Planning the photoshoot

Costumes

This is what my artist is going to be wear; A white vest top. The colour is white because it received the maximum vote from my questionnaire in my primary research. Because the shot is going to involve a close up, what she wears beneath isn't really a big concern as it will not be shown. The colour white connotes purity, and innocence, which relates to the texts/ album name 'stranger'. Moreover it interlinks with the narrative of my music video 'stranger- by Jhene Aiko' as she is a innocent girl in a relationship who gets her heart broken. According to Andrew Godwin this forms a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. 

As an alternative outfit, I have decided to appoint my artist 'Lola Cruz'  to wear during the photoshoot. I have chosen this outfit because it is quite revealing and it can be worn to be sexy. By doing this I am conforming to the idea of the Male Gaze where male viewers are more likely to recive erotic pleasures gained from looking at a sexual object, Lola Cruz can be identified as the sexual object, for her presence is solely for display on her album cover. Moreover according to Laura Mulvey she suggests that women dressed in this way are purely for a Male Gaze
which is often present in the R&B genre. However 'Lola' can be identified in this outfit, as a strong independent woman, for laced clothing can represnt power and femininitywhich supports the most recent suggestions in the feminist approach where women started to assert their rights to dress sexually attractive.  
Location

My photo shoot is going to take place in front of a white backgorund. I have chosen this location beacuse it was most voted for in my questionnaire. This is beneficial because it will allow my artist 'Lola' to stand out against the white background









Makeup

I decided to use this natural make up because is  I believer it nnocent which heavily relates to the narrative of my music video, where Bemi is innocent in her relationship. However my choice challenges the usual stereotypical conventions of an R&B album cover, where they have heavy makeup, however it does conform to the stereotypical conventions of the soul genre where female solo artists have natural makeup

Hair

Draws attention to facial features

Connotes a sophisticated but natural look

Narcissism, underdue concrn with fashion

Analysing my questionnaire

FRONT COVER

For question one I asked my target audience what name best suited an R&B/Soul Female solo artist. Evidently from my questionnaire results it presents that 5/10 people prefer the stage name 'Lola Cruz' I am happy  with this result because, it was also most voted for when I was constructing my music magazine for the R&B music magazine. So therefore my artist must now be called 'Lola Cruz'

For question two I asked my target audience what colours they would prefer to see on an R&B/Soul album cover. Evidently it shows that the most voted for colours were White, and Grey/Silver. I am happy with the colour white, because white connotes innocence; this relates to the narrative of my music video, and silver especially connotes wealth which heavily relates to the R&B genre. I intend for 'Lola' to wear a white attire, for my album cover. And moreover, I intend her to wear silver jewellery. 

 For question three I asked my target audience what facial expressions they would expect a female solo R&B/Soul artist to be showing.  Evidently from my research it shows that my target audience prefer ‘Lola Cruz’ to be showing a combination of a ‘serious face’ and ‘seductive face.’ receiving 4 votes each. This supports the usual conventions of a female artist where Laura Mulvey suggests that women connote to-be-looked-at-ness and are the object of the male gaze, as my female artist is expected to be presenting a ‘seductive’ facial expression.

To make use of my results I will be directing ‘Lola Cruz’ to apply a combination of a seductive and serious face, to satisfy my target viewers and the ‘male gaze’.

For question four I asked my target audience what font and lettering would you expect to see in an R&B/Soul album cover?’ It is evident and clear from my graph that my target audience prefer the ‘Simple italic’ font/lettering as it received 5 /10 votes. Therefore to apply this to my album cover I will be featuring the artists name ‘Lola Cruz’ and the album name ‘Stranger’ in a simple italic font, throughout, as I will be implementing the portrait based theme and therefore the image should be the most important feature.

For question five I asked my target audience what background would you prefer to see an R&B/Soul artist to be within?’ It is evident from my graph that the majority voted for a white background as it received 7/10 votes in total. I am extremely pleased with my results because from my research especially it most of the R&B/Soul artists were positioned in front of a white background. This is heavily beneficial for my portrait based concept, as it will make the artist ‘Lola Cruz’ stand out, which meets the audiences demand. According to Richard Dyers theory, by doing this ‘the star is a commodity’

 Lastly for question six, I asked my target audience what type of shot you would expect an R&B/Soul solo artist to be shown in.’ Evidently from my results presented on my graph it shows that the majority of my target audience voted for the ‘close up’ as it received 7/10 votes. I am extremely pleased with my results because from my secondary research over fifty percent of the album covers that I analysed featured close ups of the artists face, which moreover heavily benefits the portrait based idea, which I hoped to be implementing on my album cover. By applying a close up shot on my album cover, ‘Lola Cruz’s ‘ facial expressions, are now valuable  and it is important that I direct her well enough to capture an attention grabbing shot.

BACK COVER

First I asked my target audience what font and lettering would you expect to see in an R&B/Soul album back cover? It is clear from my bar graph that the majority of my target audience voted for ‘elegant swirls’ I am happy with my results, because this font endorse femininity, which is beneficial as my artist is a female.

 

Secondly, I asked my target audience would you prefer to see an R&B/Soul artist to be within. It is clear that from my results in the bar graph, it presents to me that the majority (8/10) of my target chose that ‘Lola Cruz’ should be placed behind a white background, which is similar to the front cover. am extremely pleased with my results because from my research especially it most of the R&B/Soul artists were positioned in front of a white background.  This is beneficial as it will make the artist ‘Lola Cruz’ stands out, which meets the audiences demand. According to Richard Dyers theory, by doing this ‘the star is a commodity’

Thirdly for question three, I asked my target audience what type of shot you would expect an R&B/Soul solo artist to be shown in.’ Evidently from my results presented on my graph it shows that the majority of my target audience voted for the ‘close up’ as it received 6/10 votes. I am extremely pleased with my results because from my secondary research over fifty per cent of the album covers that I analysed featured close ups of the artists face, By applying a close up shot on my album cover, ‘Lola Cruz’s ‘ facial expressions, are now valuable and it is important that I direct her well enough to capture an attention grabbing shot

Lastly I asked my target audience ‘how many song titles would you expect to see on the back cover.’ Evidently from my bar graph it is obvious to me that 10/10 of my target audience would prefer to see at least 5+ song titles. I am extremely pleased with my results, as it is ideal for any genre album to have 5+ songs (evidently from my secondary research). Therefore, I will be coming up with at least 5 and more song titles to include on the back cover of my album.

 INSIDE COVERS  - LEFT AND RIGHT

I have decided to use continuity editing from the results from my results from the front cover and back cover.
Firstly the font I will be using, must be similar or even the same as what I have used in th front and/or back cover. This is because I want  to ...
The background I will be using in te inside of my album cover, will be symetical to the background I have used on the opposite side. For example If the back cover uses a white background, I will also be using a white background, on the inner right hand cover. To elaborate on  this I noticed that when I researched 'digipaks' often the images were similar throughout, the entire cases, this presented to me continuity, which I will be applying in my own cover.

Questionnaire Digipak

Questionnaire FRONT COVER

Questionnaire (Album Cover)

       What name do you think best suits an R&B/Soul female solo artist?

      La’La Songz

      Jesse Keyz

     Asia Cruz

     Lola Cruz

What colours would you associate with R&B/ Soul Female Solo artists’ album cover? (tick two)

      Black

     White

     Blue

     Yellow/ Gold

     Grey / Silver

     Other (state)

       What facial expressions would you expect a Female Solo R&B/Soul artist to be showing? 

       Happy e.g. Smiling

       Serious face e.g.

<    No expression (straight face)

       Seductive

What font and lettering would you expect to see in an R&B/Soul album cover?

      Big and Bold 

      Elegant swirls - 

      Simple italics –

      Groovy and fancy – 

     What background would you prefer to see an R&B/Soul artist to be within?

      White Background

      Any other coloured Background

     In a Location

      What type of shot would you expect an R&B/Soul solo artist to be shown in?

      Close up

      Medium Shot

      Long Shot

___________________________________________________________________________________

Reasons Why…?

Question 1:

I have asked my target audience ‘what name do you think best suits an R&B/Soul female solo artist’? Because I wanted to gain an insight, I was quite indecisive about what name best suited an R&B/Soul Solo artist. However due to the completion of my music magazine, I did have a brief idea about R&B solo artists names, in relation to my music magazine my artist was called ‘Lola Cruz’ I have also decided to include this in my questionnaire as one of the options available to vote for in question 1. I gathered the idea of ‘La’La Songz’ from famous R&B singer- song writer, and record producer Trey ‘Songz’ who sold over 14million albums and singles worldwide. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trey_Songz). ‘Jesse Keyz’ was brought about from another well known famous R&B (Female) singer – song writer and actress Alicia ‘Keyz’, selling over 12 million records worldwide. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_keys). Lastly Asia Cruz; is a real name of a famous R&B mainstream singer (Asia Cruise). I have chosen these selections in the hope that my target audience will sense the origins of the name and therefore then select in their best opinion the most suitable stage name for my artist.

Question 2:

I asked my target audience ‘what colours would you associate with R&B/ Soul Female Solo artists’ album cover? I asked this question because I wanted to gain an insight into what colours my target audience would associate with my chosen genre, and moreover, I asked this question because I wanted to understand the codes/conventions they may associate with the R&B/Soul genre, which additionally ma prevents confusion in identifying the genre of my album cover, if they were to see it in a retail store like HMV (thinking in context)

Question 3:

For question three I asked my target audience ‘what facial expressions would you expect a Female Solo R&B/Soul artist to be showing? I asked this question because I wanted to expand my knowledge into what my target audience would normally associate with an R&B/Soul album cover, in relation to a female artist. I gathered my options from my secondary research which where I analyzed album covers by R&B female artists. These were the most common facial expressions that I observed.

Question 4:

I asked my target audience ‘What font and lettering would you expect to see in an R&B/Soul album cover?’ I asked this question to understand which font and lettering my target audience best believe suits my chosen genre R&B/Soul. In addition I will be informing them the chosen name of my album cover which is ‘STRANGER’.

Question 5:

I asked my target audience ‘What background would you prefer to see an R&B/Soul artist to be within?’  It is important that I acquire more knowledge about what background my artist should be positioned upon, as this will increase the realism of my album cover. Most of my secondary research has presented artists in an artificial background, rarely in a location.

Question 6:

I asked my target audience ‘what type of shot would you expect an R&B/Soul solo artist to be shown in?’ I only included a selection of three shots (close, medium and long ) because these shots are often more present in most portrait based albums covers and portrait based album covers are arguably often used in R&B/Soul. Moreover I only involved three shot types, because I am not that sure whether non - media students will fully understand the differentiation between the other shots types for example the canted shot. By doing this, this can improve the reliability of my feedback/data as my target audience are more likely to answer my questionnaire truthfully.

Questionnaire BACK COVER

What font and lettering would you expect to see the song titles in an R&B/Soul album back cover?

 Big and Bold e.g. Example One

Elegant swirls - Example One

Simple italics – Example One

Groovy and fancy – Example One

What background would you prefer to see an R&B/Soul artist to be within?

White Background

Any other coloured Background

In a Location

What type of shot would you expect an R&B/Soul solo artist to be shown in?

Close up

Medium Shot

Long Shot

How many song titles would you expect to see on the back cover?

1-3

3-5

5+

Reasons Why…?

I asked my target audience ‘What font and lettering would you expect the song titles in an R&B/Soul album cover?’ I asked this question to understand which font and lettering my target audience best believe suits my chosen genre R&B/Soul.

I asked my target audience ‘What background would you prefer to see an R&B/Soul artist to be within on the back cover? It is important that I acquire more knowledge about what background my artist should be positioned upon, as this will increase the realism of my album cover. Most of my secondary research has presented artists in an artificial white background, rarely in a location.

I asked my target audience ‘what type of shot would you expect an R&B/Soul solo artist to be shown in?’ I only included a selection of three shots (close, medium and long ) because these shots are often more present in most portrait based albums covers and portrait based album covers are arguably often used in R&B/Soul. Moreover I only involved three shot types, because I am not that sure whether non - media students will fully understand the differentiation between the other shots types for example the canted shot. By doing this, this can improve the reliability of my feedback/data as my target audience are more likely to answer my questionnaire truthfully.

I asked my target audience 'how many song titles would you expect to see on the back cover?' I asjed this questionbecause it is beneficial for me to know how many song/titles, my target audience usually see on the back of album covers. I am fully aware that there are often 5+ song titles on album covers, so therefore I am hoping that the majority of my target audience vote for this.

Points to consider - Questionnaire

I have decided that before planning my questionnaire I need to consider:
The questions I ask should be worded correctly to provide some form of useful response
I must not ask questions that may invade privacy (avoid personal questions that do not relate to my task)
My questions must be easy to understand for non-media students, and not too complicated
My questions should not contain bias or leading questions
I will try to design my questionnaire, so that it is easy to analyse and formulate a conclusion - (i will tr and produce quantitative data)

Conducting my questionnaire
I have decided that I am going to include5-10questions, relating to what my audience expects to see on an album cover. I have chosen to only include minimum 5 and maximum 10 questions because I believe that the answer provided will be more truthful, as it will not be occupying much of their time so therefore I assume that my results are more likely to be relatively useful to my album cover. My questions are going to be closed questions, this is because it is beneficial for my target audience, as it will be easier to complete, moreover it will be beneficial for me as it will be easier to generalise my findings.
 I have decided that I am going to hand out my questionnaire to 10 participants both males and females aged from13-25 (my research shows that this is the target audience age range in the R&B soul genre)  to avoid bias results. In doing this I will gain an understanding of which aspects of an Album cover my target audience may like or dislike. Therefore I can address these issues, and interests whilst creating my album cover, thus creating a unique selling point in my original cover to attract a new target audience in a new segment.

Ideas for my album cover

I have decided that my album cover is going to be called 'Stranger' This links to the music video, which is also called 'Stranger' From my research it reveals that this is primarily done to advertise and  allow the audience to identify the contents of the artists musical products. 
I will be focussing on the Portrait based layout for my album cover due to the fact that it promotes solo artists. According to Andrew Godwins this builds up the star image, which I believe is beneficial for the recognition of my album cover. Due to the fact that I will be implementing the Portrait based theme, this forces the viewers to look directly at the face (Bemi) on my album cover, which helps them focus completely on her without no distractions in terms of the texts (album name, artists name etc...)

Research Album Covers & Digipaks

An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially-released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10″ and 12″ 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12″ LPs, sets of 45 rpm records (either in several connected sleeves or a box), or the front-facing panel of a CD package, and, increasingly, the primary image accompanying a digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks.
Here is the CD cover research section, where I will be exploring the various album covers of different styles and layouts. I will need to explore these aspects to help develop and gain ideas for when it comes to creating our own CD cover. There are a wide range of techniques and effects which are applied. But first I will briefly explain a CD template layout.

The cover serves three main purposes:

1.       To advertise and identify the contents of the music product.

2.      To convey the artistic aspirations of the original artists

3.      In reproductions of the artwork, to serve as a primary image in the promotional efforts surrounding the product, as an identifiable image associated with it.

In addition, in the case of all types of records, it also serves as part of the protective sleeve. (Wikipedia)

Album covers have become an increasingly important aspect to the music industry, with artists and producers designing new and better covers to coerce with their music product. There are several different kinds of design associated with album covers, e.g. portrait, type based, digital and minimalist.

I have found the general conventions of an album cover front, back, spine and inside: (http://www.slideshare.net/charlinbeth/conventions-of-an-album-cover)

1. Conventions Front Covers: 

A simplistic colour scheme

A simplistic design
Few or no characters

Use of a different colour for the band name compared to the rest of the cover 

Hidden meanings

A title that explains to the audience what the album will be about
Bold, simple fonts for the band name 
Similar or entirely opposite font for the album title

2. Conventions Back Covers:
Name of band at very top 
Name of album at the bottom

List of song titles, usually centred

Barcode in the bottom right hand corner

Name of record company

Copyright and year

Who owns the copyrighted material

Who the album has been distributed by

3. Conventions Insides: 

Colour scheme that is the same as the rest of the album
Blank, plain background 
No characters 
Few or no text 

4. Conventions Spines: 

Name of the record company in recognised font, or logo

Name of band

Name of album

Both in the same simplistic fonts

Code linking to the record company
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]-->

DEFINING CD ALBUM COVERS
Portrait – particularly consistent on album covers promoting solo artists. The viewer is forced to look directly at the face on the cover, helping them to focus completely on them with no distraction. This cover from Beyonce shows the face of an innocence yet seductive. This supposedly entices the viewer into buying the record, as it is advertising something different, something you wouldn't see in real life.

Type based – some album cover designs are devoted entirely to writing.

Digital – A digital album cover will attract a younger generation of people. This is why digital covers are more conventional on the covers of albums in the ‘hip-hop’ genre. This Kanye West album cover is very attractive to young generations. Due to the bright colours and design, people can relate to it more than they can to traditional covers. This attraction boosts sales in the young generation market.

Minimalist – covers that are designed to be minimalistic are generally hit-or-miss. This means that sometimes the cover is a success, or it could be a disaster. Covers like this are cheap and simple to design. This cover by ‘The xx’ is very minimalistic. The album itself is called ‘xx’, however the cover only shows ‘x’. This could be misleading, but I like the concept of the single ‘x’ on this cover. I think that if it said ‘xx’ in the same style it would be too much, and not as interesting as it is. The white on black idea is very successful and is attractive to the viewer.

CD COVER TEMPLATE LAYOUT

From this you can clearly establish the measurements of the height, length and width of a typical CD cover. This is something I must take into consideration when I produce my CD cover, possibly using this as an accurate guideline to help me progress.

Over the decades since album covers were revolutionised, there have been many controversial album covers. Aspects of artwork associated with sexuality/nudity, religious beliefs, trademarks have been either banned or dismissed due to violence, graphical content or plagiarism. Here are a few examples, which I have again extracted from ‘Wikipedia’ (despite my earlier judgements of wikipedia as an unreliable source, I have now concluded that it is still useful, as a majority of the information is true) :

                                    SEXUALITY/NUDITY

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS- MOTHER’S MILK (1989)

The album cover features a black and white photograph of the band sprawled across the arms of a proportionately larger naked woman. A rose conceals one of her nipples while Kiedis’ standing body conceals the other. Several national chains refused to sell the record because they believed the female subject displayed too much nudity. A stricter censored version was manufactured for some retailers that featured the band members in far larger proportion than the original.’

Album Cover: 1

Front cover

'I AM Sasha Fierce', is the third studio album, By Beyonce Knowles who is a famous R&B recording artist. It was released on November 2008. by Columbia Records, which was distributed in several countries.'

On the album Beyonce's image is the main focal point, which allows the audience to focus on her primarily, in comparison to the text on the cover. The colours are dull, and simple, which correlates with her facial expression, and her make up. This suggests the innocence of the album; the cross on her wrist also promotes purity. However she looks quite seductive, through her facial expressions, (through her eyes). It can be suggested that she is an object for the Male Gaze. There is minimal texts on the cover, which consists of her name and the name of her album cover. This moreover allows the audiences attention to be mainly on her

'I AM...' is written on the right hand corner which makes the audience turn the album cover to reveal the end of the sentence.

Album Cover 1

Back Cover

Again Beyonce is the main focal point. Her pose is very seductive, this contradicts the cross around her wrist on the front of her album cover. However, 'Sasha Fierce' is written on the back cover, after 'I am ...' on the front cover, which reveals and exposes the two sides of Beyonce to her fans. I AM being, very pure, Sasha Fierce being very intense and seductive. The colour scheme is also very dull on the back, only including colours black and white. White can connote a successful beginning, which can relate to the beginning of her new side 'Sasha Fierce' and black can connotes a mystery. Beyonce is wearing one of the outfits from her music video 'single ladies' Her track name is very small, and it is in plain text, this also makes the main focus to be on Beyonce.

                                                                      Album Cover 2
                                                                        Front Cover

'Loud is the fifth studio album by Barbarian recording artist Rihanna. It was first released on November 2010, by Def Jam Recordings.' Yet again Rihanna is in the foreground of the shot, and is the main focal point of the image, which draws the audiences attention straight onto her. Rihanna is well known for her red hair,as she has braced us with her red hair in her music video 'only girl.' the cover, projects her red hair with photo editing techniques, and moreover enhances her red lips. With the combination of her red hair and her red lips this can connote strength and power.

In addition to some degree it indicates 'sexiness' , some traditional interpretations of the use of 'sexiness' believe that she is a representation of a sexual object, however the way she dominates the whole cover shows a more modern positive representation of females too

 Her lips are in the centre of the the album cover, this may have been done to emphasise that Rihanna is becoming a very successful artist, and now has the voice to speak out 'LOUD'. The red in its self is loud.

Rhianna's name doesn't appear on this album cover, this suggests that she is now a well established artist worldwide, which connotes how powerful she is. Moreover her eyes are closed which limits interaction between her and the audience,  however it gives a sense of a mystery which intrigues the audience to find out more, as nothing is revealed.

Album Cover 2
Back Cover

The back of the cover, in contrast with the front, has much softer colours making Rihanna seem a lot more vulnerable, and pure compared to the front cover. The angelic image will appeal to young girls/teenagers as it is very feminine, and pretty but still has an edge with the use of the red tint and red writing. Rihanna has developed a star image for herself over time, according to Andrew Godwin this is a key aspect of success in this industry.  The font is very simple, and it only uses capital letters, this shows a link between the front cover 'LOUD' and the 'CAPITAL LETTERS' on the back. The song titles are on the right hand side on the back cover, to prevent  attention being taken away from Rihanna.
                                                                 Album Cover 3
                                                                   Front Cover

'Still Standing is the sixth studio album by American R&B recording artist Monica. It was released on March 2010, by J.Records.'

On the album cover, the close up of Monicas face is in the foreground of the shot, she is the main focal point in comparison to the text on the cover 'STILL STANDING.' This draws the audiences attention straight onto her, the artist, for she is the most important factor on the cover. The colour tone of the album is very bright, this can represent her successful beginning of her album for she is 'still standing.' The brightness of her album cover enhances her natural make up which can connote her  purity, and innocence. The text 'MONICA' is written in plain text, however the letters M, and A m are extended, this subtly crafts a crown shape, over her head, which can represent her independence moreover the way she dominates the whole cover shows a modern positive representation of females, for she is promoting her freedom, and self determination.

Album Cover 3

Back Cover

The back cover, is relatively similar to the front cover, for they are

both aesthetically pleasing to the eye, with its simplistic use of mono-toned colours, yet they're both equally detailed. The back cover however the medium shot Monica on the left of the cover, reverses the attention away from the artist Monica, this can connote that her songs are more important for her fans hence why they are written in capital letters. Similarly to the front cover Monica is still looking into the cameras, having excellent eye contact with her target audience, this can attract them to the CD, and moreover dis allows them to lose interest, for Monica is 'inviting' them into her album/CD

The spine, includes the artist name 'Monica' which is similar to the font used in the front cover, and moreover the album name.

Album cover 4

Front Cover

'I Remember Me' is the second studio album by American recording artist Jenifer Hudson  released March 2011, on Arista Records.' The medium shot of Jennifer Hudson presents her reaching out away from her own body, this may connote her distance between and her old self and her new self hence why her album says 'remember me'. The colour purple may be evoking gloom and sad feelings, this can be related to Jennifers feelings about her old self. In contrast the background looks quite soulful, which can be associated with the genre of her songs. The text is very minimal, and moreover reveals itself in the purple background, this suggests that her name and the album name is still important to her audience,

Similar to the front cover, the colour scheme remains purple. Jennifer looks quite seductive in her tight purple dress, which according to Laura Muvley, it can be identified as a tool for the 'male gaze'.

Jennifer's sad facial expression may suggest shame and regret when she remembers her old self, moreover this is emphasised by the fact that Jennifer has no eye contact with the audience, and the direction of her eyes are focused onto the text (I remember me).

Moreover the luxury cream prop behind her connotes luxury, and could be seen as her comfort.

Lastly the focus is directly on Jennifer whilst the background is blurry. This suggests that Jennifer is still important, and the attention should be primarily on her, the attention could moreover be on her because she is revealing to the audience her new self.

Their CD 

Evidently, 

After researching into the covers of CD covers, I also thought it was important to look into the spines of the Case, which is an important feature because it shows the audience who the CD is promoting and what it is.

This is an image taken by me of all the spines of the CD album covers I focused on.
All four spines represent different things, but there is a clear sense of continuity in each in regards to their own case.

All of the top three spines, include both the artists' name and the name of the album, which is easy information to include and show the audience.

In contrast, Taylor Swift's spine does not include the name of the album but instead promotes the record deal 'Big Machine records'. All of which can be included in the spine.
All four also show the reference number of the CD album, which could be there for marketing purposes.

From all of my research into album covers, I can see how the styles are very varied. I can also gather from this that the artwork generally tends to reflect the genre of music or the theme of the album, which demonstrates how album covers are a representation of the artists themselves. Despite the huge success of album artworks, they have recently come under jeopardy due to selling the albums on the internet via iTunes in an MP3 format. It establishes a more pointless meaning when these songs off the albums are illegally downloaded, with the album artwork becoming a small image on an iPod, possibly showing its unimportance within the music industry. This tarnishes the survival of the music industry in the process as no profit has been generated, leading to a steep decline. Packaging of CDs may be also be abolished as there would be a rapid fall in production costs due to the lack of funding within the music industry.
‘

Before I start to create my promotional package for my artist (who I have not yet selected a stage name for) it is important that I identify the target audience, so that the material that I include will be suitable and appeal to the right people.

To identify my target audience of those who buy albums, and moreover generally R&B fans, I did some secondary research on the Internet, and a media booklet I found in my media sixth form study room. I identified that the genre R&B is arguably aimed at '13-25 year old's moreover it is aimed at 'black and white audiences, but primarily the black audience'. In addition it is aimed at both genders, ' because the corporates aim to maximise their revenue by appealing to as large an audience as possible.'

I then looked deeper into how I could personally target my audience, through having discussions with people aged 13-25, focusing my decisions on what they expect to see in an R&B (soul) album cover/ case/ poster (I said poster because the front cover of an album can be similar to an album). By doing this I will be able to develop an understanding about the demands and interests of my target audience.

Here is some of the responses/comments I received:

Female 17 - 'I have all Chris Browns' albums, he always looks sexy in all of them'

Me - 'Which album of his do you think is the best and why ?'

Female 17 - 'All of them, they're always close ups of his sexy face'

Male 19 - 'I will only buy an album cover if it looks attractive that's how gullible I am' *laughs*

Male 16 - 'I  don't really expect much from an R&B album cover, it depends on who the artist is'

From my discussions, I had with my focus group has helped me plan out what I will be including and disapproving within the production of my package. I will not be making my album cover very busy, I am going to keep it as simple as possible, as one said that 'when there is too much going on, it removes the interest of the artist.' Evidently from my research above of album covers,, most of them are very simple, for example Monica, Beyonce and Rihanna's album covers, are close ups of their face. I assume that this has been done to keep the interest primarily on themselves as they can be seen as the most important source of the their cover.

I have had thoughts from my discussions that my album cover should relate to the narrative of the music video, this can be done subtly with facial expressions, lighting, clothing etc... For example Jennifer's album cover shows her hands reaching away from her body, this can represent her escaping from her old self. This relates to her 'I remember me' music video.

Even though the demographics are young females, they still have a sex appeal to the male audience. Laura Mulvey argues that this voyeurism involves turning the represented figure itself into a fetish (object) so that it becomes increasingly beautiful but more objectified

In order to appeal to the audience, I must find a market that I can fill. In terms of the design of the CD cover, I could experiment with a variety of shapes and sizes. However, the most convenient and expected CD cover would be the conventional 12×12 square shape. I shall conform to these rules for ease in terms of production. This leaves the niche to be on the actual visual aspect of the cover.

My music video