For the lesson, we each brought in a selection of album covers that we found interesting, and we also chose one specific cover to talk about. I brought in the covers for All Time Low's Don't Panic, Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing and Ben Howard's Every Kingdom. I specifically decided to talk about Don't Panic, as I really like the album and I felt as though I had a lot to say about it.
A) Analyse a Selection of Album Covers
Typical Features
- Name of artist/album - Barcode
- Acknowledgements - Promos/stickers
- Typeface - Track list
- Record label - Product Codes
- Producers - Place of manufacture
- Copyright - Booklets
- QR Codes - Sleeves
- Year of Release - Consistent Colour Scheme
- Synergy with other parts of campaign
Categories for the Covers
- Genre - Colour scheme
- Format - Release date
- Concept; abstract or realism - Busy mise-en-scene
- Debut - Record label
- Audience - Media used
- Compilation vs one artist - Gender
- Link to music - Accessibility; niche or pop. culture
- Artist shots;band;artist;photo or representation
Function
- to attract new fans or old fans - increasing fan base
- set up album feeling
- establish genre
- connote artist identity
- recognition/repetition
- cover + music video give artist ability to change identity
- physical product for fans to own
- end result; shows completion of album
- image represents era of music
- visual interpretation of music
- audience selects the song
- another platform to sell the brand
- to inform audience
- make money
- collectible
- inside parts extend the cover
B) Deconstruction of Cover
- There is a lot happening, quite cacophanic like the band
- The font used for the name of the artist is the typical All Time Low iconography used across all platforms
- Popular culture; the whole album is a nod to the 2012 Apocalypse - signified by the meteors, zombies, aliens and general chaos happening on the cover
- Front cover sets up feeling for the band, inside sleeves show the band's reactions to their surroundings and the back cover shows a track list of all the songs
- The action genre being satirised on the front cover is often associated with punk/rock music
- Has the name of the record label on the back, Hopeless Records which is an indie label associated with pop-punk bands
- The target audience is both boys and girls - the cover is more boyish, but the band also has female fans who appreciate the band's quirky sense of humour
- They released a stream of the whole album with animated versions of the inside sleeves; very synergistic
- Also synergy with their lyrics - "Why can't Thursday last forever?" Thursday was thought to be the last day on Earth
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