Market Research: Album Cover Analysis

Radiohead - In Rainbows

The In Rainbows album cover takes inspiration from NASA'S space photgraphs and in doing so, also conveys the style and feel of the music of the band as well as the title of the album. The text style on the front of the album is taken directly from the text on NASA's photographs, but instead reading 'Radiohead, In Rainbows'. I think this is an extremely clever idea and as well as this, the colours nod toward the colours of the rainbow, again highlighting the title of the album. I like the way that, like some of the other album covers I've posted, this cover doesn't feature an image of the band. Instead, it conveys artwork that fits in and represents the concept of the album. Many albums of many different genres do this with their album covers, and I think gives the album a more interesting look rather than just having an image of the band on the front which could appear almost lazy.

Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania

Much like In Rainbows, Oceania doesn't feature an image of the band but instead, shows a photograph of the North Shore Tower in Illinois. This building, in conjuction with the leafless trees surrounding it, creates a fairly ominous image. This could be reflecting the alternative/rebellious feel of the band's music. In addition, the way that the photograph has a blue/green hue in turn reflects the album title - Oceania, reflecting the colour of the sea and the land in the continent.



The band R.E.M.'s album 'green' shows some similar characteristics to some Weezer albums. The albums name is 'green' and therefore they have decided to make the artwork green. This is typical for this genre as the majority of the albums all have artwork which is the title for the album. Weezer can be seen doing this for a few of their albums:

          The blue album                                                              The green album           

                                                                      The red album