The Morning Glory album by Oasis was very successful, propelling them from an indie crossover band to worldwide fame. The album cover features two men walking down an empty street with lights on, conveying a message of drugs creating an illusion and distancing oneself from society. Some key aspects analyzed are: - The clothing and slight color offset suggest an indie genre. - For only their second album, the cover shows little of their star image, going against promoting themselves but allowing great success. - Oasis attracted a mature audience like most other British indie/britpop bands, bringing something new with their advanced lyrics and sound.

1. Alex Harris

2. Morning Glory was Oasis’ most successful album by far. This being their second
studio album, this was the one that really propelled Oasis from being a
crossover indie band to a worldwide phenomenon. It spent 10 weeks at no 1 in
UK Album charts and reached number 4 in the US, with 4 number one singles.
What’s the story Morning Glory is a saying that signifies that drugs are an
illusion to make you feel good. I believe that this album cover creates a major
link to that title. The first thing one notices is the two men walking down the
street one with his back turned. This gives away no emotion or expression
from the stars on the cover. His clothes demonstrate a clear indie genre. The
street where they are walking is empty but all the lights are on connoting that
when you are on drugs (linked to the meaning of the title), you distance
yourself from society. The colours used in this album cover to match the
stereotype of usual indie album covers.
The bright colours portray a distorted view of the
indie genre, which once again could link to drugs.
One thing that does much the stereotypical features
of a indie rock album cover is the title. Written in a
bold, plain font, showing the band haven’t gone into
too much detail to make the cover look ‘pretty’ as
they care more about the music highlighting their
organic qualities.
It is possible that through this album cover, the
group’s guitarist and producer Noel Gallagher was
trying to convey a message to someone based on
the name of the cover and other features.

3. Genre: It is clear from factors such as
the clothing on the men and the
slight off colour in the picture that
Oasis is indie. The logo in the bottom
right corner is very basic which shows
they are likely to be more interested
in their music, which is very common
from organic bands.
Star Image: Considering this was only Oasis’ second
album and this was the one that really promoted their
name, this album cover shows very little of their star
image. Most bands if they aren’t big would have a self
named album or a picture of the band on the front to
build their name. This goes to show how well Oasis
have done as they didn’t go down a normal route. Oasis
had competition on their rise to fame from fellow
britpop band Blur, whom are also very popular, but
their rebelious edge to them allowed their second
album to become the fourth best selling album in the
UK ever at the time.
Target Audience: I believe it’s fair to say
that Oasis attracts a mature audience like
most other indie rock / brit pop bands.
Tony McCarroll said “we are devoid of
finesse and complexity that it came out
sounding pretty much unstoppable.”
They’re advanced lyrics and sound brought
something new to the indie genre.

4. Firstly, the cover gives a sense of isolation, which is something we are
trying to imbue in our artist, this connotes a sense of alternativeness
which we think is representative of our genre of music. The out of focus
images in the background give it a hazy, druggy feel. Which helps sell the
artist through Dyer’s ideas about star theory, that musicians can sell
themselves through alternative lifestyles. This is something we are also
trying to reflect in our artist in particular in the music video and we
might also make it a feature of our inside cover.