Album artwork - Similar products

I am comparing four R&B album digi-packs to see how they portray their image through various conventions. 

Janet Jackson - Unbreakable 

 

Alicia Keys - The Element of Freedom 

Rihanna - Good Girl gone Bad 

Whitney Houston - I look to you 

All four album covers include a picture of their artist. They all focus on their face. Two of the four albums are face on profiles of the females, showing and empowering the female identity as strong and independent. The other two albums created by Rihanna and Alicia Keys are more secretive showing less eye contact towards the audience.

In terms of technical conventions all front pages of the digipack apart from Rihanna’s use a medium close up shot this captures the essence of their beauty through such a simplistic shot, showing their target audience who would all fall under females ranging from late teens all the way through to adults. Rihanna’s front page relates more to a medium long shot; this emphasises a seductiveness to her. However, to keep it personal and relatable the back page does have a close up of her face where she makes eye contact to the camera showing her target audience she can connect with them.

I then wanted to look at the symbolic conventions of the album digipacks. I am comparing how the artists portray and use different forms of Mise-en-scene to connect to their target audience. First of all, in terms of character positioning all the artists are pretty central in their album covers, if not they are just off centre this shows they are owning their album, expressing female empowerment once again this is important as it helps them create a connection with their target audience who will be wanting to copy their style and ways. I then looked at costume and noticed Witney, Janet and Rihanna are all wearing pretty simplistic clothing, which shows off their skin and natural beauty. They all have a block colour whether it be white or black and keep it as simple as that. In terms of the genre of R&B Pop I think this type of look is heavily associated with it, as its giving the message that less is more. In contrast Alica’s album arguably stands out as the top she is wearing looks more exotic and creative, this is a different way of showing confidence in wearing things more out there. Overall all the artists do show bare skin a lot throughout their album artwork and this shows a seductive, confidence to these females, they are selling confidence and sex appeal which ultimately is what will sell albums. This connects to not only their target audience but also helps to reach out to a wider audience maybe even including males. Another element of mise-en-scene is facial expression the four female artists I’m looking into all seem to have a more serious, secretive look on their front page, however on the back page of the digi-pack they are more relaxed and friendly looking. Lastly I wanted to look at lighting, I found that Witney, Janet and Alicia all use bright lighting also known as beauty lighting to show their whole face, they have done this so the audience feels they can see them and therefore connect with their music. Rihanna chose to use dim, mysterious lighting surrounding her, yet on the back page we still see her face lit up just in a more secretive way, this also works to the genre however exposes a more hidden image of her as an artist.

Relating the technical and symbolic conventions I have looked at on the artist’s album cover I would say in terms of analysing them with Richard Dyer’s star theory there is a clear connection between the stars being both a commodity produced and consumed on the strengths of their meanings, which are attached to the target audience. The stars have to be a commodity, construction and ideology to be successful. The star must also be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. The female artists create this through their seductive front covers, which create a mysterious vibe tying in with Dyer’s second part to his theory stating the star must be simultaneously present and absent. The audience see’s the artists who look sexy and flawless, however then they see the back covers which show a more open and honest side to their character and the audience feel they can then connect and relate to the vulnerability of their natural make-up that all the world can see. All four artists therefore achieve Dyer’s star theory by creating an image that they are both accessible and desirable at the same time.

Having analysed these four albums, I do think, the artists seem to capture the essence of what it is their consumer wants. They give themselves as a commodity, construction and ideology to the audience creating a great opportunity for there to expand their target audience and continue to excel in the music industry. They have all in my eyes successfully constructed a star theory that fits into the genre of R&B, and I believe on top of their natural talent at music, this star theory has also explained their huge success.