John Mayer

About John Mayer

John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American

recording artist and producer.

After making his introduction as a sensitive, acoustic-styled songwriter on his first album, Room for Squares, he widened his audience and approach to much, encompassing everything from blues-rock to adult contemporary. In recent years he has crafted more pop music to conform to todays music, yet he uses jazz chords and literate terms of phrase.

He has 6 albums in total

He has won many ‘grammy’ awards, and had multiple top 20 hits, top 1 albums.

Past albums

On this cover, he is shown as happy, which represents him to be young. The squares replicate that of the title, this represents him as amateurish (an independent artist), emphasizing that this is his first album.

On his second album artwork, he uses low key lighting, which could hint at his change in innocence (as shown in his first artwork) through his popularity in the industry. Furthermore, the album conforms more towards the pop/rock genre, as he is portrayed to appear more wild through the mise-en-scene – scruffy clothing, lighting.

His third album juxtaposes against his previous two. The bland colours and, lack of emotion within with artwork could create a message of depression, and loss as a theme throughout the album. Or it could also represent John Mayor to not conform to typical conventions, that he is more interested in the music than other mundane elements.

1. 2. 3.

His fourth album conforms more towards stereotypical pop genre artwork, how he is gazing into the distance – a feature apparent in many other pop artist artworks. The black and white colour upon him represents him as in mourning, as they are bland colours which stereotypically represent people to be upset, which links into his previous album artwork colour scheme.

His fifth album relies heavily upon the illustration elements, which contrasts against all his other pervious album artwork. I feel this represents his music to fit more within the rock genre – the stylized font, enigmas created via clock illustrations, lack of humanity.

His most current album reverts back to his old style, suggesting a change in events in his life or that his previous album and perhaps change of style did not do as well as others. The location he is in represents him to be rural, and for the album to contain natural sounds, to be more natural and less synthetic. The clouds in the horizon could suggest at some conflict which is apparent in the albums songs. The high quality in comparison to his first album artwork highlights his rise within the industry and success.

4. 5. 6.

Album 1 creates a message of simplicity, and the artwork makes the album look like an easy listen, and for a first album and someone trying to break into the industry this is expected. Through the album looking very rural and focused, it challenges Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory, this is partly due to not fitting within John Mayer's original genre. Through the simplistic album artwork, I feel it conforms to the uses and gratifications audience model, and it is within this genre that audiences tend to go to get a diversion – I feel the artwork used suggests this as a possibility. Through the album artwork using a visual representation of the name of the album, he conforms to Goodwin’s genre theory of a link between the visuals and meanings.

Album 2 looks more focused upon a chosen genre, and this has resulted in the artwork looking more daring and edgy. As a result this has created an enigma which pushes the audience to pursue the album so the songs can answer the enigma. Furthermore, a possible binary opposition may have been constructed, where within some of the albums lyrics will conflict against what the album firstly portrays itself to be. These are representations I expected of the album and artist.

Album 3’s artwork creates a representation of an individual being anonymous, which converges towards the target audience of his genre. This creates a message of equality, something which his target audience are seeking. Again using the uses and gratifications model, this model is further supported by the hit pop song featuring upon it ‘waiting on the world to change’ , and this supports the surveillance element of the model. Through the anonymous design of the artwork package, it challenges Baudrillard’s Simulacra and the Hyperreal theory, he stated that representations no longer refer to real things – however the lack of anything real upon the album creates minimalist representations. However, you could argue that the use of this design hyperreals representations, therefore could also conform to Baudrillard’s theory.

The 5th album creates a wilder representation of John Mayer, as it contrasts greatly against his previous album artwork, as the majority of them feature himself – a convention of his genre. The change suggests a change in genre, and this artwork conforms to many theories. The illustrations create enigmas, which heavily conforms to Barthes theory, such as the clock, the audience will then expect action codes to feature within lyrics of the songs upon the album. Also, the artwork contains many semic and cultural codes, as the clock will represent time moving, which has semic and cultural meanings. The use of this illustration also conforms to Saussure’s semiotics theory. On some level, it conforms to the Hyperdermic needle model, as the artwork contains images which could be used to inject messages into the audience subconsciously.

Album 4 creates the representation of an individual feeling caged, this is through the pained expression and the dark colour scheme used upon him when contrasted against the bright white background. However, he dominates the shot and takes full focus which hints at a representation of independence. This creates a message of sadness for the album. These representations create binary oppositions against each other, which creates a symbolic code. Through these clear representations it creates a sign for the audience, the signifier used is the male alone, looking lost (also supported by the name of the album ‘battle studies’) which creates a signifier of the album will contain love and romance styled songs – loosing someone.

The 6th albums artwork creates a representation of isolation and the dog being in the frame represents companionship. These representations however, will differ dependant upon the audiences location – this can be explained through social and cultural context. For those living in a rural location, they will not feel it is isolated, however those living in the city will feel it is. Yet this statement is subject to John Mayer’s target audience, through this album artwork he will be targeting those who can connect to the image - more likely those within a similar location. Through these representations it targets a specific audience and suggests that the album will be rural, and very natural.