-Research-Existing Music Albums

Green Day, Metallica, My Chemical Romance and Slipknot

Green DayThe images on the right are three of Green Day’s music albums. Green Day hold a very consistent colour pallet throughout their albums, using the main colours red, black and white. Red is a very interesting colour, as it conveys many polysemous meanings. It is normally identified to symbolise at least one of the following; love, anger or blood. These running themes, is a typical representation within the alternative rock genre.

Green day use quite violent language and ‘mode of address’ within their CD albums, which is clear in the top example “American idiot” almost forms a negative form of relationship between producer and audience as they may find it offensive. However, it could alternatively connote a stronger relationship bond as it can be considered as a form of ‘Colloquial’ language, that is used towards a comfortable audience. This notion is again enhanced within the second example “know your enemy”, which is almost suggesting some form of guidance.

The target audience addressed through these album examples by Green Day centres around an adolescent demographic. This can be identified through the use of both iconography and typography. Especially in the middle example, where the key image is in the form of a graffiti art medium, projecting the atmosphere of a riots and rebellion, therefore targeting a young adult target audience, preferably more towards the male gender.

MetallicaSimilar to Green Day, Metallica also hold this consistent house style and colour palette, consisting of deep reds and blacks. We seem to believe that the red represents more of the theme of blood and death, which is enhanced in the second example with the use of language and message“Kill’em all”.

The form of the CD album is clearly disturbed by the specific genre being represented. The structure of text is very sharp, with that crisp, pointed edge reflecting the ‘electric shock’ genre, which could also represent the instrument’s sound waves and music rhythms, similar to that of the typography used for the music game ‘Guitar Hero’ featured in the top right corner. This is a conventional motif with the band ‘Metallica’ within all their CD albums and products/merchandise.

Another key feature to pick up on, is the iconography and realism of the photography. On all three of these examples, there is not one use of live photography, it is either drawn or computer generated. This is a conventional feature within the Metallica band, whether or not the reason being that they are slightly an older band being that they formed in 1981, but it is consistent throughout all their CD albums, where as other albums feature the whole band members on the front.

My Chemical RomanceMy chemical Romance is another ‘alternative rock’ band, who’s existing CD albums are slightly different to the typical rock genre. They still consist of the typical colour palette of red and black, however the colours are slightly more ‘diluted’ and not as strong as the examples from ‘Metallica’ and ‘Greenday’. On the second example, there is an absence of the colour red, which could suggest a slightly different narrative and goes against the typical conventions, however the cover is still as effective.

The key images used on all three of the albums are fairly different from each other. The CD example at the top, is similar to the bottom CD cover, in terms of the ‘sketchiness’ style of drawing, where as the key image featured on the middle album is more ‘detailed’ as a drawing, rather than a rough sketch.

The text is also very different in the top and middle CD covers, which is an example of unique strategy and unconventional features, which goes against the typical conventions of a CD album, as they normally conform to the same typography throughout all media forms.

SlipknotUnlike My Chemical Romance and Metallica, Slipknot use a more realistic form of photography. The use of mise-en-scene, especially the costumes portray this iconic motif of the band wearing certain masks and hiding their personal identify.

Slipknot however, does share similar conventions to the previous albums in terms of this consistent colour palette of red and black. Slipknot feature the iconic theme colours of red and black, which creates a very effective and striking front cover. They use the same consistent house style for their band title, however just alter the font colour and size depending on the CD album.

Unlike Metallica, Slipknot also feature a photograph of the whole band on the front cover of the CD, however still keeping their identities under ‘surveillance’ and hidden. This introduces the theory of Blumler and Katz and the notion of the four main basic needs: ‘Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal Identity, Surveillance’