Conventions of album artwork

 What has to be on the album and why? 

On the front of the album we will see the name of the artist, this can vary in size depending on whether the focus is on selling the artist, or selling the music, as some artists such as Taylor swift, it is clear her image is being sold as well as the music, whereas other bands the focus is more on the music in oppose to the image of the artist. 

 

 

 

Above we can see the front of Tyler the creators flower boy album released in 2017. There are many different conversations to this front section of this album such as: 

 

 

The Parental advisory symbol is there to warn parents/consumers, of the explicit language that is within the lyrics of the song, this will affect the ability to buy this album without parental consent unless you are over the age of 14 in the Uk, this is place to keep children safe from potential corruption. 

 

 

Above we can see the biggest font on the album, being the name of the album, this would suggest that the web is presenting this album and that we are more concerned of the music then his image in the sense of releasing music due to the size of font relative to his name. On the other hand, Tyler does have his body printed in large on the cover but purposely with his face covered to furthermore suggest this point.  

 

 

Above is the artists name, in a light creamy/yellow colour conveying calming and peaceful connotations, As well as the image of bees adding the natural aspect to it, moreover his name ‘Tyler the creator’ almost reflects the creator being God suggesting an all-powerful nature to his music and/or image furthermore portrayed by the big blow-up image of him on the right side of the cover, with his face covered in the same way some Gods appearances covered such as in Islam. 

 

 

 

Above we can see the back cover of the album, with a plan design, and a single picture of a bee and the colour of blue seen on the front makes a re-appearance matching the colour schemes of the overall theme. The font throughout this album cover is also very important as its very blocky and shows a simple display of characters with a puntual feel to it potentially reflecting the music. 

 

Here we can see the song names, these can be conventions in themselves, as the genre of this album is soul/hip-hop/rap the names of the songs can be interactors of this such as ‘who dat boy?’ sounds very much like a rap/hip-hop song whereas, ‘see you again’ does not connote a rap song and instead could be a soul/contemporary song such as seen in the album, this is showing how conventions can influence what we think when we see the album and how this is reflected in the music. 

 

 

 

On the back cover we will also see studio information, such as seen above with the Columbia records logo as well as ‘Columbia’ written above to show that this artist is attached to this record label. We would also expect to see some legal/copyright information on the back in this case it would be in a different area, such as the inside cover. 

 

Finally we see the barcode, as this is a purchasable physical piece of music/art there needs to be a way in which to buy it, this allows stores to sell it thus making money for not only the artist but the label.