CD Digipak anaylsisBy Rocharna McNaughton

The central image of this album is Beyoncé looking directly into the camera. This is effective as the album feels more personalised to the target audience as if Beyoncé is reaching out to only them.

The whole of the album cover is in grey scale.

There is a bracelet pendent of a cross hanging from her left arm. This could connote that she is faithful and that this album may contain a few God related songs. This is affective because it can also appeal to a religious audience.

Beyonce is behind a white backdrop, this represents her as more angelic and pure. This may tell the audience that her music will be clean which is reinforced by the fact there is no parental advisory label at the front

Beyoncé's lips are slightly parted which can be see as quite flirtatious. Not only this but it looks like Beyoncé is also topless. This conforms to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze as this could attract a male audience

The typography goes with the grey scale of the photo whereby the colours used are dark grey, white and silver.

The Barcode- this is located on the back of the cd digipak

Information about the record label and certificates is provided at the back

Another image is on the back of the digipak. Beyonce is wearing a an unusual gold top. This is in contrast with the black and white back cover which makes the gold stand out more. Gold can be used to symbolise first place (as in a gold medal) or to symbolise expense. The artist is looking directly at the camera which looks like she is directly looking at her audience which anchors the name of the album ‘SASHA FIERCE’ as this is an attempt to intimidate her audience. Furthermore, she is holding her head in a way that it looks like she is positioning her crown which could reinforce the representation of her being first place or on top.

The name of the album is repeated again at the back which makes it more memorable. Is the same font and colour as the front cover.

This is the list of all the songs in this album and also the bonus track is in gold.

Half of the background is white and half of it is dark grey. This therefore represents her as having a split personality. Which again anchors the album title as Sasha Fierce is Beyonce’s alter ego

Rihanna’s name is spread right across the top of the album cover. The font is very simple and is white. The font is very similar to the album cover as a whole which is simplistic. Which is a contrast with the album title LOUD.

Her eyes are closed which makes her look more sexy and flirtatious as opposed to aggressive. We can see her long eyelashes which emphasises her feminine beauty. This again could conform to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze.

Rihanna’s tattoo is slightly showing which represents to the audience that she has a rebellious side

The parent advisory label stands out the most on this album with its stark contrast with the red. Because of this we can see that Rihanna uses this as a selling point of the album. This reinforces the idea that she has a rebellious nature.

Red can be a symbol of love but also danger. The fact her lips are red connotes to the audience that she can either say loving or dangerous. Rihanna’s lips are the in the centre of the frame and therefore that is the first thing that you see when viewing this front cover.

Her hair is the same colour as her lips. Therefore we expect to see a red, white and black theme running through the whole CD digipak

The font has remained the same on the back as it is the front. However the colour has changed to red/pink. This is a list of all the songs that the album contains

There is also information about the producers and how the album was made.

The barcode is located on the back right of the album CD digipak.

Rihanna is only taking up a half of the back. This image is in contrast with the front where we see bright reds as opposed to the back were the central image has faded. She is looking down again however is looking to the right of the digipak. This is effective as it draws our attention over to the information that

Rihanna’s legs are slightly open which again forms to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory.

In Jhene aiko’s existing mix tape cover, she is only taking up about 1/3 of the frame. I will incorporate this style into my CD digipak cover. She is looking directly into the camera therefore suggesting that she wants to be taken seriously. Her eyes have dark eye shadow around which adds a sense of mystery to her overall look. Adding to the mystery element Jhene Aiko is wearing white which could connote that she still has elements of her angelic side to her.

She has chains around her waist and around her wrist. This could connote that she has broken free into the mainstream music industry.

The background of this cd cover is of a sun set and the sea/ocean. Which provides anchorage to the title of the mixtape ‘sailing souls’.

We see the colours, yellow, orange and gold in the background.

For this mixtape the typography consists of script type writing. Which is different from Rihanna and Beyonce’s album covers where the writing is bold and simple

Conventions

• From looking at these CD digipaks we cans see that for a female artists the Laura Mulvey theory plays a huge part when constructing a cover.

• The colour Gold has been a common theme throughout the Digipak that I have analysed which tells me that this genre predominately contains gold

• It is a convention for the barcode to be at the back of the digipak in the right corner. The back also conventionally has the list of all the album songs and record label information.

• Although all artist take up most of the frame Jhene aiko takes up only a third in the cover displayed previously and also in her second mixtape Sail out. I will keep Jhene Aiko’s convention.