Conventions

of a

CD

What I think the conventions are.• Before looking at existing CD’s, I am going to write what I think the

conventions of a CD are;• Artist name• Album name• Record label logo

• These are the three things that I think all CD’s will have and am now going to look at different artist’s and their CD’s to see if I was right or to see if there is anything else that needs to be added to the list or anything that needs to be removed.

On these two CD’s, the track list has been included on the bottom which I think makes it look slightly overcrowded and I don’t think this idea would be one that I would include in my product. I think that the consistent font use on both the artist’s name and the track list is very professional because it illustrates how the artist has been organised and thought through the design of the CD. Apart from the track list being included on the CD, I think this is a very conventional product because it contains the artist’s name, the album name and the record label(s) the artist is signed to. Out of the two albums, I prefer Foxes’ Glorious product, because I think that the pink and white colours go together a lot better than the black and silver do on Katy Perry’s Prism. I think the main reason for this is because the Prism CD reflects light a lot easier and is therefore shinier, which is a bit annoying when trying to look a the disc because the light shines on it and makes it difficult to see and read.

CD’s with a track list on.

(Lady Gaga – Artpop)

(Nicki Minaj – The Pink Print)

On these CD’s, the artist’s name hasn’t been included on them and I think this is because these two artists are very well known globally and are very popular in the music industry. They have both been known for being very different in the way they dress; Lady Gaga wearing the famous meat dress and Nicki Minaj always having a different wig on wherever she is. The CD’s link in very well with the overall theme of the album because of how Nicki Minaj’s album is called ‘The Pink Print’ and the CD features a fingerprint which is pink, and Lady Gaga’s album is called ‘Artpop’ and the CD’s mise en scene features Lady Gaga herself positioned in a sculpture type form. I think they are both really symbolic of the music industry and how you need to fit a certain mould (Artpop) to be accepted which therefore removes your identity (The Pink Print). I really like the idea of not having the artist’s name on the CD, but think that having it there would be a better choice for my artist because then the consumer would be more likely to remember their name than if it was just a picture of their face or a blank CD with no text.

CD’s without artist name.

More examples:

(Lorde – Pure Heroine)

This is a really simple design, but I think it works really well with some artists. For example, this is a CD from the artist Lorde whose music is quite dream-like and serene, so this design fits well with her music and reflects the type of artist she is. I think the use of a silver colour is really effective as it has connotations of emotion and mystery, (empower-yourself-with-colour-psychology) and this represents her as a really interesting artist which helps to promote her image within her album to potential consumers of her music and merchandise. A CD that doesn’t contain the artist’s name or the album name isn’t very common but it does allow the artist to be creative if they don’t want to include an image onto the CD. This isn’t a design I intend to use on my product because I don’t think it would be very effective, due to the artist I am making my products for being a new one and therefore I want my products to have my artist’s name and album name as many places as possible without overusing it.

CD with no artist or album name.

More examples:

Due to Ke$ha’s image being that of a ‘party animal’, she has used this stereotype to her advantage and made an album out of it. She has used gold lettering which I think is used in an ironic way by Ke$ha, as it usually connotates wealth and power, but if she is the one partying and spending all her money on alcohol then she wouldn’t have any money, but she is extremely successful. I think this is her way of stating that she should be able to do whatever she wants to. I really like how the font stands out because it is really vibrant and exciting against the dark black background. I think that this is the most likely type of CD I am going to create for my album, because it has both the artist’s name and the album name, which are the two things that I want to really promote for the artist that I create. As well as this, I think that I am going to use an image of my artist on my CD as this will make people more likely to remember the artist, as they will see her face multiple times in my products.

CD’s with artist and album name.

More examples:

Men VS women.• Another thing that I have decided to look at the conventions of is the

way that men and women are represented on their CD’s and how this illustrates them in a certain way.• I think that, before I do any research into the conventions of each sex,

men will be perceived in a much stronger and powerful way than women and that women will look like they are trying to be sexual to make their album sell as good as they possibly can.• I am going to look at some existing products and analyse why they are

designed in the way that they are and look at whether they follow the conventions that I have thought of above.

MEN.

For male artists, I have found that they more often than not don’t appear on the physical copy of the CD themselves, but instead try to be creative and create something that is aesthetically pleasing, or something that relates to the album cover in some way. I think these albums illustrate power and because it suggests that people buying the album will already know what the artist looks like because of how popular they are. Out of these albums, the newest one is Sam Smith’s ‘In The Lonely Hour’, which still follows similar conventions to the other CD’s. He was able to release this CD without an image of himself on it as he released a lot of songs previously and therefore created a following for himself which he has then used to increase sales. I also think that the font used on these albums is a very important indication to what kind of music the consumer will find on the album, as Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ CD has a font which looks similar to graffiti, which links well with the title as this has negative connotations as it is illegal to graffiti. This is what I expected to find in the way the artist has represented themselves and their ideology, but was surprised that the artist didn’t appear on the CD as I think that this might have made a stronger statement than having just their name on it.

WOMEN.

For female artists, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern which correlates between the sex of the artist and the design of the CD. In some cases, the artist has used an image that isn’t of themselves, but is an image of something that relates to their album or something looks aesthetically pleasing (similarly to that of male artists). Other times, the artist opts for a simple cover with just their name and the album title, which I think is used by different artists to illustrate the type of music their album contains, but can still look really creative if the colour choice is done right and can still look really professional. Sometimes, though, the artist’s CD has an illustrated or manipulated design (Bionic by Christina Aguilera) which relates to the album, which shows the creative side of their personality. I also found some albums that have the artist on the CD, but these artists aren’t represented in a sexual way like I had first thought. Nicki Minaj has placed herself on two of her albums, and I think this was because this was her debut album that was to be released in shops, online etc. This allowed her to get recognised in the music industry which was important for her as she has gone on to be a very successful artist among other things. Although these CDs are very different in their design and their layout, they still have similar conventions including things like the record label(s) they are signed to, and relevant images/colour choice.

As this product is different to what I expected a female artist’s CD to look like, I have decided to look at why this is and why it works. Lana Del Rey is labelled as both indie and dream pop, and I think the use of black and white on her front cover and back cover illustrate this as it has connotations of nostalgia and memories. I think she hasn’t used herself on the CD within her product because she has used an image of herself on both the front cover and the back cover, so didn’t want to overuse images of herself which would make the product look unprofessional. Instead, she has opted for a very minimal design on her CD which contains lots of different images of different coloured flowers/plants which have been manipulated to create an image with a variety of flowers/plants. I think that if she had used black and white for her full product, it would look very dark and unappealing, so she has used flowers to add some colour and life into her product and therefore making it look effective and interesting.

ANALYSIS.

• After researching existing products and looking at the different types of CDs there are, I have noticed that the conventions of a CD aren’t as straightforward as I expected. This is due to not every CD looking the same or wanting to illustrate a specific message.

• Every CD that I have looked at, though, contain the record label(s) that the artist is signed to.

• As I am planning on creating a CD in a similar way to how Ke$ha has done her CD, I am going to analyse the conventions for this particular design:Artist nameAlbum nameRecord label(s) the artist is signed toSimple design

• I am planning on breaking this convention and adding an image to my CD as I think this will make it look interesting and will make the artist’s face even more memorable, although I may end up changing my mind when I am creating my final product.

The conventions.