2. Purpose of CD Covers
To Protect the CD from getting Damaged
For the artist to advertise their music product
To denote the artists personal style
To Include tracklists
3. Trey Songz-Ready
The album cover is of a mid shot of Trey
looking right at the viewer, this is used to
show the viewer his muscle and body art.
Additionally this gives the viewer an aspect
of voyeurism as it could be said that he is
shown so that ‘men want to be him and
women want him’.
The lighting from above is used to define his
body and enhance his muscular tone, this
seems to have been done to show his
athleticism and creates a connection between
the audience who may aspire to look like Trey.
4. Bashy
Bashy’s main target audience are
teenagers, this cover art appeals to
teens as Bashy is sat on a Mozilla
Firefox logo which is a widely used web
surfing application amongst teenagers
who are known for spending too much
time on the internet. The title of the
album is the web address of Bashy’s
official website which is an advertisement
technique used to engage the audience
and get them following the latest news
and songs posted on the webpage.
5. Britney Spears
It is made clear that Britney Spears is
meant to be the center of attention in the
artwork by use of the border around the
center mid-shot of Britney which connotes
her innocence and ‘Barbie girl’ image.
The name of the star seems to be
of higher importance than the
actual album name as Britney
Spears dominates the album
cover by stretching the whole
width of the album whereas the
viewers attention is not brought to
the actual album name. This may
have been used as a marketing
technique so Britney spears fans
know straight away that this is her
album.
6. Kelly Rowland
A Mid shot is used of the star to
include both Kelly’s facial
expression whilst also getting her
body in the shot to present her in a
voyeuristic manner which seems
to be a convention of R&B album
covers.
Kelly's appearance is coded for strong
visual and erotic impact and thus can
be said to connote ‘to-be-looked-atness’, this supports Laura Mulvey’s
male gaze theory
7. Overall Points to consider
Most R&B album covers make use of:
A mid-shot of the star
Present the artist in a voyeuristic manner
Use simple colour schemes & monochrome themes
Different font used for the Artists name and the name of the
album
A simplistic design
Portrait album covers are mostly used by R&B solo artists
