Research; Album Cover 4

Album Cover; Darren Styles -
'Skydivin''
(2008)




















This album cover again features the artist as the model for the album cover. This seems a key convention of solo albums as it is apparent in the all the solo albums I have analysed. The artist is placed to the right of the screen with a medium close shot used. This shows the importance of the artist and is reinforced by the rule of thirds being followed. The artist covers the majority of the album cover and therefore causes the audience’s eyes to be drawn to the artist. This could be seen as for commercial reasons as the audience is likely to recognise the artist and therefore is likely to increase sales. A parental advisory label is also present on the front of the album cover suggesting the target audience to be teenagers to young adults.

The main colours used with in the album cover are black and white with a hint of pink. The use of a dark background suggests a more serious feel to the album than the usual covers in this genre. The use of dark colours connotes a night setting which is highly related to the dance genre as the genre is linked with nightclubs. The use of the pink causes the colour to stand out on the background and brings a female aspect to the cover which is expected as the dance genres target audience is mostly females. The use of white on the album cover connotes purity and simplicity. This suggests that the album is going to be orientated away from the hardcore music genre and has a more of a serious message behind it.

The use of white light strips, behind the text, gives the feel of spotlights. This again links to the dance genre as it’s linked to nightclubs and dancing. The use of the key light on the artists face reinforces his importance and allows the audience to clearly see his expressions. It also cause’s the artist to stand out on the album cover and draw the audience attention to him, reinforcing the idea of commercialism and the serious message behind the album, due to his facial expressions.

The artists facial expressions and quite emotional, sad and looks as though he’s deep in thought. This connote that there is a deeper narrative behind the artists songs and challenges the majority of the dance genre as the songs are usually upbeat and create happy emotions. These conventions create an emotional, thought filled atmosphere and reinforce the more serious side to the album.

The Text used is a small font, with the artist’s name and album title being the same size. This again challenges the codes and conventions of this genre as the text is usually a large font, with the artists name larger than the album title. The name of the artist is white in colour, reinforcing the idea of purity and the album being quite simple. The title of the album however is pink text reinforcing the idea that the albums target audience is majority female orientated. Furthermore the positioning of the artist causes him to be looking down at the text. This causes the audience’s eyes to follow where he’s looking and also be drawn to the text.