2. PURPOSE OF ALBUM COVER
The first and foremost purpose of a CD cover is to
protect the CD from general wear and tear. However,
besides the practicalities of the cover it is designed for
the artist to advertise the content. Every artist has their
own personal style which is portrayed through the art
work this could include: Photography, illustration,
graphic design and the typography.
Over the decades since album covers were
revolutionised, there have been many controversial
album covers. Aspects of artwork associated with
sexuality/nudity, religious beliefs, trademarks have
been either banned or dismissed due to violence,
graphical content or plagiarism
3. FRONT OF CD
• PURPOSE: display the bands name and also the name of the
album. The CD itself is simply just displaying the album’s
artwork
BACK OF CD
• PURPOSE: displays:
• an image of the band itself
• CD- track numbers and song titles, including bonus tracks
• Produced by:
• DVD- track numbers and song titles
• Barcode
• Additional record logos
INSIDE FRONT OF CD
• PURPOSE: The inside front of this album is simply displaying
the back of the booklet with images of the band in live
performance, lyrics etc
CD
• PURPOSE: either has the band name or something related to
the album.
5. SEXUALITY/NUDITY
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS- MOTHER’S MILK
(1989)
The album cover features a black and
white photograph of the band sprawled
across the arms of a proportionately larger
naked woman. A rose conceals one of her
nipples while Kiedis’ standing body
conceals the other. Several national
chains refused to sell the record because
they believed the female subject
displayed too much nudity. A stricter
censored version was manufactured for
some retailers that featured the band
members in far larger proportion than the
original
6. NIRVANA-NEVERMIND (1991)
The album cover clearly showed
an infant (Spencer Elden)’s penis.
Chain stores such as Wal-Mart,
and K-Mart were highly offended
and initially refused to carry
Nevermind. However eventually
due to such high demand,
Nirvana compromised and put a
sticker that read “Featuring
«Smells Like Teen Spirit», «Come As
You Are» and «Lithium»” over the
genitals. Nirvana saw continued
controversy for their next album,
In Utero.
7. TRADEMARK
CRYSTAL CASTLES- CRYSTAL CASTLES
(2008)
The albums original artwork, a black and
white image of Madonna with a black
eye with ‘c/r/y/s/t/a/l c/a/s/t/l/e/s’
written across it, was originally going to
be cover art of the bands debut album
but the artist who created the image
sued them because they did not have
copyright. Instead an image of both
members of the band standing in a street,
leaning forward so their faces cannot be
seen was hastily taken and used for
artwork. However the Madonna image
already featured on band merchandise
and as the art for their first single “Alice
Practice” so they were forced to buy
rights to the image’
8. VAMPIRE WEEKEND- CONTRA
(2010)
The cover art, taken in the
1980s, features a blond girl
staring into the camera with
an unidentifiable expression on
her face. The band are
currently being sued by the
model, Kirsten Kennis,who
claims the photographer who
sold the image to the band
did not take the picture and
she was not aware her image
was being used until she saw
the copy her teenage
daughter had bought
9. OTHERS
GUNS N’ ROSES- G N’ R LIES
(1988)
The album cover depicts a
newspaper article with various
text written on it, alongside
images. The original version of
the album cover included the
headines “Wife-beating has
been around for 10,000 years”
and “Ladies, welcome to the
dark ages”, which both
become very controversial, due
to the misogyny nature of both
sentences. They were quickly
replaced with “Lies Lies Lies”
and “Elephant Gives Birth to
Midget” respectively
10. ARCTIC MONKEYS- WHATEVER
PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT’S WHAT
I’M NOT (2006)
The cover sleeve showing Chris
McClure, a friend of the band,
smoking a cigarette, was
criticised by the head of the
NHS in Scotland for “reinforcing
the idea that smoking is OK”.
The image on the CD itself is a
shot of an ashtray full of
cigarettes. The band’s product
manager denied the
accusation, and in fact
suggested the opposite — “You
can see from the image
smoking is not doing him the
world of good
11.
12.
13. SUMMARY
• Most common techniques which occurred
• Clear and simple
• Connection between album name and pack-shot
• Artist/ group name on front cover
• Not many colours used
• Artist/group relate to the pack-shot
