Second CD Album Analysis

I will be looking at the album minutes to midnight by the band Linkin Park as I analyzed their music video a while back thus I can compare the two slightly and be able to analyze the cover with a better understanding then an album that I haven't heard a single song off of. It is the bands third album and was released through Warner bros records. It went straight to number one in the United States as well as the United Kingdom and a staggering fourteen more. I choose to use this album as it has the song "What I've done" on it which as I mentioned before I analyzed.

The colour of the album is fairly simply which seems to be a trend in their albums, they don't use bright colours but seem to use various shades and variations of black, white and grey. This album however includes all three as the background on the cover is pure white, the ground is grey while the text and the silhouettes of the band members are black. This gives a calm sensation to the cover yet to me it doesn't seem that it would attract too many passersby due to the darkish colours. On the other hand the band is known for these colours so the album wouldn't need to be bright and attractive as the fans of the band would know their trend.

It isn't exactly clear what the band members are wearing due to them being almost like their shadows. Yet they seem to be wearing simple clothes such as jeans and jackets as this is there typical wear in most of the albums videos. That said however I do feel that the audience doesn't really need to know what the band is wearing as their clothes aren't what sell their records, their voices do which is the statement that I feel could possibly be given. The background of the image is just purely bland as there is nothing in the background whatsoever however the bottom of the image is slightly rocky suggesting that they could be in a desert like in the video "What I've Done" thus this could link in with the front cover of the album showing that the video is directly affected by the video. This could show that the bands main song or vocal point is that certain song or that they expect the audience to relate the video to the album cover thus buying it.

The shot of the cover is a long shot so that the band is all included however they are quite spread out allowing the audience to see the whole photo as each band member is on a different part of the image allowing you to view the image. That said the main singer is slightly more apart from the group (member three from the left) possibly showing that he is the main attraction.

The only words on the album are of the artist and the title of the album which is similar to the pink album cover that I have analyzed as well. This seems to be a recurring factor and something that I think I would stick with for the album cover that I am going to produce.

The overall tips and suggestions that I feel the album cover gives include:

Having the cover only mild colours which I like however I would probably have just a black and white image with coloured text so that it will attract audiences and crowds quicker as our artists isn't as well known thus her audience wouldn't even exist yet let alone know what her stereotypical things are. Another factor is having a clean background with maybe a hint at what the video is of or from however I feel that this may give too much away so I would rather have the image taken in a studio as I feel that this would be more professional. This also excludes the other point of not showing the artists as like I pointed out before, my groups artist isn't well known so they would need to make some kind of connection with her.

I personally like the cover as I feel that it is different from the typical bright coloured albums however that said I do feel that the colours attract more of an audience and thus I feel that they are more likely to sell and will then be more profitable. I would change the background though in order to make it more interesting as a feel that the audience need o be drawn to a album as a clear background image wouldn't do that.