Album Cover Analysis- Abbey Road, The Beatles
At 11:35 am on August 8th 1969 the traffic was
stopped by police for just ten minutes whilst freelance photographer Iain
Macmillan took the iconic shot that Paul McCartney had sketched for him.
The first thing that can be noticed about this album cover is
that it does not show the artists name or the name of the album. Many would
find this strange as how are you meant to recognise who the album is by? Whilst
researching the reason for this I realised that there would be no need to write
their name on the cover. They were undoubtedly the biggest band in the world at
the time and their faces were probably the most recognisable worldwide so there
would be no need to state this.
This exact scene was used as the band wanted to show the
people where they had spent the last seven years. This shows to an audience
that although they are the most famous people in the world they are normal
people. This is contradicted by the fact they have no title or band name
because they are famous enough to be recognised and the fact that John Lennon
leads the group dressed in all white. White is often used to represent an angel
or messiah figure which could highlight the fact they are so recognisable and
are the most famous people on the planet.
This album cover, although simple, created a lot of
conspiracy. This album was released in the height of the ‘Paul is dead’
conspiracy. Paul McCartney is noticeably the only band member who is barefoot
and out of step with the others. He is also the only Beatle smoking although
many dedicated conspiracy theorists point out that he is holding his cigarette
in his right hand although being left handed. This could have been used as a
clever marketing technique by the band, in the height of conspiracy some people
would buy this album to find hidden clues about Paul’s ‘death’.
Arctic Monkeys, Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not
This album cover shows a picture of a close friend of the
band, Chris McClure, taken in the early hours of the morning.
This picture caused some controversy when the head of
Scotland’s NHS criticized it for ‘reinforcing the idea that smoking is okay’.
This was contradicted by the bands manager when he said that you can clearly
see that smoking is not doing him the world of good. This symbolism however
does show that the band are not afraid to be controversial and could highlight
the fact they will not hold back in their music. This theme is run throughout
as the physical CD is covered in cigarette ends. This shows that the band are
rebellious and could highlight the fact they effuse to conform to society’s
ideas of a role model and will stick to their roots.
This album cover shows the stereotype of a regular working
class man. This shows that the contents of the music will share the views of
someone of this social class. This could be a marketing scheme by the band to
attract a wide audience in this sector of society.
The black and white aesthetic of the album cover is
stereotypical of the indie genre. This is often done by bands so people will
not what to expect when buying the album. It will also attract an audience of
people who may not have listened to their music before but are fans of the
genre.
Oasis, Definitely Maybe
This iconic album art is a photograph taken by rock
photographer Michael Spencer Jones in bandmember Bonehead’s front room. It
represents the band as normal people which is often a technique used by artists
so their audience feel as though they can connect with them.
We can see a globe in the corner of the image perhaps showing
that the band have big aspirations of becoming known worldwide. Liam Gallagher
lies on the floor with his face being the closest to the camera. This shows he
is the frontman of the band and puts him as the main focus.
There are many connotations of the bands working class past
in this album cover. We see a packet of cheap cigarettes in the foreground
showing that the group are not planning on forgetting where they came from. To
further enforce this on the fireplace there is a Manchester City framed photo
as this is the football team all of the band members support. There is also a
photo of Burt Bacharach which is one of Noel Gallagher’s favourite musicians.
To contradict all of this though there are two wine glasses in the image to
represent the new lifestyle the band members are living.
The bands logo in the corner is a lot darker than the rest of
the colour palette. This means it will stand out which would have been
necessary as this was the first Oasis which means they will have had to make a
name for themselves.
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