Research and Planning for CD Cover for Stage Exit

After completing the music video I decided to move on to looking at album artwork used on artits CD covers for their bands within the Alternative Rock/ Punk Rock/ Rock genre. I looked at a number of albums to help get an understanding of the forms and conventions that I would have to use to attract the audience I would be selling to using representations and audience institutions. I chose to make a album cover that would be with the CD which was to promote the single in which the music video I created would promote.

I began to look at the CD covers for other artists and bands in the genre. The artist(s) album covers which stood out to me the most were:

Aerosmith
Bowling for Soup
Foo Fighters
Green Day
Guns N Roses
KoRn
Metallica
Nickelback
Nirvana
Billy Talent
and System of the Down

Below are some of the front covers that were most influential to me:

After randomly choosing each artist and the artwork used for their CD covers, I began to take notes and look at the details, forms and conventions generally used.

General Forms and Conventions

I found that usually dark colours are used such as Greys, Blacks, White, Reds and Dark Blues rather then bright or upbeat colours such as Yellow, Orange or green. This can be used in my own cover as it would attract the right audience using the colours as representations for my product.

Most covers also use religion. For example, Crosses, Angels and Doves are frequently used in the artwork in the image. These are also used as things that are usually seen as peaceful or gentle are twisted into a different picture or meaning. For example, on the Guns N Roses cover roses are shown around a gun so taking something that is peaceful and loving and interwinding them around a gun which represents violence and anger.

This form and convention is also used on other CD covers by showing tombstones, graveyards and an album cover by KoRn shows a little girl on a swing however, the top of her head and shadow and her shadow connects with the title "KoRn" and looks as if the small girl is being hung.

Death is also represented on album covers in the genre as tombstones, grave yards and skulls are included in the art work.

Violence is another form of representation used to target the specific target audience by including images of guns lying on the floor, images of combat soldiers, bombs and also sleign people on a pavement.

Feelings are also presented on the front covers of albums by using images of tears which have been made into silver, just an eye is seen, aswell as a modern age portrayel of feelings such as a couple embracing eachother.

After looking at the overall artwork and its characteristics for CD cover albums, I looked at that each CD uses.

Album titles of bands e.g. Nirvana, Nickelback and Metallica usually keep the same style and font of writing like a branding and trademark of the band so consumers and their audiences which they attract and provide music for recogize the band and the branding on each CD which they release.

Art work on covers usually consist of the layout format of having art as the front cover and displaying the band on the back of the cover. This occurs on albums for Red Hot Chillie Peppers and Nickelback. However, Bowling for Soup feature a picture of the band on the front cover rather then just the back. This can be used on my own cover as twisting the usual forms and conventions.