Album art analysis - US (cont)

Shontelle No Gravity album is an album which is mostly compromised of POP tracks with some of the tracks influenced by Rock music. The album cover shows Shontelle in what looks like a bird cage, this could be done to show Shontelle as trapped. This trapped representation could have been used to coincide with the album title ‘No Gravity’ as being trapped often can bring someone to feel as if there is no air or ‘No Gravity’ around them. The lighting of the album cover also gives off hints as to what we would hear in the playlist, this is done through the shading where there is dark and light in the background, which could also be used to represent that in Shontelles playlist we will be hearing both sides of different views, the ‘good’ and the ‘bad.’ This representation is a convention which Shontelle seems to be following as some, if not most of her tracks are compromised of relationship songs. The background lighting and colour could also have been used to make the artist look bolder and more of an eye-catcher as well as more of an iconic figure on the album cover.

Bruno Mars is an American singer and songwriter who has worked with various artists such as B.O.B, Flo-Rida, Travie McCoy and more. Bruno Mars’s album cover ‘Just The Way You Are’ compromises of different colours and shapes to make up one image, this technique is called a ‘montage’ and has been used by other artists such as Michael Jackson etc. The reason that Bruno Mars had decided to use this technique could of been to create a link between the album title and the image used, this visual link could of been meant to show that no matter the differences (shapes and colours) Bruno Mars would still like to show that he likes a single thing, ‘Just The Way You Are’. This is further represented by the fact that the different shapes and colours makes up the head of a single image. Also the colours used on the album cover are colourful and vibrant. This could have been done to catch the eye of the audience to boost their sales. Another method that Bruno Mars’s album cover uses to boost its sales is by making the artist’s name ‘Bruno Mars’ large and readable, this could of been done to again, boost sales as the album cover can use the artists name, popularity and fan base to generate more sales.