ALBUM COVER ANALYSIS

RIHANNA

This album cover is solely monochrome and this has an impact on the audience as it stands out from typical bright album covers and those of her previous work. Her previous albums showed Rihanna as being a sexy, confident, vibrant artist however this album cover entails a feeling of darkness with the black and white effects making her new album seem dark and perhaps sinister compared to her older work.

The R on the cover is a sharp shape and which makes the audience wonder why she has released an album so juxtaposed to her other ones. This could resemble her strength and determination to make a comeback after being affected by some aspects of her personal life which shows power and rather than evoking the image of being sexy Rihanna appears to want to show the audience she is powerful and determined to succeed.

The cover of the ‘Rated R’ album shows the audience the artist who’s album it is. The use of thick dark eye make up makes us think perhaps this album has a dark twist to it which backs up the original connotations of the monochrome and the darkness it invokes. Rihanna covering her face

shows her as not wanting to be revealed to the audience and wanting to stay mysterious and dark and not revealing herself to the audience. This image also perhaps shows that she doesn’t wish to be exposed as others are. Rihanna has lots of heavy jewellery which also adds to the darkness of this album as it looks thick and heavy as though she is not someone to back down easily and she can stand up for herself.

The album title is written extremely small and white so therefore it does not stand out from the CD cover itself which could make the audience think the title is of no real importance compared to knowing the artist and noticing the album.

PARAMORE

Paramore released the album Riot mainly in monochrome with the title standing out brightly in red and the album being covered in the album title. It makes the audience clearly aware of the title and makes it seem as though Paramore really want their album to be noticed and for the audience to remember the album title. However their name is only entwined in the words ‘Riot’ once and is not very distinctive from the rest of the album cover. It seems as though Paramore wanted their album to be noticed but wanted to keep the band slightly mysterious with the cleverly done camouflaging of their name on the album.

This album cover is very different to the newer one they have released called ‘Brand New Eyes.’ ‘Riot’ is a very busy album cover with lots of detail and writing on the cover. The writing is written in graffiti style whereas on the ‘brand new eyes’ album cover it is very delicately written and a very basic image. This could perhaps show the growth and change of Paramore during their time as performers.

The use of monochrome with grafitti makes the album stand out compared to many others as most albums use a lot of colour. The main title which allows the album to be noticed clearly is written in red which allows the audience to put the two together and recover the connotations of a ‘Riot’ and the colour red. This could be representative of the message Paramore wish to present with this album as the music is an American rock band and their music could be seen as being ‘Riot’ music. The different styles of

graffiti writing show a creativeness behind Paramore and possibly could represent their creativity in music.

BRITNEY SPEARS

Britney Spears’ album ‘Circus’ comes across to the audience as being ‘Circus’ based as the cream curtain backdrop in the CD cover allows the audience to see this as it resembles a circus scene. The use of bright colours to frame the cover increases the circus image as many circus’ are bright and happy places. There are blue stars also framing the artist in the cover who appears to be the centre of attention as it is her album and she wants the audience to be aware of that and know her as the artist and the album being noticeable helps enforce this.

The title of the album is smaller than the artist’s name as she wants to be recognised by the audience more so than the title. Also with it being written in red it contrasts with the artist’s picture and the background as they are pale colours towards the bold red allowing the artist’s name to stand out. The album title ‘Circus’ is written also bold but smaller and in yellow which blends in with the background slightly more than the red writing which shows a less significant title compared to the artist’s name.

The artist Britney Spears looks very relaxed and feminine in a pale dress with her arms in front of her and her head tilted to the side. She appears very relaxed and happy about being involved in the ‘Circus’ represented by the album. Her hair is very light blonde and towards the end begins to flow and blend into the background slightly as though she is a part of the ‘circus’ imagery. Her hair being down, long and flowing shows her to be very feminine and relaxed. She appears very comfortable and this could reflect the album she has released.This is very different to the other albums she released close to this one as she appears very innocent and youthful like her earliest albums whereas the album ‘Blackout’ she looks very dark and sexy rather than youthful and innocent.

CHERYL COLE

Cheryl Cole’s album ‘3 words’ appears to be a very basic, feministic album that allows the audience to see her as a solo artist performing and she appears very feminine in the picture with a head piece on that has a mesh covering her face. She appears distant from the audience behind the veil and this makes her seem very feminine also. The flowers on her hair show the femininity of the album which from the CD cover may come across as being purely female based. It appears that the artist does not have any clothes on & the title appears tattooed on her skin. She appears to be exposed with the lack of clothing which is juxtaposed to the veil covering her face which makes her seem distant.

The text on the CD cover is written in a very curvy, feminine font that makes the audience think she is basing her album on her femininity. The fact that it is superimposed onto her body is almost branding her with the album so that if the album is a success she will be seen as a success and if the album doesn’t do well, she will be brandished with that. It appears she is loyal as with the superimposed titles she is then tied in with the album.

The monochrome of the album may have been used in order to add to the femininity of the album in general. There is no colour in the picture besides black, white and a grey-scale. This enables the album to stand out as it looks aesthetically pleasing to an audience to see a calm, relaxed looking album cover.The artist on the cover appears very relaxed and calm which also adds to the aesthetics brought along with the album.

With the writing being very small on this cover it shows the significance of Cheryl Cole being entwined with her album. It allows the audience to see that she wishes to be recognised with the album.

EMINEM

This album appears from a distance as being very basic and simple however when looking properly at this album it is noticeable that there is an essential amount of detail which attracts the audience to the album’s meaning.The large, modern building in the background catches the audience’s eye making them wonder what this building is and its significance to the artist. On a closer inspection there appears to be a glass box before the building showing the artist, Eminem, seated on a chair reading a book with a television in front of him. This allows the audience time to question the artist’s motives behind the album and what significance it entails.It would appear that with the album being called ‘Recovery’ it would show Eminem’s recovery from something in his personal life that has affected him. The album is very simplistic and it could represent his life without the thing that has/was troubling him.

The ‘Parental Advisory’ symbol printed on the album shows a level of maturity to the album and that parents should determine whether or not the material is appropriate for children to hear. This shows that even though there may be signs of bad language there is a maturity to the fact it has been printed on the album and therefore Eminem promotes the album as being potentially unsuitable.

The album, ‘Recovery’ is written in a plain colour with red circle and white cross to represent the O in ‘Recovery’ which can represent a hospital, allowing us to question whether the building in the background is a hospital of some sort and questioning whether Eminem is recovering from drink or drug problems in rehab. However it all remains a mystery as the cover does not reveal anything about the artist. The fact that the E is written backwards shows this is Eminem’s album even though his name is not actually printed on it. This is because Eminem’s trademark is having a backwards E in his name.

ADAM LAMBERT

The album cover for Adam Lamberts album “For Your Entertainment” is very flamboyant and colourful. The way his face & hand are being shown quite pale & perfectly smooth almost reflects him as being pure and innocent compared to the background and his hair which are electric blues and purples, perhaps suggesting his album is very lively and energetic as it is typical to see the electric blues around lots of lively dance places EG; clubs and bars.

Adam Lambert on this photograph has very piercing eyes which catch the eye of the audience as they are also highlighted by eye make up, which is unusual to see on males in typical a typical society. However by highlighting his eyes with eye make up it allows the audience to see his eyes very clearly as they are a piercing blue & also shows he is very individualistic as he wears make up in public & appears to be a very groomed person.

The choice of hand glove in this picture could represent that Adam Lambert is not a typical ‘pop star’ as he has a glove with metal chains hanging off it. It contrasts with the use of make up as the make up comes across slightly feminine whereas the chains appear quite intimidating making him a mysterious artist.

The text on the album cover changes in the artists name and the album title. The artists name is written very bold & quite largely all in capital letters so that it stands out allowing the audience to know this artist as he wants to be well known. The colour choice allows it to blend with the background but because of the white/silver it allows it to be fairly noticeable to an audience.The writing for the album title is quite small in comparison to the artists name but the graffitti style writing is very eye catching as it is quite sharp and rigid and written in silver contrasts with the dark background colours.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS

The pretty reckless album cover appears very basic but also interesting to the audience as it allows them to see the main singer looking very feminine and dark with long hair flowing around her. As the album is in black and white the artists make up appears very dark and dull which reflects the name of both the band and the album. ‘The Pretty Reckless’ and their album ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ both seem very dark and sinister which makes the audience think this album is going to have a depressing tone to it and be very dark and evil.

The band name appears on the album cover as being very dark and bold which reflects the band’s alternative rock genre. The word ‘pretty’ is smaller than ‘The’ and ‘Reckless’ which makes the audience think that perhaps the artist does not feel ‘pretty’ or the album is not described as being ‘pretty.’The album title is written in red which says ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ it is a dark title and the colours black and red are connotations of death and pain making the album seem even darker than it already did.

The X’s written at the bottom of the album seems as though perhaps the artist has done something wrong. The graffiti style makes it look as though they have been purposely drawn on to make the album seem even darker.

JAY Z

This album cover is quite appealing as the white scale background covered in various items such as keyboards, lights and guitars aren’t very noticeable from a distance but up close they are easily noticed making it stand out to the buyers especially with the only other colour present being 3 bold red lines used to catch the attention of the audience.The use of the 3 red lines and the background collage symbolises the albums title “The Blueprint 3” which is written quite small in the corner of top right corner of the cover along with the same symbolic 3 lines however these lines are just in plain black writing and aren’t very noticeable in comparison to the 3 bold red lines.

Jay-Z is written in a regular sized black font which stands out however it is not the most noticeable part of the cover. It almost seems as though the artist & the title are insignificant compared to the imagery presented on the picture. The album cover in general seems fairly basic but has an impact on the audience and allows them to notice it and take it in. Its quite memorable and individualistic which makes the audience remember the album cover showing that it has had a positive effect.

COBRA STARSHIP

The album cover for Cobra Starship is very unique and eye-catching to the audience as the use of animated text which looks almost drawn on by hand with bright colours and bold black outline allows it to stand out to a crowd and as it is very bright and bold it catches the audiences eye and makes them interested to see what Cobra Starship is about.The main focus of the writing on this album is the Artists name not the album title as it is the artist who has bright bold writing and wants to be known for the individualistic style portrayed through the text on the album cover. It catches the eye of the audience before the background and the rest of the cover and effectively portrays a specific genre of music.

The way the album title is presented is very individual and presents the genre of the artist in a clever manner. The way the title is written on the inside of the females lip shows how ‘Cobra Starship’ are an edgy group with a unique style.

The piercings, multi-coloured nails & gold jewellery classified as “Bling” give the audience an indication as to what genre the album is going to be. It allows the audience to understand the genre of the music immediately and as it is quite unique it is easily noticed and very vibrant.

EXAMPLE

Examples album ‘Won’t Go Quietly’ stands out to the audience because the use of photographs as the background because this isn’t normally seen and attracts the audience because people’s natural instinct when seeing a photograph is to instantly look at it whether or not they know the people in it. This is an effective way of getting the audiences attention and proves successful with Examples cover as it is very eye-catching and this interests the audience into looking more closely at it and then purchase it.

Most of the pictures on the album are of the artist with other people possibly at a party. This allows the audience to see that the album is going to be very lively and energetic and it shows the artist is a fun-loving person

The use of monochrome writing makes the artist and album titles stand out from the rest of the album which has a pink scale to it. The writing is typically bold and stands out being white on the black background.The artist’s name is bigger than the album title in order to attract the audiences attention to the name of the artist because he wishes to be well known amongst the audience.The album title ‘Won’t go quietly’ gives the connotation of the album being very loud and energetic which reflects the type of music ‘Example’ creates.