ultimate demise and break up. Ironically enough Urban Hymns was the group's penultimate album before they released "Forth" 11 years later in 2008. This is discluding "This Is Music 92-98" the bands greatest hits album in 2004, 4 years after their split.

The way this connotes to Fight Back and Adolescent Manifesto is that it shows how greatness comes after years of effort, protest and struggle for what you believe in. This is why I wanted to connote such figures in the music industry as John Lennon who have done just that and Adolescent Manifesto's hidden message to let the fan know that they should stay true to themselves, stand by their beliefs and, to quote Gandhi, "Be the change they wish to see in the world."

The Verve, Urban Hymns (1997)

Print Screen of "The People Have Eyes" Original idea for 1st panel of print production

This image of myself is inspired by the album's Imagine and Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not by John Lennon and Arctic Monkeys respectively. We wanted to make the front cover striking yet simplistic at the same time as I feel that they are the most memorable and give the greatest interest into an album.

The image of myself is similar to that of a wanted poster or a "mug shot". I feel this is a strong connotation as it shows rebellion against "the system" and creates an ore of danger around the character. The track, "Fight Back" is all about rebellion and fighting the system as a young person in today's world and was born of the back-lash toward young people after the London Riots of 2011 and the subsequent student cuts, that were unrelated, however struck the same culture hard.

Billy The Kid "Dead or Alive" Wanted Poster roughly 1880

David Bowie mug shot for possession of pot 1976

Therefore I feel as though the track could be a poster song for the youth of today, particularly the grievances felt by us against the current coalition. Similarly John Lennon's Imagine was written about protesting for peace during the time of the Vietnam war. The track was released in 1971 and the Vietnam war ended in 1975, 5 years later, of course, Lennon was tragically assassinated. The 70's was a turbulent time for Lennon; after having split with the Beatles in 1970 after having claimed that "I (Lennon) got sick and tired of being Paul's (McCartney) back up band.[1]" This came from a row between the band over "I Am The Walrus" being made the B-side to McCartney's track "Hello, Goodbye" and is widely speculated to be one of the reasons the band ultimately split.

Since then Lennon spent the next 5 years in the USA in-particularly New York where he staged many protests against the Vietnam war and was a spearhead in the "Give Peace a Chance" movement of the Hippies between 68 and 72. One famous protest was Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed in" in which they stayed in bed together for two different two week periods in Amsterdam then Montreal.

John Lennon New York City Picture 1971

It is widely considered that Lennon was such a power in the peace movement that the USA were desperate to get him out of their country and when he refused they ordered Mark David Chapman to assassinate him, however this is just a theory and the killer himself credited J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher In The Rye" as his motif for the killing. Ironically enough the book is considered to be a portrayal of teenage rebellion against the machine much of what Lennon himself stood for.

The single "Imagine" by John Lennon beautifully intertwines all of these ideals of rebellion and wanting for peace, fairness and love for your fellow man into one neat LP and hence is why the LP is now so recognizable world wide (that and it is, of course, John Lennon).

Therefore I felt strongly that I wanted to connote such rebellion and protesting into the album artwork for an LP that is the single of a track all about rebellion and protest. This would then make the single marketable as the consumer would see it and instantly (hopefully) see that it very much resembles Lennon's legendary LP and would note that the title of the album and the A-side track would sound rebellious and important.

The idea behind the title "The People Have Eyes" was that it was a play on the terms "The Walls Have Ears" and "Power To The People". The idea behind this connotes to the neo-marxist perspective of the current capitalist system showing great social inequality and that also the ruling class under-estimate the power of the people (proletariat) and that the proletariat also under estimate the power they hold themselves.

This then instigates that the track will cause an uprising as the term "the walls have ears" was coined during WWII and essentially means be careful what you say as people can be eavesdropping or, similarly, the person you're telling something too could repeat it else where. The term is a basic form of intimidation and connotes to "The People Have Eyes" idea that the ruling class should feel intimidated.

Secondly "power to the people" has a wide variety of meanings determined by different contexts however it's first use was in 1960's America when youths of the time used it as a slogan to form rebellion against what they perceived to be the oppression of the youth by the ruling class i.e. "The Establishment". The Black Panther Party (a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. [2]) used the phrase "All Power To The People" to protest the ruling class domination of society; and finally the term was used by anti-Vietnam pro-democracy students.Therefore the ideals link together to form "The People Have Eyes" a warning to the ruling class that they should always be 'looking over their shoulder' in fear of the proletariat who are in uproar of protest against the ruling class dominated society.

Adolescent Manifesto Cover (Idea 2)

The ideology behind this title "Adolescent Manifesto" was more to make the album look like a guide book too being young and rebellious, sort of a throw back too old school sex and drugs and rock and roll. The term "adolescent" is defined as "(of a young person) the process of turning from a child to an adult" [3] for obvious reasons the student cuts effected people of this age group, the people effected were "adolescents" and the target audience are adolescents (13-19 year olds).

Similarly a manifesto is "a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate." [4] Therefore, by linking the two meanings together, the adolescent manifesto idea simply markets the album as a guide for young people on how to be a young person and the content of the album states how the band want young people to act and who they want them to be; they want young people to follow the teachings of Barnaby Raine and "stand up and fight back".