Navya Aggarwal A-Level media coursework

Hi readers, for my album cover I decided to use collage. Collage is an effective choice for an album cover when the video focuses on teenage friendship, as it visually reflects the layered and emotional nature of teen experiences. The mixed media approach can represent shared memories, inside jokes, and personal moments, much like a scrapbook or mood board. This style feels authentic and nostalgic, helping to convey the energy, messiness, and intimacy of teenage relationships in a visually engaging way. Each and every picture I've chosen in this collage shows the essence of my friendship and the relationships I've build over years. As mentioned above, the collage also represents out closeness with each other. I wanted to show how connecting with people and friendship in your teenage years creates a bond like no other. I personally feel this shows my theme really well, which remembering my friends and nostalgia, which a-lot of people feel as slowly in reality you drift away from...

 Hi readers, this week I've been researching how I want to plan and design my album cover.   When researching album artwork and its relationship to wider promotional strategies, I observed that many successful musicians create highly cohesive visual branding that links the album cover, title, and overarching themes. A prime example is The Weeknd’s  Starboy  (2016), where the saturated red and blue neon palette, his introspective pose, and the symbolic cross necklace work together to encode deeper messages about fame, inner turmoil, and personal transformation. According to Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory, such visual elements serve as signs that audiences decode to understand the emotional and narrative layers of the media text. The stark contrast between the dark imagery and the bright yellow "STARBOY" title effectively communicates the duality of celebrity life — a concept that is both visually and thematically integrated across the album campaign. Drawing inspirat...

 Hi readers, I decided to research Ariana Grande's social media page, (since the song I have in mind for my music video was created when social media wasn't really a way promotion and communication) to see how she has promoted her new album. When I started researching I also read some other articles related to it. Ariana created mystery amongst her fans by dropping studio hints, which was the indication of her soft return. Ariana hadn’t released an album since  Positions  (2020) and spent 2022–2023 filming  Wicked . This long gap created natural curiosity. Before the album announcement, Ariana changed her  Instagram aesthetic by archiving her older posts and shared soft, vintage-toned images.  This created  mystery  and speculation among fans — a common media technique to build buzz (known as  viral ambiguity ). Ariana dropped  s hort video clips  and  images  with  Eternal Sunshine -style visuals (sunlight, lens flar...