In this essay I am going to briefly analyse three CD covers and then choose one I will focus on and write about it in more depth. The three CD’s I have chosen are, Example “Playing in the Shadows”, Red Hot Chili Peppers “I’m With You” and David Guetta “Nothing But The Beat”. Examples genre of music is Hip Hop, Grime and Electro house; from the CD cover this isn’t easily recognisable as this. On the CD cover there isn’t really much that gives the genre away it is just a picture of Elliot Gleave on the front. Red Hot Chili Peppers album “I’m With You” is even harder to find the genre of. Red Hot Chili Peppers genre of music is funk rock, there album covers doesn’t give the audience the sense that this is anything to do with the genre, all that is displayed is a picture of a fly on a tablet even the name of the artist and song are very small and hidden. For a rock band you would expect things like dark colours, guitars etc on the front but this one is created and displayed in the form of art that doesn’t have a real meaning but is open to interpretation. Finally the last album by AC DC is called “Let There Be Rock” the genres of AC DC include hard rock, heavy metal, rock n roll. From the genre you would expect again for the cover to display some of the stereotypical instruments and be fairly dark, AC DC’s album cover has got all these conventions you would expect from that genre of music it includes all the basic things of heavy metal and rock n roll. As well as that the image also links in with the album name, “let there be rock” if from the religious saying “let there be light” they have managed to show the album image in a religious but rock way.
The CD I am going to choose to analyse more in depth is going to be Example “Playing In The Shadows”. They cover has been created in a very clever way, the album is called “Playing in the shadows” and Example is standing there with one half of him in the shadows and the other half outside the shadow which links in with the name of the album. Most of the cover has been made in very dull colours of different shades of black and white to create the shadow effect, then by making the album this colour they have been able to emphasis “Example” (stage name) in yellow being the brightest possible colour compared to black which grabs the audience’s attention first when they notice the cover. I believe they have done this because even though Example is a well known artist they still want the audience to walk past and notice it’s an album made by him which also explains why he has put an image of him on the front as well. The image of Example takes up the whole album cover as it does relate to the title of the album, “example” is written across his lower neck so it isn’t too low and can’t be seen but low enough it doesn’t cover his face. The size of the “example” isn’t as big as it could be but due to the fact it is in yellow box compared to a black background it is the most eye catching thing so the font doesn’t need to be as big. Then “playing in the shadows” is below “example” in a really small sized font but also stands out as its in white but doesn’t the emphasis away from “example”. The title of the album doesn’t really link in with his genre but example described the album as darker than previous ones, possibly the reason he decided to do the artwork like it is and call it “playing in the shadows”. I think the purpose of calling it that does suggest about his album now being darker and more different than his previous albums. However someone who didn’t know example probably wouldn’t be able to identify the genre from the album cover.
The image on the front takes up the whole album cover; the image is of the artist John Gleave (example) I believe they have done this to try and inform and attract potential customers to the CD. Obviously people who like example will be able to notice this CD much easier due to the fact that it’s got him on the front, whereas someone who might not know example as well still might be attracted to the CD from its unique and striking image on the front. The facial expression of the artist is very serious, this adds to the effect could relate to the fact that Elliot said this CD was going to be darker and possibly more serious than some of his other CD’s. His facial expression also ties in with the genre of music the CD is going to contain because it’s electro house, grime, dubstep it isn’t supposed to be funny, or amusing its meant to be serious which suggests why the artist has a serious expression on his face. The image is a mid close up, they have taken the photo up to the top of his arm but most of the image is focused on the face, this could be due to the point that they want to try and advertise the CD as best as they can by actually including the artist on the front. The image is completely in the centre of the cover and the angle of the shot is of eye angle it has been positioned this way so they can use the shadow more effectively if it is equal on both sides, this way he can be half in the shadow and half out and play with the title of the album “Playing In The Shadows”. The clothes the artist is wearing are very basic this is so the emphasis isn’t taken away from the image, if there was a striking logo or patterns on his clothes the primary image might not grab the attention of the audience in the way it’s supposed to. The hair on the artist has been done to make him look very smart, casual and well presented, having his hair like this helps recognise the e.g. the stereotypical rock album artist might have very long scruffy hair, where a stereotypical dubstep, hip hop and electro house artist looks much more well presented similar to this one. The background colours are black and white the same sort of colours as a shadow would be, on the face they have then swapped the colours around so it is easier for the effect to be seen as they are on contrasted colours. The only bit of iconography is that on the front of all his albums they have always displayed the world “example” on the front; however the style every time has been changed.
The back of the CD again is very effective and continues the whole “playing in the shadows” theme which makes the whole CD becoming very unique and different also very attractive and eye catching to the audience. The image on the front is different from the one on the back, in this image Example is mostly in the shadows but in the light are his eyes this again is very effective it seems that he has almost disappeared but then by having his eyes in the light shows he is still there “playing in the shadows” as the album title suggests. The colour on the background is completely white this time this is because most of the image on the front is dark and by having a light background allows the audience to easily see what they have tried to do with the artwork. They have used the same type of shot but this time been a bit closer up on the face as the emphasis is more on the eyes from where you can see him coming out of the shadow. It is very similar to the image at the front t help tie in with the genre. The track listing on the back is surprisingly small compared to some album covers, on the back it seems they have tried to emphasis the image on the back and due to image being so big the only place they could really put the writing was at the bottom. It all helps to sell the CD by playing on the theme by calling it “Playing In The Shadows” everything on the album case is all to do with the name of the album making it very effective.
The spine of the CD is quite basic compared to the rest of album cover however they do still stick to the same house style all over. The biggest problem I thought with the spine is that the writing on it isn’t big enough and doesn’t stand out enough. For example if just the spine was showing on a shelf then the customer is going to really struggle to spot it. It’s a very basic on the CD it is plain white with tiny black writing in the middle reading “Example Playing In The Shadows”. So compared to the rest of the CD it doesn’t seem as much work has gone into the spine. Even though it has been presented this way they have continued things like house style throughout and it actually works quite effectively.
Overall I feel that the CD cover front and back are very good, they are unique and different but if focused on them are very clever as well. I feel the spine is still quite effective but a bit more work could have possibly been done to make it more appealing. However I believe it serves its purpose of attracting customers very well. The image of example is used on the front and back so it clear to people who’s CD it is, they have also used the artists name and album name several times around the CD cover advertising the name of him but also the name of the CD very well on numerous occasions. Compared to most of his album covers I personally think this is the most effective purely for the fact they have created the album art work and edited the images to match the name of the album which I find very clever and appealing. There are mixed decisions on whether the size of album covers are better than the size of records. The standard size of a CD is 14cm wide, 12.5cm long and around 1cm in depth. Whereas a record was 12" and the cover was just big enough to fit the record in. So CD artwork was much smaller than record artwork, this obviously aloud much more artwork to be added compared to a CD album. With a record they could potentially spend more money on jazzing it up and making it more "art" this could be seen as unfair on some artist and music companies that don't have the money to spend, however a music company/artist with more money to spend on it and make it much more attractive than people that couldn't sound as much money on it. CD covers due to the size mean this doesn't happen anymore because people are so limited to the size they can work on. A lot of companies now use quite random but striking artwork an example being the red hot chili peppers album (at the top of the page) this is very random and quite simple but so effective.
