Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

• This album follows certain conventions commonly found in album art. Firstly the name of the Bandis included on the cover. Secondly the name of the album is included as a title of the album.
• The use of colour grading on the building to make them look old a decayed is a reference to the album title, being a statment that maybe the building itself is graffiti in the bands mind.
• In a complete Juxtaposition to this we see the letters on the blinds in bold reds behind blinds coloured in a light blue. This use of colour means the title of the album sticks out to the audiance with the use of dull black and grays and contrasting colour to show up the reds.
• The man sitting on his own could be a metaphor for lonliness, which is one of the themes in the songs included.
• The apartment building was edited in order to ensure it was symmetrical, this was done for  a number of things. To make the building sem more mundane to help contrast the title to the building. To be a metaphor for society, flats contain lots of people who like the flats are identical to one another in the ways the look, act and conform to society. By doing this the band hoped to break the boundaries in the hope of making their aims apparent.

Radiohead - In Rainbows

• This cover sticks with few of the conventions commonly found in album artwork. However like many cover it still includes the bands name and the album name.
• However this is where the common conventions stop. The bands name and album title are printed continually all over the cover in brash block capitals and bold contrasting colours. This helps to make the album stand out to potential customers, along with stressing the name of the album in a  literal context.
• The use of "_" and "/" in odd places in the titles is a direct reference to computer coding which commonly uses these signs, this is symbolic of how the alums completely different from what the band have done prior to this, that and how the album was released on the internet before it was released in a physical form, the quirk being for a period whilst on the internet you could pay for the album for however much you felt it was worth.
• The use of a simple black background helps to juxtapose the vibrant colours of the texts and the image.
• Behind the text is the image os an explosion in mid combustion, it gives the impression that it has spewed out the titles for the album, this violent spectacle is a metaphor for the continuing passion that the band has for their music.
• The image has clearly gone through an acid bath process which is evident by the blotches of colour around the image. I feel this blatant experimentation of the album cover itself reflects the bands attempt to experiment as well.

Album Cover Analysis: Michael Jackson-Bad

Michael Jackson- Bad 

• The CD comprises of many conventions that are stereotypically found on an album cover. These include;

-The artist/artist name appearing on the album cover.

-The artists name + the album name.

• The name of the album has been made to look as if it was spray painted on the cover, this is to code for the thug lifestyle and to further stress the concept the artist is from this culture.

• This is repeated over the bonus track information, the look is as if someone has scribbled over the text as if thought up at the last minuet; this codes for the rebellious lifestyle compromising of quick decisions expressed by the bold and sudden stokes that the scribble is comprised of.

• We can see the artist MJ (Michael Jackson) wearing a black leather jacket with an unbuttoned shirt and jeans. This clearly is coding how the MJ is a thug and as the album says is "Bad".

• The use of three main color's (Black, white and red) help to create contrast that will attract potential audience attention.

Album Cover Analysis: Oasis- Be Here Now

Oasis-be Here Now

·      The Mise-en-scene has codes for an upper class life-style, the band has now moved up the social ladder once again.

·      Random items are splayed throughput the area, many of these are very iconic of specific eras and cultures, for instance the scoter in the foreground is code for the ‘Mod’ Lifestyle which the band mimic.

·      The Old red box has a specific date on it, which is the day that the album was released

·      We also see one of the band members with a clock, however the clock has no arms. This codes for the bands belief that their music is and shall be forever timeless.

·      The Rolls Royce In the pool refers to their success and the new rock and roll life style that they now have.

·      We see other references to their previous album ‘Defiantly Maybe’ with one of the band members looking at an old black and white TV, while another is using a periscope to look a globe of Earth.

·      This image of the member looking upon earth codes for the fact that they believe they have now conquered the earth and are above it (which is why he is looking at it through a periscope).

·      A Grammar phone in the foreground is a metaphor for the label that they are currently signed to.

·      The many elements of the album connote how the band is transcendent and somewhat surreal.

Album Cover Analysis: Oasis- Definitely Maybe

Oasis-Definitely Maybe

·      The picture of a Manchester football player is codes for the bands heritage being Manchurian.

·      The wine glasses scattered around the room are metaphor for a more sophisticated party life-style the band now enjoy.

·      We see a pack of traditional pack of Benson Hedges show how they re from a working class family’s,

·      The lead singer is lying on the ground in the foreground, by doing this we know that he is the front man of the band (Lead Singer) literally and metaphorically.

·      The mise-en-scene is very iconic of a middle class family during the 90’s. However the continual codes found in the room that refer to working class life styles seem to say that even though the band are now wealthy they haven’t forgotten their heritage.

·      The second closest artist to the audience is holding a guitar, which is a code for the fact that he writes the music for the band.

·      The majority of the band are watching the television, this is a convention of family life; therefore they seen to be coding that they themselves work as a unit/family.

·      In the top right of the image we see a globe which has connotations that the band are striving to break through worldwide

·      The logo is stylized much like that of a Newspaper with its simplified text, no capital, opposite colours to grab our attention and basic border, which may be found in any tabloid.

·      The album title is code for the words themselves, written on top the album as if even the words and the name are themselves in decisive.

·      Even though the cover does could be said to be very artistic, we also see many conventional themes that occur in moist cover including the album name, band name and the band appearing on the cover.