Album Covers

1) What are the typical features an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common

After analysing a few album covers, I have narrowed styles down to 3 main categories.

Photo of band – This is almost always used for debut artists, as they aim to promote themselves and make people aware of who they are.

Album artwork – more established bands often use artistic designs on their album, they are normally digitially created but can be sketched. They can do this as fans will know what they look like and the imagery is successful way of attracting attention to the band.

Creative Photography- This could feature the band or just be a photograph which represents the band or the album.

Of course it is not impossible that bands cross over and merge these categories, and there are many examples of this.

There is the conventional list which album covers comply to. These are:
- name of artist
- name of album
- One of the 3 styles mention above, or a mix of them.

BACK COVER
- track listing
-smaller filler artwork or images. These typically reflect the style of the front.
- barcode
- institutional information



2) How would you catagorise the covers in front of you? are there any ways of distinguising between then other than generically?

The albums in front of me have been created by established Indie Bands like Kasabian and Arctic monkeys. As I have previously indentified, established bands lean away from the typical basic band photographs that we see from new bands. Instead the covers are creative, eye catching and interesting, with plenty to analyse. I’ve noticed that the bands generally focus more on the music than on their own and create a cover that reflects their music. For example West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum album appears random, with a mysterious setting, strange poses and costumes that seem out of place and that do not suit the wearers.

However, this reflects the band’s unique style and the variety of their music. Conversely, I found that my old Pop C.D’s stick to stereotypedand fit into the first Category I discovered. They focus on the Singer, and feature photoshoped to perfection close ups of the artist.

I can see that they will create a connection with the listener but not appeal to niche indie audiences. The imagery sells the artist as well as the song and are designed to appeal to the masses. Established bands like Coldplay opt for even more simplistic styles, these often stick to a font which is iconic and recognisable.

3) Album covers serve many different functions, what do you think these are? (ie. what is their purpose)

The album covers ultimate purpose is to sell the artist and their music to their fans. This can be applied to all album covers, however different fans have different tastes, and that is why we see differentiation. New artists stick to convention to attract new fans and appeal to the mass market where as bands like Oasis have an established fan base with specific tastes which they must appeal; to.