Akon - Konvicted The cover image suits the genre and the type of music for several reasons. Firstly it shows confliction which is something I associate with RNB and Hip/hop through the juxtaposition between the scene, props and clothing, and his body language and the impression he gives off. He looks aggressive and like he means business which is in definite contrast with the nice furniture and his smart attire. This could also be seen as a difference between the background and foreground. The background is very empty apart from inanimate objects and furniture where as the artist is very dominant in the front of the picture, this again fits with the theme of confliction I highlighted earlier. This type of music is very much about the artist and the inclusion of Akon in this particular pose is fairly typical of his work and that of his genre. The main difference between his first and second album is the costume worn. On his first album he is depicted without a shirt in a situation replicated on many albums falling under this genre, notably including 50 Cent. The suit he is wearing this time maybe suggesting he is taking a slightly different route regarding this step in his career. There is definitely a mysterious nature to the cover, this is enhanced by the lighting which focuses on Akon and leaves the background in semi-darkness. This also fits in with what I mentioned earlier about the artist being the central figure in this type of music.
The target market is primarily people who are fans of this particular genre of music because this type of layout and display is unlikely to attract new fans due to the uniformity of it. The traditional fan of this music is a young one, but as the fan moves away from the stereotype of black people listening to black artists, the stereotype relating to age is less strong too. This is mainly because those that were young when this music was new are not so young now, but this is still their genre of choice, just because somebody hits 30 doesn’t mean they suddenly start listening to Magic, if they weren’t inclined to do so before hand.
Supertramp - Breakfast In America
The genre of this music is progressive rock, labelled so because it’s an alternative to the type of rock music produced regularly at the time of its release. The band were self-confessed to be intense and had a concept style and were therefore known for doing things a bit differently. The themes that are becoming more and more clear from the first part of this analysis are based around individuality and pushing boundaries so the unusual nature of the album image fits in with that. The image doesn’t say a lot about the type of music, but its quirkiness does suggest something about the personality lurking behind the music.
The artist is Supertramp, a British band that enjoyed success in North America first, before having their best chart performance at home with this album. They are not on the front cover, as was their way, depicting something, not always instantly recognisable as relevant to the album at all.
The title, Breakfast in America, was also the title of one of the songs on the album and is related to the cover image. America is covered because the instantly recognisable sky line of New York is the background image, and the waitress at the front is from a stereotype American Diner used in many television shows, creating images of truckers stopping off and a woman with a very pronounced accent asking if the guy at the counter wants a top up. This obviously fits in with the breakfast theme, as does the NewYork buildings and layout on closer inspection. The clever aspect of this picture is that the buildings are all items from a breakfast diner, like the stereotype waitress would work in, with buildings represented by, mugs, cups and even an egg box stood on end.
As the band themselves are not present, deciding anything about how they are being represented is difficult other than too say they are being highlighted as different and a stand out act. The one thing that you can tell about the band is that they are not being placed in New York, but as outsiders looking at it. This is achieved by the outside of the cover being bordered by an airplane window. This could be based on the fact that they are a British band and they are looking at the United States from their perspective, or another interpretation could be that they’re looking at the world from their position, which is one of individuality and they are on the outside looking in at everybody else.
Because this was one of the bands later albums the target market is pretty set in stone as fans of the band, but what this image does create is intrigue and could very much entice people from all sorts of groups to take a closer look. Typically though I think the music of the band was aimed at men more than women from listening to the title song.
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Abbey Road is an album by 1960s Rock/Pop group, The Beatles. In some ways the genre and personalities of the group can be determined by looking at the cover. What becomes obvious is the style related to the band and that whilst they are following a unified look, as this band tended too, there is room for individuality, such as in this case the different colours and fabrics used in the suits worn by each band member. There is however no reference to music on the front cover, unless you have a good local geographical knowledge in which case the street, Abbey Road, is the home of Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded under their own label, Apple Records.
The artist, as mentioned above is ‘The Beatles’ and they are the focal point of the cover image which shows them crossing the road. They are used as the focal point for the obvious reason, that by the time of release, late 60s, the image of The Beatles was recognisable globally and sold records effortlessly, by not including them on the cover they would be shooting themselves in the foot. Even on the cartoon cover of yellow submarine the 4 cartoon people were instantly recognisable as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
The title is Abbey Road, their spiritual home where they recorded most of their songs throughout the decade for Parlophone and suggests the band were conscious of their routes and grateful for all they had been able to achieve because of it. Unlike the majority of their albums it wasn’t named after a song on it, but this wasn’t unheard of, even for this particular group, Rubber Soul being another such example.
The story behind the cover image is an interesting one and the differences in the music industry between now and then are magnified by instances like this. The picture has a man in the background who was unaware he had been photographed until seeing the album cover after its release, something that could never happen today. This further spreads the message that it was the band that was important and that whatever was in the background it wasn’t going to overshadow the group in the foreground, and therefore didn’t really matter. It also represents the band as a group of normal people in many respects. Rather than today’s efforts to double check everything and take the perfect picture, this has a very natural feel. The target market is a very wide one because The Beatles appealed to many people, its fans were made up of the screaming young women, admiring young men and even older generations, and even over 40 years after the release of this album they are still gaining fans today. The main aim of this particular picture is to intrigue new fans into giving this music a try, and having become a hugely famous design which is copied every day by fans, and used by many professionals in the music and film industry today, its succeeded in getting noticed.
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