An Introduction to Digipacks

Digipacks refers to the idea of the "image" an artist gives out of themselves. This is usually in the form of a CD and sleeve, which is altered and adapted to target a specific audience.

An artist's "text" includes the following:

- image

- language of songs (lyrics)

- sound

These are all contributing factors into how we analyse the text of an artist. Therefore, when looking at Digipacks and ultimately creating our own, it is important to keep these in mind and use them to create a more efficient reach to our audience.

Barthe's Theory

When looking at and creating our own Digipacks, it is important to keep in mind the ideas of others. Barthes created a theory involving the Denotation (literal meaning) and Connotation (abstract meaning) that we analyse when looking at an artist's image. Ultimately Barthes decided that we, as an audience, use our own views and associates to create a personal denotation and connotation portrayed by an artist. We eventually decode these to form our own opinions. In other words, we make conclusions about an image based on our first initial view of it, regardless of if we understand the true connotations behind it.

This theory will be useful to keep in mind when looking and analysing the images brought about by an artist in specific Digipacks as it could be the reasoning behind some of our personal opinions on what we see, and that of what the artist really intended.