Genre Albums

In researching similar artists' album covers, there are multiple similarities in terms of colour, composition and relation to artists.

Daniel Caesar 
Rhythm and blues, Soul music, Neo soul

• More abstract photograph, less focus on the artist or "star image".
• High exposure and brightness
• No inclusion of artist name or album name - subverts convention aside from 'parental advisory'
• Inclusion of the parental advisory label

Ella Mai 
Contemporary R&B

• Portrait shot of the artist, conforming more to the theory of the "star image"
• Simplistic. The font creates the idea of being timeless, traditional. Also created by the choice of a black and white photograph. 

Sabrina Claudio
Contemporary R&B, Alternative R&B

• Artist and Album title not included - less conventional
• More heavily edited covers, colour tinted image (second album cover)

Star Image

Richard Dyer's star theory is made up of the following key ideas:

1) The star as a construction 
The star is a construction and not a real person. This is created through various forms of media be it music videos, magazines or advertising. 

2) The star as a commodity
The idea that stars are produced to create a profit. Record labels may create similar stars as they know the trends that will work to generate this profit.  

3) The star as an ideology 
Stars represent certain social groups and views will therefore create certain ideologies. Consequently, fans will often copy their style or even share their views. 

Paradox of the star 
The star must be both ordinary and extraordinary 
The star must be both present and absent

Digipak Introduction

• Show correlation with and compliment the music video or brand of the artist. To do so, possibly use a still shot from the music video as the main image.
• Consists of four panels and a spine
• 300gsm card matt or gloss
• 139.5mm x 6mm x 125.5m

Generic conventions: Track list, cover photo, album name, artist name, CD art or art behind CD, photos of the artists/behind the scenes, reviews, record label details, bar code, parental advisory, hologram.

Semiotics: Ferdinand de Saussure - signifier and the signified. Roland Barthes - denotation and connotation. Stuart Hall - Reception theory, encoding and decoding, dominant reading (negotiated, oppositional).