Album Cover Write Up

Album Cover Write Up

My preferred reading for my album cover is a power struggle. It shows a model with bruises who is looking miserable. I wanted my readers to see the image as a woman who has been beaten by a partner, I wanted my model to look classy so it shows she is upper class and that these people still face struggles and have to deal with these things. The middle cover of my album cover shows how she has turned to smoking to help her through the struggles that she is facing. This can be seen as powerful as smoking is a device that many people use to calm themselves showing she is trying to calm down.

Which then followed by the back cover photo of her breaking down it appears as if it hasn’t worked and the power struggle has gotten the better of her, this can also allude to readers that smoking isn’t always the best coping mechanism.

The woman is a counter-type as instead of resisting it and holding herself together, covering up and moving on, she breaks. Showing a different kind of strength as she is able to show her emotions, which is the opposite of what is normally seen in the media.

My album is aimed at women generally, but could be aimed at men, the general idea of my target audience is people that are facing struggles, and the aim was to make my album relatable for these people hence leading them to get my preferred reading as their situations are similar.

I used the same font on the front as I did on the back, I used this text as it was simplistic and bold so didn’t take away from the images. I used a lighter red for my text colours and general theme of my album cover to link in with my preferred reading as the love is being lost between the woman shown on the album and her partner. I also incorporated this colour on my middle cover by adding a splash of colour on her nails using again the faded red reinforcing the idea of the love fading out. I made the album cover black and white also to reinforce the red theme and to take any focus away from the background so the audience will be drawn to the model who appears as topless with bruises scattered across her upper body.

I constructed said representations by using make up to put bruises on my model to make the idea clear that there was a power struggle and that she was being abused. She is looking upwards trying to look defiant and that the situation doesn’t bother her. The side profile shot I used was so the model did not have a direct mode of address and the audience cannot tell what she is looking at, this was also used to not make it seem sexualised in any way due to a serious issue being addressed.

I titled my album “beautiful trauma” and used songs which linked in with my preferred reading to, again, reinforce my ideas of my album being about a traumatic event, I found this album online and used the songs as they related to my theme so I felt it was fitting rather than creating my own title and songs

My idea goes against Laura Mulvey’s ideas of the male gaze as my model is not objectified or sexualised in any way as my key focus was to make her the opposite of this. Furthermore Laura Mulvey’s ideas show mostly empowered and confident women whereas my model shows a sharp contrast to this ideal. The signifiers that would be expected from the ideas of Mulvey would be someone heavily made up, possibly showing a lot of skin and using direct mode of address to engage the audience and draw in attention due to her being sexualised whereas my model doesn’t appear to be wearing clothes on the front cover it brings more of a focus to the bruises that are covering her upper body, taking away any ideas of the male gaze. Moreover my model is not heavily made up, she is wearing no make up to draw focus to the distant look on her face rather than how she has done herself up to try and appear as strong as this was not the message I was trying to get across to my audience.

My album cover also agrees with part of Van Zoonens Feminist Theory in which it disagrees that the internet is “true and close to women and femininity” as the woman on my album cover does not conform to these stereotypes of being a strong or independent woman as it views her as powerless and feeling weak in this situation.

Overall I was generally okay with how my album cover went, I feel as if I conveyed my preferred reading well. I planned well as my album cover turned out the way I had wanted it to. If I was to do this project again I would go with a different theme altogether and try and do something out of the box that could be received in lots of alternate ways so each reader can form their own opinion on what it’s supposed to mean.