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Website Analysis - Childish Gambino, M.I.A and The Cranberries

The websites for MIA, Childish Gambino and The Cranberries are all aesthetically and stylistically different, however the main aspect of all of them which connects them is that they all are advertising their latest album release, through direct references to the album, as well as through colour schemes and imagery MIA’s website features a repeating, horizontal line flag like design of orange, black and an off-white/pink colour. This connects with the flag imagery in the centralised orange box, which displays an album bundle for sale including a flag with logos on it, the CD as well as vinyl which is green instead of orange as an incentive to buy the more expensive product. Below this are the usual links to streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play etc. Also included below this on the page is a download link to the logos used on the flag, showing a synergistic link between the branding of the website and of the album. The final piece of screen real estate utili...
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The Cranberries - Zombie (Analysis)

Zombie by The Cranberries is a 1994 Alt-Rock protest song about the 1993 IRA Warrington bombing. It was the lead single to The Cranberries second studio album: No Need to Argue, and received commercial and critical success, reaching No.1 in various countries, and being named the best song of 1994 by MTV and Triple J. The Alt-Rock genre – which in this instance features a more grunge-like, aggressive sound strongly links to the protest song genre, and as an Irish band, a song about the Troubles seems unlikely to be merely virtue signalling, although some critics such as AllMusic have argued that the song trivialises the Troubles. The music video, directed by Sam Bayer, was filmed in Belfast, and features alternating shots of British soldiers, an abstract scene of lead singer Dolores O’Riordan in full body gold makeup, standing in front of a crucifix with children covered in silver makeup surrounding her, children playing a game where they pretend to fight with sticks, shots of mural...

M.I.A. - Born Free (Analysis)

M.I.A's 2010 release "Born Free" features one of the most controversial music videos of 2010, although in the current political context, the praise attributed to Childish Gambino's "This is America" would likely also be applied to Born Free as well, however the controversy at the time, led to the video being removed from YouTube in the US and UK. Despite this, it received positive critical reception due to its representation of political turmoil and oppression and was nominated for “Best Dance Video” at the 2010 UK Music Video Awards. The video parallels the Tamil Genocide during the Sri Lankan Civil War with M.I.A being a Tamil refugee who experienced the full effect of the Civil War, such as her primary school being shot at by soldiers and being destroyed in a government raid. It was inspired by footage of Tamil men being killed by the Sri Lankan army filmed on mobile phones. The video juxtaposes the general conception of genocide and corrupt governm...

Childish Gambino - This is America (Analysis)

Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino's "This is America", was arguably the most significant single of 2018. Winning song and music video of the year at the 2018 Grammy's and surpassing 648 million views on YouTube. The music video follows Glover through a single-take continuous shot as he makes his way through a warehouse, while this is happening Glover provides a commentary on violence in and towards the African-American community, the bystander effect in the internet era, police brutality, Jim Crow and racial stereotypes, and gun violence. While in terms of genre the trap-gospel hybrid is a sonic divergence from the traditional punk aesthetic of a protest song - the messaging and semantics convey that protest and a sense of anger at the status quo is not limited to a single genre. The music video opens up with the hand-held camera moving in to a chair and guitar in an otherwise empty warehouse, enter stage right a black man picks up guitar, and begin...