Research into Album/Single Covers

To make our media product believable we decided that the best way to promote 'our' music video is to create a single CD featuring the band, The Veronicas (Fran and Lucy) and the song, Untouched but also with the music video on as well. So, to be able to do so we did some research into existing pop genre album covers to give us an idea of whats already on the market, and our competition. Here are a few examples of some of the biggest selling pop artist around;

Britney Spears - Britney Album

(Left) This is Britney's third album that was released in 2001 which was the most successful album for a female artist or female group and sold 12 million copies world wide.
Personally, i really like the sepia effect used on Britney herself, it makes her look rather isolated and sad because of the dull, drab colours which may refer to some of the songs on the album as being a little more 'down beat', however she is surrounded by a lot of blue and pink which brightens the cover up along with the typography which happens to be in contrasting yellow which makes it stand out significantly although i don't like it because it doesn't blend as well as it should, it looks like its not well designed and out of place. Britney is centrally positioned on the cover which is a very common stance for an album cover but her actual pose has connotations of desperation as she looks almost as though shes begging.

Christina Aguilera - Stripped Album

(Left) This is Christina Aguilera's second English studio album which sold over 12 million copies worldwide and was released in 2002.

I love this album cover as its so simple but effective. Its all monochrome which makes in look slightly old fashioned but with the contrast of the modern font typography it bring it into the 21st century. Also it seems as if there is anchorage between the words Christina Aguilera as they are at either side of the artist with her standing in the middle to make it obvious who she is. It catches your attention because its bare and makes a clear statement, its very iconographic and easy to spot which is very good advertising. Christina is positioned in the centre of the CD case and is stood in a hip 'swaying' stance. She is objectified as a sexual object, as Laura Mulvey's theory would suggest, as she is wearing no top and is letting only her hair cover her chest which is quite provocative, also her jeans are laced fastened and look as if they are slightly coming open this is also another way in which she is being objectified as a sexual object. The actual title of the album is in a smaller size than the artists name which is quite frequent in pop genre music albums.

Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

(Left) This was Kelly Clarkson's second studio album which was released in 2004 and sold 13 million copies worldwide.
I really like the different types of typography used on this album as it makes it very stylised. Kelly Clarkson has been positioned to take up more than half of actual album cover, as she is the main selling point of the album/ song as she has been edited to look flawless. She is posing in a stance which connotes she herself needs to 'breakaway' (album name) as she looks quite stressed with her hands holding her head and messy hair.

The colour scheme is very natural with only using, brown, grey and black to keep it simple and not too busy.