Album covers- The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses) and Pink Floyd (Harvest)

 

Features of an album cover: Stars face, name of the band, name of the album, connection between the visuals and lyrics, bands logo and record company logo.

Similarities between The Stone Roses and Harvest: Neither of the covers have pictures of the bands on the front. They are relying on the fans of the band recognising the album without having to actually see a picture of the band. For Pink Floyd not appearing on the cover it adds to the mythical nature of the band, they are a band rarely seen and therefore this album add to that star image. The Stone Roses cover is because they were a new band with very little budget. These albums are from bands who are different stages of their career. Both of the covers could suggest something about the music that you are going to hear. They are covers you would expect to see a rock band use rather then a hip hop or pop star use.

　

　The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses)　

Images: Green and white paint splats and lemons. They have kept the album cover simple and have possibly used the quirky feature like the lemons as a way of getting the album noticed rather then having the band on the front cover. The red white and blue is a reference to the French flag, symbolizing the French Unrest in 1968, showing that the band were interested in their being a deeper meaning to their music.

Text: Bold Gold text in the centre, dominating the cover. This could have been done to replace the image of the band, if they are not on the cover at least we know their name.

Relationship between the text and the image: There is both lemons in the text and the image. There is also the relationship between the text and the image because both the text and images are what we possibly expect to see from a rock band. The lemons used in the text and the image also link back to the use of the French flag on the cover. The lemons were used by the people involved in the riots in France, in particular Paris, as a way of protecting themselves from the tear gas. By using symbols that have a stronger more meaningful message it helps assert that they are an indie band.

Functions: In the sleeve of the album cover there is pictures of the band in black and white and they are performing. This could be to reinforce the fact that they are a rock band, who play all their own music. The album sleeve also serves the function of telling us who wrote the songs, produced them, played on them, sung them etc. The fact that the name of the band is big on the album cover could be to replace the fact there is no picture of the band and to get us familiar with the name. The unction of the back of the case is to tell you the name of the songs, helpful if you know the band for one particular song and are looking for it on that album.

Iconography:

There is a union jack on the inside of the cover, signifying that this is a British band. This could also be playing on the traditions of other rock bands such as The Rolling Stones, who also use the Union Jack iconography.