Album Cover Research

Album covers have typical features across most genres. Generally they feature a picture of the artist, which is normally a close up for single, or a long shot for groups. They will also include the artist name and the title of the album. Here are some typical examples...

Through seeing Adele's album cover you could guess the genre of her music, as the depressive picture and the black and white effect illustrates her mellow love songs. The font and title of her album coincide with her previous album '19', and this creates a motif for her as an artist. The close up of Adele looking down represents her as a soulful artist and signifies her style of music which are all low tempo and sad.

JLS's album cover is a typical pop bands cover. All of the members are
wearing similar clothes and looking into the camera, which would please their fans. They are showing some  flesh by not wearing t-shirts under their blazers, which differs from adele, who doesn't show off her body at all. This suggests that JLS are  not based purely on their singing, whereas Adele is sold completely for her musical talent. The logo of the band is used for recognition,  as it is used for all other merchandise. The dark background is used to show them as a 'boyband' and the bright light and arguably cheesy photo lets the audience know they are very mainstream pop. 

However, the genre of an artist definitely determines the style of their album cover. Indie and Rock artists have somewhat a different style. Generally they may not show a picture of the artist, instead showing a pattern or trying to portray a message or narrative. For example, Kate Bush, Blur and Biffy Clyro...

     

However, other than generically, you could categorise album covers by the gender of the artist, for example the differences between these two album covers... 

 

Furthermore, album covers hold many purposes. They allow the artist to portray their musical ego and represent with one image their style and genre of music. For many customers who still purchase CD's, the album cover is very important when purchasing music. A good album cover sell's the artist and also allows another platform besides video, music, poster etc to represent themselves with.