Here is an analysis of a few of my favourite cd covers.

1. My Musical Inspiration Board =]

2. CD cover analysis This album cover for Miley Cyrus illustrates an almost freedom like atmosphere. Her pose here is very fun and made to look spontaneous, as if having a great time, enjoying life. Her make up is also made to appear minimal to reinforce this ‘I don’t care, I’m happy’ look. This image is very stereo typical of a girl Miley’s age (16-17) which helps her target audience of a similar age, relate, and persuade them to buy this CD. The bright gold's and happy tone of the CD definitely reinforces the genre of this music. Here is the cover for N*E*R*D’s album. The three members are in long shot, revealing their entire body's. Their poses are basic, but some what powerful. They are all stranding tall and firmly, possibly representing their musical style. In front, sits a large red dog, a very obscure image. This obscurity can symbolise N*E*R*D’s unconventionality. A rebellious atmosphere is defined here, with the boys facial expressions expressing a serious ‘bad boys’ image. This is definitely not a stereotypical, everyday CD cover, it is purposely made to look different and unconventional. N*E*R*D is very hard to place when looking for a specific genre, they are across between R’n’B and Heavy Metal. Both their image and their music is obscure from stereotypes. From this image I would suggest that their target audience are males, looking for an alternative music style with some attitude, possibly late teens.

3. #2… Eminem’s ‘Relapse’ album cover. The prominent image of this cover is Marshall (Eminem) sat in the centre of a rotten old room. Eminem sits with his hand on his head, a position associated with deep thoughts, pain or suffering. This negative pose, placed within a fragile setting makes Eminem seem venerable and alone. I believe this image represent the sort of audience he is aiming to reach. His songs speak meaningful messages, and relate to those during difficult times, helping them through it. Eminem’s album covers are often very obscure, and because of his international reputation, his covers do not need to symbolise his music genre. When you think of rap, you think eminem. The colours here are all very clear and bright, suggesting happiness, fun, free, music. The characters in the picture are notoriously known as the cast of HSM and immediately tells the pass by just who and what you can expect from this music. Everyone here is smiling and jumping for joy. The Disney logo at the top tells us that children are probably going to like this music more than any other age. Everything here screams innocent fun, an association you would link to children. The sort of music you would expect from this would be cheesy pop, you could dance along to freely. The use of bright primary colours such as blue, yellow and red are very stereotypical of a pop CD. All these conventions make the audience aware of what to expect from a single glance.

4. #3 The centre picture in this CD cover, is David Guetta himself. It makes it very obvious who is the artist straight away. In the background there are people dancing and having a good time, suggesting what this music might provoke, and where you might want to hear this music. Also, the small neon light in front could represent that this music is slightly different to conventional dance music, it has something new, unique, different separating it from the competitors. The disco atmosphere in the back suggests to me that the audience for this music, would be 18-23 year olds, interested in clubbing and the music scene. This black eyed peas album has lots of attitude. They are stood in very obscure poses, with Fergie flaunting her ‘sexy’ appeal. Their clothes are very trendy and modern, with the use of a very sharp text representing their modern musical style and taste. BEP are known to be very up to date, almost constantly having a hit track in the charts, so whatever they wear on their covers, are instantly thought of as trendy and stylish. This dress sense also suggests that they are going out, and maybe suggesting that this is where their music should be listened to prominently. Here the genre is very clearly highlighted as r’n’b hip-hop. I believe that all this is suggested purely through their clothes and stance.