Nirvana- Nevermind (Updated)

The cover above was released by the band Nirvana in 1991. The cover represents a corrupt American attitude concerning consumerism by showing a baby chasing a dollar bill on a fishing hook through water. Such anti-governmental beliefs are conventional of the rock genre, but are rarely expressed in album art this explicitly. The child being naked represents how as soon as an individual is born, they are forced into a society that is obsessed with material possessions.
The image itself is incredibly striking, the deep sea blue is extremely eye catching and the statement it comes with are incredibly controversial making the album stand out on any shelf. The deep blue of the sea is code for purity, showing an untouched background, as does the baby. Someone born fresh into this world without beliefs or knowledge is pure, so when the image shows the baby instantly chasing after material possessions, it sends a very striking, clear message.
The font choice is also very well done, the text is bold and well crafted, the capital letters and elegant designs are code for importance and insist that the band be taken seriously. The NEVERMIND font has been done in a water style to suit the rest of the cover, so the design is consistent.
Considering this cover, I should bare in mind whether or not when I am creating my cover, if I want to make something controversial as well as eye catching.

Oasis Artwork - Be Here Now

After Oasis had experienced a great deal of success with their first album, their followup "Be Here Now" was long awaited and was an instant success.

The first thing we notice about the cover is the scattered materialistic items throughout the scene. The expensive car has been drivcn into the swimming pool, one of the band members can be seen looking upon a globe from a foot away with a telescope, showing us their disregard for the wealth they have aquired. The grammaphone has been placed in the foreground as a link back to their musical heritage, showing the audience that they remember what's important to them. But the general scene represents the band well, it's very rock star/ rebellious. They don't fear consequence and show a complete disregard for wealth, showing the audience that even though the bands stature has changed and they have become successful, they as individuals haven't changed a bit. We can tell this again from the possessions, the scooter and expensive car are of British origin. The band know where they came from.

Looking into symbolism, the globe represents world domination for the band, it was in their first album cover too, they use it to insist they have a high importance. The lead member of the band is once again in much clearer sight that the other members, this again is to show the heirachy of the band.

This album by the Beatles entitled St.Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was incredibly successful so therefore it's only natural I would research deeper into the artwork to find out why.
Upon its release, nothing even similar to this had hit the media ever before, it was completely original and in a sense revolutionary.

The group in the actual image are wearing military clothing, however they have turned the seriousness of the clothing down a notch by transforming it into a parody, changing the colours to bright, less serious tones in order to make a joke of it. However, the way they are dressed is a complete contrast to the other people in the artwork, making them stand out as important. They also look as if they are ring leaders of a circus, ready to entertain, which is their main intention.
We see further circus links with the drum situated in front of the group. It relates back to music, but in a far less serious way, again we see that The Beatles are here to entertain.

The flowers situated even further in front of the bad could represent a number of things. They are situated in a funeral like manner, maybe to symbolise the end of the past-pop or past-beatles era. The Beatles completely revolutionised the pop genre with this album, maybe this was their intention and they tryed to convey this with their album artwork. The flowers though are a bright colour, symbolising happiness. The time period the album was released in also links back to the 'flower power' hippy age, so this could be in relation to that.

As far as status is concerned, the Beatles have situated themselves are in the forground as the center of attention to the hoards of famous people in the background. This suggests they view themselves as having an incredibly high status, higher than that of those behind them, and demands the audiences respect.

Oasis- Definitely Maybe

What Oasis tried to accomplish with this album artwork was conveying to the audience what kind of people they were. In this shot, they are situated in a small living room, with a small Television and some odd decor. But we see from the scene that they are very average lads, they watch football as seen by them picture just in front of the fireplace. By sending a message like this, they make the audience think that they are similar to them, and that although they are rock stars, they live a similar life style.

However we do feel that the band is slightly sohpisticated... The glass of wine, the vinyl resting on the sofa and the dress code of some of the members is a higher class than what you would have expected.

The globe however has been placed to represent the future for the band and their ambition of what may be (in a musical sense) world domination. We see this again on the left wall, the sky has been reflected brightly in the mirror, possibly showing that the possibilities for the band are limitless.

The band name is in black and white, all the letters are lower case but in bold and incased in a black box. It looks very formal, possibly used to establish a sense of respect for the band. They want to be taken seriously, despite the working class appeal and down to earth attitude, they are proffessionals and want to be recognised for it.