Album Covers Research

Stare Into the Sun - Graffiti6, Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cheer Up - Reel Big Fish, Appetite for Destruction - Guns 'N Roses, Justice - Justice, Minutes to Midnight - Linkin Park, Start Something - Lostprophets, Food & Liquor - Lupe Fiasco, For All the Right Reasons - Nickleback, The Death of You and Me - Noel Gallagher, The Emyprean - John Frusciante, What's the Story (Morning Glory)

1. What are the typical features that an album cover has?

Usually, an album cover will display the artist name and title of the album, so as to establish who's album it is. Exceptions to this though, are the 'Justice' album, which has only a yellow outline of a cross, and 'The Emyprean' by John Frusciante, which is the very detailed artistic piece. In these cases, perhaps the artist has a reputation and fans will know who the album belongs to, or they wish to keep the focus on the artwork, and not detract from it with text.
Usually the front cover sells the artist, the back cover sells the album.

Sometimes, if the artist has a particular font or logo, that will also appear on the album cover, as is the case with 'Oasis' and 'Nickleback'. This will be consistent branding across all types of platforms and products (i.e. merchandise, website graphics, posters), all of which will work in synergy to create branding.
Artists can sometimes use this to 're-brand' themselves, and create a fresh new image.

In terms of institution, if the album has explicit lyrics or mature content, the cover will display the 'parental advisory' graphic, as is the case with most 'Eminem' albums. More recent albums also display copyright information and the record label. They will always have a barcode, tracklist, and the newer albums often have website URL's - one for the band's/artists website and one for the record labels website.
They always have the album name and artist on the spine, going from left to right. This will be an important convention to follow when designing our album cover.

2. How would you categorise the covers in front of you?

One way could be the type of cover; if it focuses on the band, like 'Linkin Park' or 'Lupe Fiasco' or is a piece of artwork, like 'The Empyrean' or 'Californication' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The covers that have the artist on are usually if it is a debut album, and the label wishes to promote the artist, for example in the case of Lupe Fiasco. This is not always the case however, as can be seen with the Linkin Park album, but this is more for fans of the band that know them and their music.

If the cover is more artwork than a shot of the band, it is usually because fans know of the artist and this is a subsequent album to their debut album, and the artist might not need as much promotion; this would be the case with Californication, as RHCP previous albums had them on the cover.

Another way could be through gender, which closely links with target audience. Albums aimed at girls will have more feminine colours, and may have a feminine artist on the front looking attractive and powerful. In contrast, an album aimed at men will have darker colours, maybe looking grittier. Equally though, they may have an attractive woman on the front, but they have objectified her rather than made her powerful, as is the case with blink-182's album 'All the Small Things'.

During a discussion in class, it was suggested that album covers could be categorised through record label, as this can have a specific style to the album. An example suggested was '2 Tone Records' as they use black and white in most of their albums, fitting with the name and creating an image.

Another suggestion was nationality, which again closely links with target audience. We compared British and American covers, and found that American covers seem to add more 'Gloss', whereas British albums were far more gritty and bare.

3. Album covers serve many different functions. What do you think these are?

I think the main purpose of an album cover is to promote and sell the music, not neccesarily the artist. I also think function has changed over time.
In the days of vinyl and CD's, the album cover would be used to promote the band/artist, and it had to distinguished so that it would stand out on the shelf. I think that is why some of the most iconic album covers are from this era; for example 'Abby Road' by the Beatles, 'Dark Side of the Moon' by Pink Floyd, and 'Nevermind' by Nirvana. These covers are all very unique, and stand out.

However today, due to the change over to digital downloads, album covers have changed a lot as they serve a different function - they are artwork. Hence why covers like 'The Empyrean' don't have the album information, as it is all part of a digital download.
This is a very general statement though, and doesnt apply to all covers.