1. The document provides biographical information about American musician John Mayer, including details about his six albums and analysis of the artwork for each album. 2. The album artworks are analyzed in relation to various communication and media theories, with the analyses finding that the artworks generally conform to expectations of Mayer's genre and represent themes or messages related to the music on each album. 3. The analyses find that the artworks create meanings and expectations for listeners through the use of symbols, representations, contexts and other techniques addressed by theories including Barthes' semiotics, Baudrillard's hyperreality, and Saussure's semiotics among others.

1. John Mayer

2. About John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American recording artist and
producer.
After making his introduction as a sensitive, acoustic-styled
songwriter on his first album, Room for Squares, he widened his
audience and approach to much, encompassing everything from
blues-rock to adult contemporary. In recent years he has crafted
more pop music to conform to todays music, yet he uses jazz
chords and literate terms of phrase.
He has 6 albums in total He has won many ‘grammy’ awards,
and had multiple top 20 hits, top 1
albums.

3. Past albums
On this cover, he is
shown as happy, which
represents him to be
young.The squares
replicate that of the
title, this represents
him as amateurish (an
independent artist),
emphasizing that this is
his first album.
On his second album artwork, he uses
low key lighting, which could hint at his
change in innocence (as shown in his
first artwork) through his popularity in
the industry. Furthermore, the album
conforms more towards the pop/rock
genre, as he is portrayed to appear
more wild through the mise-en-scene –
scruffy clothing, lighting.
His third album juxtaposes against his
previous two.The bland colours and,
lack of emotion within with artwork
could create a message of depression,
and loss as a theme throughout the
album. Or it could also represent John
Mayor to not conform to typical
conventions, that he is more
interested in the music than other
mundane elements.
1. 2. 3.

4. His fourth album conforms more
towards stereotypical pop genre
artwork, how he is gazing into the
distance – a feature apparent in
many other pop artist artworks.
The black and white colour upon
him represents him as in
mourning, as they are bland
colours which stereotypically
represent people to be upset,
which links into his previous
album artwork colour scheme.
His fifth album relies heavily upon
the illustration elements, which
contrasts against all his other
pervious album artwork. I feel this
represents his music to fit more
within the rock genre – the stylized
font, enigmas created via clock
illustrations, lack of humanity.
His most current album reverts back to his
old style, suggesting a change in events in
his life or that his previous album and
perhaps change of style did not do as well
as others.The location he is in represents
him to be rural, and for the album to
contain natural sounds, to be more natural
and less synthetic.The clouds in the
horizon could suggest at some conflict
which is apparent in the albums songs.
The high quality in comparison to his first
album artwork highlights his rise within
the industry and success.
4. 5. 6.

5. Album 1 creates a message of simplicity, and the artwork makes the album look like an easy listen, and for
a first album and someone trying to break into the industry this is expected. Through the album looking
very rural and focused, it challenges Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory, this is partly due to not fitting within
John Mayer's original genre.Through the simplistic album artwork, I feel it conforms to the uses and
gratifications audience model, and it is within this genre that audiences tend to go to get a diversion – I
feel the artwork used suggests this as a possibility.Through the album artwork using a visual
representation of the name of the album, he conforms to Goodwin’s genre theory of a link between the
visuals and meanings.
Album 2 looks more focused upon a chosen genre, and this has resulted in the artwork looking more daring
and edgy. As a result this has created an enigma which pushes the audience to pursue the album so the
songs can answer the enigma. Furthermore, a possible binary opposition may have been constructed,
where within some of the albums lyrics will conflict against what the album firstly portrays itself to be.
These are representations I expected of the album and artist.
Album 3’s artwork creates a representation of an individual being anonymous, which converges towards
the target audience of his genre.This creates a message of equality, something which his target audience
are seeking. Again using the uses and gratifications model, this model is further supported by the hit pop
song featuring upon it ‘waiting on the world to change’ , and this supports the surveillance element of the
model.Through the anonymous design of the artwork package, it challenges Baudrillard’s Simulacra and
the Hyperreal theory, he stated that representations no longer refer to real things – however the lack of
anything real upon the album creates minimalist representations. However, you could argue that the use of
this design hyperreals representations, therefore could also conform to Baudrillard’s theory.

6. The 5th album creates a wilder representation of John Mayer, as it contrasts greatly against his previous
album artwork, as the majority of them feature himself – a convention of his genre.The change suggests a
change in genre, and this artwork conforms to many theories.The illustrations create enigmas, which
heavily conforms to Barthes theory, such as the clock, the audience will then expect action codes to feature
within lyrics of the songs upon the album. Also, the artwork contains many semic and cultural codes, as the
clock will represent time moving, which has semic and cultural meanings. The use of this illustration also
conforms to Saussure’s semiotics theory. On some level, it conforms to the Hyperdermic needle model, as
the artwork contains images which could be used to inject messages into the audience subconsciously.
Album 4 creates the representation of an individual feeling caged, this is through the pained expression
and the dark colour scheme used upon him when contrasted against the bright white background.
However, he dominates the shot and takes full focus which hints at a representation of independence. This
creates a message of sadness for the album.These representations create binary oppositions against each
other, which creates a symbolic code.Through these clear representations it creates a sign for the
audience, the signifier used is the male alone, looking lost (also supported by the name of the album ‘battle
studies’) which creates a signifier of the album will contain love and romance styled songs – loosing
someone.
The 6th albums artwork creates a representation of isolation and the dog being in the frame represents
companionship. These representations however, will differ dependant upon the audiences location – this
can be explained through social and cultural context. For those living in a rural location, they will not feel it
is isolated, however those living in the city will feel it is.Yet this statement is subject to John Mayer’s target
audience, through this album artwork he will be targeting those who can connect to the image - more
likely those within a similar location.Through these representations it targets a specific audience and
suggests that the album will be rural, and very natural.