the iconography of the album cover hmw

8/13/2019 The Iconography of the Album Cover Hmw

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By Louisa Collins-Marsh



There are many different reasons why bands and artists use album

covers, and not just to say what their band name is and the title. It is to promote, to make it eye-catching and appealing for

customers who love the specific genre to buy. It is aimed for at specific audiences for a reason way beyond what

the music is actually about. Even though it is mostly aimed at their intended audience, the

cover album might want to capture another sort of audienceespecially if it is heavily covered with artwork. This could be a wayof symbolising what their music isn't able to communicate onpaper. All this has been placed in a certain way, so that nothing is

just for the fun of it. As the saying goes, ‘there's always a reason foreverything.’ And that’s what many people who construct theirown album cover is trying to get across.

The Purpose



Denotation is simply telling what is, identifying the

elements in the photo, but Connotation is thecontinuation of it and exploring the meaning behind it. If

for example, a picture of a tree is given to you, you see theimage and that is it, but then you begin to question whatcould this tree mean and you begin to think of symbolsand meaning that could relate to the tree, such as life, or anew beginning.

With this we are able to do the same with cover albumswhich might not look what they seem. If they don’t have aphoto of the artist or band on it, they may find somethingmore interesting that produces more meaning to thephoto and helps you understand the music more often.

Denotations and

Connotations



A Sign is a representation of what you actually see and

know the meaning. A Code is the structure of how thesigns are seen. People use Technical codes which aretechniques used to make the images appear as they reallyare. Symbolic meanings are there to explain and givemore meaning to the image.

These are used whenever and are interpreted wheneveryou see an image. It is used to challenge conventions orstereotypes which could arise at that certain time insociety. It is a good way to place this in album cover artswhere you are able to see different images that can meandifferent things.

Signs and Symbols



This tells us what is seen but it can relate to everyday

stuff which we all can somehow understand. Conventions

can be seen as stereotypes but it is more controlled andmore abstract so it is very relevant to media texts thatpromote or inform different audiences.

Stereotypes give off more of a negative meaning from itbecause it looks at the things which could be seen as

typical but not among many people. That is why somepeople from a certain audience would find this hard tounderstand especially when there might not be enoughtruth to the meaning.

Conventions



The Pixies

The connotations here of the albumcover bring to mind the symbol ofphysics which is what might have firstbeen thought up when they wanted thealbum cover. This could tell us that theywant to be seen to be a band where itsuniversal, hence the universal symbol

in the middle of the cover.

This cover mostly has the title andthe track song but it the typologywhich is seen the most. The font isswirly and bold which could give ussome idea about the music and theoverall cover is pink and darkwhich might tells us that it can

appeal to anyone.



The Smiths

Here we have an image of a girl in a hairdo thatmight be a wig or her own her to symbolise theretro feel to ‘The Smiths’ music. I can say thisbecause the hairstyle is associated at the time ofthe 60’s because many women at the time foundit attractive. The album is all dark pink withblack coloured in and the font id bold and italic.The slogan at the end, could be ironic somehow

plucking at the theme of death but using brightcolours to symbolise it.

This image is more dramatizedbecause you have a womensmoking and the man looking on.

Their clothes are significantbecause it looks retro again andthe surrounding also illustratesthe time this could have beentaken. It may just go to show thatthe band what to seem more retro

and display the meaning of menand women roles.



The White Stripes

This album cover is very organised asit has mostly red, white and black. Thefeel to this cover gives off the ‘punk’

rock feel which can be seen throughthe colours, effects, font and costume.We are essentially seeing a film stripand three shots of it of a women andman posing. From this we only havethe understanding that these two

people are the singers in the band.

This cover is steeped in black andwhite but it also gives off the feelingof what this type of music could

involve. The singers from the previouscover are there and they are stillwhere the kind of clothes that suit themusic and the background colour. Itdoesn’t seem abstract but naturalisticwhich might also illustrate the type of

music this band could be from.

the iconography of the album cover hmw

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