Sunday, 15 October 2017

CD Cover Analysis





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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