Digipak analysis – RihannaLoud

This digipak is for pop and r’n’b artist Rihanna’s album, Loud. Straight away the digipak conforms to conventions of both

the pop and r’n’b genre through the use of bright colours and props such as flowers and through the use of the artist dressed quite glamorously on the cover and the inside.

Whilst it is not clear to begin with, there is a narrative to this digipak. The use of roses on the inside cover and the CD itself connote love and romance. The dress that the artist is wearing

is resembles a wedding dress, connoting that she is getting married. The names of songs such as ‘only girl in the world’ and ‘California king bed’ also reinforce this narrative theme.

The target audience for this album would be primarily young girls around the ages of 10 upwards. The use of pinks and reds is used to attract this audience and it is typically young girls that are

attracted to pop music and songs about love. The white stylistic font on the front is also typical of the r’n’b genre and clearly informs the viewer of who the album is by and what it is called.

On the front of the digipak the artist is not making direct address, a technique commonly used to attract and audience to the album. She does instead have her eyes closed, creating a sense of mystery and this intrigues the audience as they will want to know why she has her eyes closed. On the back however the

artist is making direct address, enticing the audience when they view the track listing.

The theme of marriage continues on the back of the digipak. Here the artist is wearing pyjamas. By combining this with the image where she is wearing a wedding dress it is easy to determine that this is

the night after the wedding. The thin style of the font on the front cover is effective as it is clear but does not draw attention away from the main selling point of the album which is the picture.

The close up shot on the front of the digipak, shows the artist as perfect, the saturation has clearly been edited to portray the artist as perfect and to give something to the young female audience to look up to. The photos on this digipak also bear a resemblance to the music video for ‘California King Bed’ showing a

consistent theme throughout the album and the following music videos.

The inside of the digipak sees Rihanna lying across a bed of roses. The roses connote love and romance, but also the tragedy that is involved in love. Both of these are themes that are present in a lot of

Rihanna’s songs, the dress is also a 2 piece but could be seen as being torn suggesting that the marriage is not perfect. This could also be a reference to the artists personal life and her past abusive relationship.