CD COVER ANALYSIS AND IDEA’SBy Ryan Parsons

I shall look at how CD covers are used to promote the song and the artists, how they are presented and give my idea for my CD cover for my song.

Lets Begin – The 1980’s and their covers.

MICHAEL JACKSON - BADThis cover is very simple. The artist is directly looking at the listener, to attract the audience into listening. This is a clever technique which was considered and still is attractive so that the listener knows who they are listening to. The artists name is in bold to capture the buyers attention. The title of the album “Bad” overlaps the artists name and is written in a graffiti style, bright red writing. The background of the cover is white to capture the dark colours and make these stand out. This is a clever way to capture an audience for the artist through a plain and simple cover with little interruption to ruin the cover.

IRON MAIDEN- KILLERS

This cover unlike the previous cover is very busy. This cover contains an artist drawn scene which replicates the genre of the group and songs on this album. The character on the front of the cover again is looking at the audience, the arm is stretching out as if it was about to grab the audience – used to get their attention and the colours used through most of this are very bleak. This is a rock album through the depiction of dead creatures and violence which is what people think when it comes to the genre of Rock and Roll. The bands name is written in big, bold and striking red italics with a white background to get the attention of their typical audience. The name of the album is smaller and is written as if in blood, with the blood red colour used to capture this.

THE ROLLING STONES- DIRTY WORK

This cover contains bright colours which mix into the context of the 80’s. They are wearing similar colour suits which makes no sense in terms of fashion. From looking at the cover, the genre will be pop, as they were trying to get the latest fashion for the time. The colours used for the album is colourful. Again this is used to capture the attention of the audience and links with the genre of pop. The album features the main band which is used to let the audience know who the members are and to promote these people to the target audience.

From looking at these covers, my initial idea for my own cd cover will contain bright colours and bold text to capture the attention of my target audience. This will come later when the prototype has been completed.