You can use this as a starting point for album covers research, and you may include this work as part of your research.
A: Look at a selection of album covers (minimum of ten, CD or vinyl), maybe from your own, your parents or a friends collection, or online - the more variety in genre, style, decade etc the better. Make notes in answer to the questions below:
1. What are the typical features that an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common.
2. How would you categorise the covers in front of you? Are there any other ways of distinguishing between them other than generically?
3. Album covers serve many different functions. What do you think these are (ie what is their purpose?)
B: Choose one album cover out of your selection. It might be a particular favourite, or one that is particularly visually interesting. Prepare deconstruction notes of the cover (back, front, inside sleeve).
For the deconstruction you will need to explore the following:
images used (layout, colour, style etc)
text (fonts, size, positioning, colour etc)
The relationship between text and images - how do they work together ie anchorage Differing functions of the front, back, inside sleeve
How the iconography represents the band, the genre of music and their overall image.
Are there any signifiers exclusive to the band/ genre
What the cover says about the institutional context of the music ie the label, mainstream, underground, first album etc
What can we learn about the potential/target audience from the cover ie specialist, niche, familiarity with the band, compilation, mainstream etc.
and anything else of relevance. Any work completed on album covers should be posted on your individual blog, with links to the album cover imagery.
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