Analysis of R&B album covers
Aaliyah - Age Ain't Nothing But A Number (1994)
Image: on this album, we have a black and white photo of Alicia Keys, who is wearing earrings and seemingly a top without sleeves. Also, her hair isn't styled in any particular way . She is also gazing directly towards the camera, which can be seen as attracting the audience as she is directly looking at them.
Copy: no colours are used, only black and white - this creates a simplistic style that is likely to also reflect the tone of the music on the album.
Genre: The R&B genre of the album is reflected in the image as many songs of the genre can be melancholy and slow; as they correspond with each other, this persuades the audience to buy the album.
Taio Cruz - Rokstarr (2009)
Image: On this cover, we see a close up of Taio Cruz, who is wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket - above him is his name and below it, the album's title - the 'A' in the former is shaped like an arrow, unlike in the latter, which can be seen to represent uniqueness and individuality. The clothes worn by Taio Cruz are associated with urban and street, linking him to the R&B genre.
Copy: A black-and-grey colour scheme has been used; while the clothes and shades connote formality and elegance, the grey lettering connotes sophistication, which is additionally emphasised through the title's spelling - it omits a 'c' and adds another 'r'.
Genre: The clothes worn by Taio Cruz appeals to an audience through the clothes as they are often linked with street and urban wear, encouraging wearers of these kind of clothes to listen to the music.
Image: This album cover features Tinie Tempah, the artist, surrounded by white lights and wearing a black jacket & sunglasses, while also holding a city. This image arrangement, along with the colour scheme of black, dark blue and red-pink, can be seen as being associated with space/the cosmos, power, dominance and control, thus informing the audience of Tinie Tempah's nature.
Copy: White lettering has been used for the artist's name and title - while both are written in capitals, the latter is smaller than the former, which emphasises the artist as being important in selling his image as well as his music.
Genre: The R&B genre is communicated through Tinie Tempah's black sunglasses and jacket, which are associated with people who spend their time in street and urban areas, subsequently appealing to this target audience.
Image: this cover features Aaliyah, the artist, wearing a
hoodie, jacket and sunglasses, seemingly gazing in the distance away from the
camera while a guy who is also in sunglasses watches from the side of a wall.
Copy: Aaliyah’s name is written in a large, white typeface
as a contrast to the smaller, purple font of the title ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But A
Number’ – the former is presented as being more important than the music as the
artist and her image are being promoted.
Genre: the clothes reflect the R&B genre as they have connotations
of urban and street and not much colours are used.
Chris Brown - Fortune (2012)
Image: Wearing a suit and tie, Chris Brown is standing in
front of a background which has a white light and the word ‘fortune’ (which is
the album’s title) written in different languages, as well as hieroglyphics. This
is likely to have been done in order to appeal to international audiences as
well as those in English-speaking countries.
Copy: Underneath, Brown’s name can be seen in a different
and smaller font – this communicates the importance of the album’s songs over
the artist and his image.
Genre: while the bright blue background may be seen as
unusual for albums of the R&B genre and thus more associable with pop or
electronic music, the suit connotes business, power and masculinity; this can
be seen to market the album directly at young males.
Alicia Keys - Here (2016)
Image: on this album, we have a black and white photo of Alicia Keys, who is wearing earrings and seemingly a top without sleeves. Also, her hair isn't styled in any particular way . She is also gazing directly towards the camera, which can be seen as attracting the audience as she is directly looking at them.
Copy: no colours are used, only black and white - this creates a simplistic style that is likely to also reflect the tone of the music on the album.
Genre: The R&B genre of the album is reflected in the image as many songs of the genre can be melancholy and slow; as they correspond with each other, this persuades the audience to buy the album.
Taio Cruz - Rokstarr (2009)
Image: On this cover, we see a close up of Taio Cruz, who is wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket - above him is his name and below it, the album's title - the 'A' in the former is shaped like an arrow, unlike in the latter, which can be seen to represent uniqueness and individuality. The clothes worn by Taio Cruz are associated with urban and street, linking him to the R&B genre.
Copy: A black-and-grey colour scheme has been used; while the clothes and shades connote formality and elegance, the grey lettering connotes sophistication, which is additionally emphasised through the title's spelling - it omits a 'c' and adds another 'r'.
Genre: The clothes worn by Taio Cruz appeals to an audience through the clothes as they are often linked with street and urban wear, encouraging wearers of these kind of clothes to listen to the music.
Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy (2010)
Image: This album cover features Tinie Tempah, the artist, surrounded by white lights and wearing a black jacket & sunglasses, while also holding a city. This image arrangement, along with the colour scheme of black, dark blue and red-pink, can be seen as being associated with space/the cosmos, power, dominance and control, thus informing the audience of Tinie Tempah's nature.
Copy: White lettering has been used for the artist's name and title - while both are written in capitals, the latter is smaller than the former, which emphasises the artist as being important in selling his image as well as his music.
Genre: The R&B genre is communicated through Tinie Tempah's black sunglasses and jacket, which are associated with people who spend their time in street and urban areas, subsequently appealing to this target audience.
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