Acoustic Album Covers

8/13/2019 Acoustic Album Covers

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How do these album/single covers

represent the acoustic genre?

What conventions are used?



Gabrielle Aplin: Panic CordRepresents acoustic

genre through the

extremely natural

location, connotingthe ‘organic’ style of

acoustic music. The

natural lighting

through the trees also

supports this.

Overall, the

cover is

aesthetically

beautiful,representing the

soft, delicate

instruments and

vocals

The balloon signifies

nostalgia and youth,relating to the

convention that

acoustic music often

evokes memories and

emotion.

Artist is

represented as

conventionally,

very pretty, but

also casual and‘grounded’ due to

her bear feet.

However also

ambitious and

youthful due to the

floating balloon.

The bright colours represent the genre to be

creative and upbeat.

Central camera positioning possibly represents the genre as

very grounded and established within the music industry.



Panic Cord Continued… • Focusing upon the font, ‘Gabrielle Aplin’ is in Gabrielle- name is in capitals and

single is in capitals, whilst the song name is in lower capitals. The artists name

in capitals could possibly exaggerate and establish artist credibility within theindustry.

• The central positioning of the font also possibly has the same meaning as the

camera composition; very grounded artist .

• The choice of white font connotes the artists purity and innocence.

• When considering Gabrielle, her gaze is directly is upon the audience;

representing the artist and the acoustic genre as emotionally connecting and

personal.

• The artists positioning could be argued to be quite child-like. Strengthened by

the large, yellow balloon, this positioning potentially evoking nostalgia and

youth from the audience, as well as representing the artist as youthful(mentioned on the previous slide).

• There is somewhat an intertextaul reference to story books within the cover;

the bright bold colours of the balloon and the artists choice in clothing is

similar to that of the primary colours in picture books, as well as the oversized

balloon implying a sense of adventure and imagination that is found in storybooks.



Ben Howard:Old Pine

With the artists name in

the top left hand corner,

in a very subtle font,

and the artist himself

hardly in focus,

represents the acoustic

genre to be very casualand humble; musically

driven, they are selling

the music, and the

emotion behind it,

instead of the artists

face appeal.

The colour scheme

is particularly

artistic, and

conventionally,

visually appealing.

This therefore

represents thegenre as creative,

as well as nostalgic

as the exposer and

greyscale looks like

a polaroid photo/

real film etc.

The conventional,

natural setting and

bright, natural light

has the same effect as

in Panic Cord.

Picture relates to single title; a convention is the sense of a relationship

between lyrics and visuals (often portrayed within the music videos).

This particular cover represents the genre as particularly emotional and

heartfelt due to the high exposure. Combined with the vast expanse of space,

the photographic exposure suggests a sense of vulnerability that could be

associated with the lyrics within the song, for example.



Old Pine Continued…

• Also, when considering the image of place, youcould argue that it is quite a romantic portrayal ofnature and open space.

• This is because in terms of composition and therule of thirds, our eye is instantly drawn to thelong, dark trees, which are stretching of thecover. This therefore connotes the powerful andheavenly extent of natures beauty; supported by

the positioning of the artist himself, being smallerthan the horizon and consequently ‘engulfed’ bythe nature.



Kodaline: In A Perfect World

This cover exhibits

the conventional

natural location and

lighting, reflecting the

musical style.

The soft colours represent the genre as very delicate, soft and natural; a conventional representation.

Again, like Old

Pine, the people

are not the focus

of the cover;

emphasis is on

the ‘perfect

world’ they are

in, again,

strengthening the

conventional

relationship

between visualsand lyrics within

the acoustic

genre.

The people within

the shot are not the

band. Therefore it

could be argued that

these people are in

fact representing the

(acoustic) audience;

carefree, youthful

and casual.

The extreme long shot confidently establishes location; potentially representing

acoustic music as universal, implying that the music itself can transport you anywhere

(like from the woods in Gabrielle Aplin’s cover, to the lake within Kodaline’s).



In A Perfect World Continued… • The font construction of this cover is similar to that of ‘Panic

Cord’; the artists name is larger and in capitals, whilst alsobeing central. Therefore, it could have the same connotations

as the positioning of ‘Panic Cord’.

• Whilst being central, the font is also positioned relatively high

up, not to obstruct the image below. However, the highpositioning could also represent the band as having musical

status and importance, as well as almost heavenly and angelic

connotations; acoustic music, especially theirs, is pure and

emotionally connecting.

• The use of white could be argued as slightly more subtle than

in ‘Panic Cord’, suiting the soft colour scheme of pinks and

blues. Therefore, the choice in colour may be more for

aesthetic appeal, linking the font colour to the positioning;

amongst the clouds.

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Acoustic Album Covers