Thursday, 12 November 2009

Conventions of an album cover

Album Covers - the idea of a mixture between art and music.









Conventions



typical conventions for an album cover are quite simply the name of the artist, which is often the largest and most eye catching of the album cover, the album title, which again would be rather large, and finally a main image, which often takes up the majority of the back ground. On some occasions the 'Parental Advisory' logo is present in one of the corners. In some ways this logo would appeal to youths who like the music as it would make the album look 'cool'.





Example 1 -Tinchy Stryder - Catch 22



On this album cover, there is a full length photograph of the artist himself, wearing a very well known 'star in the hood' t-shirt. He is also wearing sunglasses and large heavy looking jewellery which is quite typical of a famous RnB artist. The artist name and album title is written is in the font which is always used for this particular artist so people will recognise this. The colours used on the cover are bright colours which mesh well together, the idea that the title is in white means that it stands out and makes it easily noticeable and obvious. The artist appears to be standing on a wave of colour, and the image is repeated many times behind him to give a sort of 'echo' idea. Also, the idea that the artist is a famous person who has earned a lot of money from his music is dressed in casual everyday clothes suggests he is very much down to earth which again would appeal to the audience because the artist can relate to them.



I think this sort of album would appeal to people around the ages of 13-25 and to both sexes. I think this because young males would look to the artist as a role model, whereas the females could be attracted to him.














For my particular music album cover, i will need to design the inside of the cover as it will fold out. Therefore considering the same colour or images is very important.















Example 2 - Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D



This album cover is a very simple one. It has a plain black background, and the image is a feature from one of their videos. The feature shown is from the video which is for the song 'boom boom pow' where there are modern robotic style faces and people that appear to be in some sort of computer format. Again the artist name and title of the album are written in the style which is always used for this particular artist. It is also written in white which means the writing can be seen very clearly against the other dark colours on the cover. On this occassion the artist, or artists in this case, are not actually shown on the cover, with a group which is so well known, they do not actually need to put their faces on the cover because they are now extremely popular and choose not to have themselves on the cover. Another reason they might not put themselves on the cover is because on some occassions the album will have a theme, and the front cover will usually follow this theme. For this album it suggests the theme is modern and somewhat computerised.



Again i think this album would appeal to most young people, so ages of around 13-25, because of its modern feel and hip hop songs which are very up to date. Th lightening bolts in the title also suggest energy and this leads us to think the songs are energetic and lively, which is another reason it would appeal to young people. I dont think this is aimed at either sex inparticular and it is probably equal as to who would buy it.






























Example 3 - Pink - Funhouse
This album cover shown is very typical of the artist. There is again the main image which is of the artist. Pink is known as a very outgoing and individual character, sometimes spelling her stage name with an exclamation mark (P!NK). The image shows her riding a pretend horse which is obviously linked to the title of the album which is 'funhouse'. We can also see that she is not wearing much and she is showing off a few of the many tattoos that she has, showing off her personailty as we know her as a daring and sometimes shocking artist. We know this about her because in some of her songs involve lyrics about drugs and alcohol. This appeals to young people because, in this day and age, many young people drink alcohol etc which means they can relate to her music. She has a feisty expression on her face and her leg is in the air, suggesting fun and excitement. She is not sitting how anyone else would normally sit on a horse. The artist and album title is again written in white so that it stands out from the background. The difference with this artist is that she doesn't have a particular style of writing or colour scheme for her albums like many other artists do.

















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