Activity One - The Iconography of the Album Cover

·      The Intro Partnership is an agency that creates artistic designs for clients such as album covers for artists.

·      The artists are quite involved in the decision of what to do on the album cover, with small input from the record company.

·      Demand for album covers has lessened as people are into technological devices, e.g ipods, but there is still a demand for a visual accompaniment, even if its only a on a small screen.

·      “As the image is a construction, everything has been put there deliberately and for a reason. This includes all text, graphics and logos.”

·      Denotation – Identifying the elements in the image

·      Connotation – examining what the elements meanings and associations are. 

The company “The Intro Partnership” designs album covers! They design them for various artists who are interested in their work. They first consider the requirements of the record company, for example whether the artist needs to be on the cover, they then sit down and talk with the artist about the direction the artist wants to go and then sketch several different visuals based on their research and finally hone it down to one. They believe each design is unique to the artist and not conventional to the genre of music. Although the demand for physical albums has decreased, there is still need for a visual accompaniment for the music, such as for iPods and phones. The target audience, for the artist, is an important consideration. The album art is not only a promotion tool but it also tells us about the musician and the music. 

Activity Two - This Weeks Album Chart

1. Calvin Harris - 18 Months

The pathetic fallacy of this album cover shows a very happy atmosphere as the sun is shining and the sky is blue. The title and artist are written across the wall in white, so they stand out, you also have Calvin Harris sat by the road. he looks like he is waiting for a lift. Overall the mise en scene shows me that this artist is quite laid back and his music is likely to reflect that.

2. Kylie Minogue - The Abbey Road Sessions

This cover portrays Kylie Minogue as quite classy and sophisticated. the black and white colours represent her as quite old fashioned. The active prop, the microphone, is an old product, what they used to use back in the day which also conforms to the old fashioned image. The title is in pink and across the top, which says she is quite girly, pink is a girly colour.

3. Emeli Sande - Our version of events

From her album cover you can imagine th music inside to be very soulful. I think this because although if you saw her picture because of her punk styled hair you would probably think that she is a rapper but because of the juxtaposition of her we can see she is quite classy. Also her costume, a very flowery dress, also shows sophistication, compared to the usual pop artists usual attire, skimpy clothing. The choice of black and white also gives it a aged look, perhaps saying that her music is quite basic, not the usual modern tunes.

4. fun - Some Nights

Their cover lacks the artists title so clearly the artists expect you to know them and it is directly aimed at their target audience and fans. The image takes up only two thirds of the page, which is unusual because usually the ahole album cover is a picture. The image on the front is of people smoking and doing drugs so the music will probably be quite indie because of the rebeliious manor. I expect the music inside to be quite indie because of the attempt to break out of mainstream conventions but from listening to fun I would say they were more pop artists.

5. Taylor Swift - Red

From this album cover you imagine the music to be pop. This cover conforms to the usual mainstream, pop convention of having the artist on the front cover. Also the title of the album is red and her face is in shadow apart from her lips, which have red lipstick on, matching the title of the album.

6. Mick Hucknall - American Soul

I think that the music on this album will be quite soulful and even rock. The image os of him in a recording booth singing, this makes me think that his voice will be very raw on his album with an american accent, kind of like nickelback. The jewellery he is wearing is quite heavy and gives him a grungey look.The circle around his head could also represent that he is in his own world, so his lyrics will be very personal to him.

7. Mumford and Sons - Babel

This album cover suggests that the music will be indie. The props, the suitcasesand other props, look very vintage, which is typically indie. Their outfits are quite oldfashioned and unusual, again breaking the main stream conventions and not following the latest fashion trends. This cover almost suggests that you can chill out with it as the band are in focus and everyone is behind them blurred, they are busy doing something but the band are just chilling out making music.

8. Matt Cardle - The Fire

The title of the album is The Fire and the image hints that there is fire around him. This could mean that the lyrics will be very deep and personal, usually when you have these kind of lyrics the music is acoustic. His hair is tousled like the lapping flames of an unpredictable fire and his beard suggests that he has spent time on this album.

9. Paloma Faith - Fall To Grace

Paloma Faiths album cover is quite random but alse very Paloma, like Florence and the Machine she also comes into her own category. Her large red flowing dress suggests that she is very soulful, her hand is on her heart and she is looking back, the music could be spoken from her heart? She is also flying with the parrots, perhaps now her lyrics are down on paper she feels free? The blue and red are very contrasting and make her album stand out. Her name is in white in the usual font she uses, creating iconography for herself.

10. Madness - Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da

The front of their album resembles a list, a strange list containing ver random things. Perhaps its a list of what is included in the CD. The name of their album is yes in four different languages which is also quite random. Their entire cover relates to their name...cos its complete madness!

Activity Three - Textual Analysis

The album cover is very bare and simple, it is also very recognisable. The artist has used their logo upon the cover, so people will instantly know who it is. There are two colours on this album cover, black and white. These colours conform to the indie genre, as these colours give off a very classical look and indie is all about being vintage. The artists have only used their logo on their front cover, this also conforms to the indie genre because often on indie albums they don't really have pictures of themselves because the idea is that the music is the only thing matters. The tracklist on the back is a simple downward, left sided list with all the tracks in capital letters, this could suggest that each song is equally as important. 

Activity Four - The Best and Worst Album Covers in the World

DJ Shaow - Entroducing

This is my favourite album cover from the best album covers list. I like it because it fits in perfectly with the artists name. I think it is clever that the figure on the covers face is blurred and the artists name is DJ Shadow because it poses many questions, is that DJ Shadow? Also it seems like such a laid back photo, people are in their comfortable clothes, definitely not dressed for a shoot and the other figure doesn't even look as if he knows the picture is being taken.

Millie Jackson - Back to the seat

This is the most foulest thing ever...who cares who she is! I really don't want to see someone having a shit.

Her costume makes her look really trashy and the fact she is having a picture on the toilet just makes her seem really cheap. Although the bathroom is quite nice and white and clean. The images also match the title of the album as she is on the toilet seat and the title is Back to the Seat. 

Our Album Cover

Our album cover must contain this X somewhere on it as this is the bands logo. We could put our own design behind the X, to fill it, such as what they have done for the X on their website. We can use images from our music video for this.