Album Cover Analysis

Here is a photo of the selection of album covers i chose to look at for this task:


1. What are the typical features that an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common.
colour scheme
simple design
few or no characters
use of different fonts/colours
title
name of band/album
song titles list
barcode
record company name
year

2. How would you categorise the covers in front of you? Are there any other ways of distinguishing between them other than generically?
Amongst the album covers, there are many different genres such as pop, rock and r'n'b. This would be one way to categorise them but i could also categorise them into different types of artists for example boy bands and then rock bands. The boy bands all have all the members of the group on the cover whereas the rock bands have an abstract cover with either a design or animation and no image of the band itself.

The covers could also be categorised by audience and their appeal. The Evanescence and My Chemical Romance albums are similar in terms of imagery and i think clearly target people that like the rock genre. Whereas covers such as the boy bands target more their female fans.

3. Album covers serve many different functions. What do you think these are (ie what is their purpose?)

A cover serves three main purposes:

1.To advertise and identify the contents of the music product.
2.To convey the artistic aspirations of the original artists
3.To serve as a primary image in the promotional efforts surrounding the product, as an identifiable image associated with it.