Analysis of Album Covers

Analysis of Album Covers

Examples of album covers:

David Guetta - One Love

Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D

Oasis - Stop The Clocks

Chipmunk - I Am Chipmunk

Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters

Pendulum - Hold Your Colour

I am going to briefly analyse the cover of Guns N' Roses album, Greatest Hits:

This is the most recent album released by the band Guns N' Roses in 2004. It features classic songs such as Sweet Child of Mine, November Rain and Welcome to the Jungle. The overall album cover is quite plain; a dark and light grey gradient background is simple but adds a unique simplicity. The use of bright red and green for the roses and thorns appears more outstanding in contrast to the dull background. The centre focus of the album cover is obviously the image of two guns with roses and thorns symmetrical to each other. This is symbolic of the bands name and shows an image of the literal name of the band. The name of the album 'Greatest Hits' is written in quite a small font above the centre focus - this could be that the main image does most of the talking. Logically, people tend to read things from left to right or top to bottom, so at first viewing of the cover the audience will automatically know that it is a greatest hits album and will recognise the artist by the symbol. The name of the band, Guns N' Roses is written in quite a large embossed font to emphasise the name to the viewer. Guns N' Roses are already a highly reputable band in the music industry and one of the most recognisable, so there would be no need to create a very bright and abstract front cover. The colours used on the cover could also represent the genre of music which is quite ballad-rock.