Isabel Wong: Music Video Album Covers

Activity One – The Iconography of the Album Cover

The article talks about the industry of designing album cover where Julian House, a creative partner at London creative agency is interviewed. He talks about how the industry works: briefing session with record labels in order to collect information about what they want to be seen on the cover; then the most important part, have a conversation with the bands and artists, this is for the designers to find out more about the bands and artists in order to tailor make their CD covers with their unique characteristics and styles included. CD covers and inserts are very important since they are windows into the themes and ideas of the artist.

There are also various ways to deconstruct CD covers: target audiences, connotations, symbols and camerawork could be critical elements to look at.

Activity Two – Online Research – This Weeks Album Chart

1.      Calvin Harris – 18 Months

The cover uses a simple photography, this suggests to us that the songs of the artist are simple as well with less special effects put into the songs. As we see the blue sky on the cover, it might mean that the songs of the artists are not gloomy.

2.      Kylie Minogue – The Abbey Road Sessions

This album has a bold iconography of Kylie Minogue holding a microphone. This suggests to us that the album is likely to be promoted as a classic or masterpiece of the artist. The Black & White effect further consolidates how epic the album is.

3.      Emeli Sande – Our Version Of Events

By observing the dominant colour and costume on the cover, we might conceive the artist produces rock music.

4.      fun. – Some Nights

The band fun. is not on the cover where two unknown boy and girl are on the cover. But we’ve no idea of what they are doing. Title of the band is also not shown on the cover which makes the album difficult to be understood.

5.      Taylor Swift – Red

The cover is typical for Taylor Swift, because almost all of her albums have her iconography on the covers. But this is slightly different from the previous ones where Taylor’s lip is the focus of the cover. The colour red is frequently seen on Taylor’s makeup and outfit, so this could be a colour that represents Taylor. But this time the colour appears on Taylor’s lips, this could suggest that Taylor has had a breakthrough in her music style.

6.      Mick Hucknall – American Soul

There is a bold iconography of the artist singing in a studio. Such bold iconography means the album is very likely to be a masterpiece of the artist.

7.      Mumford & Sons – Babel

Iconography of the band is shown on the cover with a large party behind, we could then conceive the album is going to be quite cheerful. Different colours are included as well, so the music in the album might be dynamic in terms of style.

8. Matt Cardle – The Fire

Again, there is a bold iconography of the artist on the cover, collaborated with the element of fire, the album might relate to us that the songs are angry or deep.

9.      Paloma Faith – Fall to Grace

The album is amazing in terms of aesthetic, it just matches the album title ‘Fall to Grace’, there is really a feeling that we are going to be sucked down into the whirlpool of ‘Grace’.

10.  Madness – Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da

There is no iconography of the band on the cover, and people might not know it is a music album when they first see it since there are just words on the cover. This might have something to do with the band’s image since they are called ‘Madness’.

Activity Three – Textual Analysis

The dominant colours on the cover are black and red which are gothic colours as well. The colours match the image of band which might be related to death. It might be more sensible to say black and red also stand for rock music or indie rock, this somehow tells the music inside the album to audiences. Furthermore, by observing and location, costumes and props on the cover, it is not difficult for us to know that it a band. Since one of the band members is holding an electronic guitar which further consolidates the idea of the band plays rock music. Also, costumes the band members are wearing tend to be urban which presents their indie rock image. Fonts used on the cover are divided into two types, a clear and bold font type is used for the band’s title ‘THE KILLS’ while the font type used for the album title gives a creepy sense that matches the title ‘midnight’.

Activity Four – The Best and Worse Album Covers in the World

DJ Shadow – Endtroducing…

I personally quite like this album cover because of the style of photography. There is no album title and band name as well which arouse the interest of people when they are wandering around CD shops. The filter they use for the cover is the one I obsess the most since I am always wondering how to do it with my camera or Photoshop.

Ken – By Request Only

I can’t really find the worst CD cover among the selection since I think they are all the worst in the universe. But I chose this because I laughed out in front of the screen while I was checking out the blog. I know bold iconography could make the album becomes a classic or masterpiece for the artist, but I don’t get why they put two silly iconographies on the cover and that really makes no sense! 

Activity Five – Homework: 5 images of my chosen band - The XX