Sunday 8 June 2014

Analysis of Album Covers: Jessie J



Jessie J is a very popular artist in the current pop music industry. This album was released around five years ago. It is obvious that Jessie J and her management want to present her as edgy and slightly 'dark' due to the dark nails, dark lips and dark eye make up. This star image would stereotypically appeal to the 'goth' audience but actually appealed to a much wider audience due to how unique she was.

In this picture on her album cover, she is not smiling and therefore does not present a 'clean-cut' star image. This appeals to the teenage audience as she is seen as rebellious, like a modern day Joan Jett with a present day twist by using the gold writing and jewellery.

The key theme of black and gold in this album cover is reflected in most of her live performances and music videos and presents a 'chav-like' image, hereby appealing to this type of audience. This image makes Jessie J more relatable to younger and more common audiences. 

Jessie J is made to look quite young in this album cover which is also another factor that appeals to a wide audience. This album cover suggests Jessie J is quite synthetic and stylised and hints that the songs on the album are quite 'dancey' and upbeat.

However, in opposition to this album cover, around five years after she released this album, her second album cover looked like this:


This picture for the cover of her album 'Alive' shows a very different star image for Jessie J. Not only is there hardly any back and gold, there is very minimal colour at all. Although Jessie J was doing very well in the music industry, she and her management decided to shave her head for Children in Need which makes her target audience 'fall in love' with her even more as she is shown as kind and selfless. 

In this album cover, she also looks a lot older and seems to have 'settled' into the music industry as a well-established artist. She has such a large fan base that she is comfortable with changing her star image completely and still retaining her wide audience. 

Unlike the first album, Jessie J gives off the impression as a raw and organic artist due to the bare skin and fairly basic make up and no lipstick. The change in font between the two albums is also very drastic as in the first one it is gold and looks almost like a gold chain with her name on which is stereotypical of dance and R&B artists. However, the font on this cover is very swirly in a basic colour which adheres to the image she is presenting about being 'authentic' and 'raw.' 

Overall, these two albums cover suggest that although star image is very important   when you are starting out, it is affordable to change your image to suit the music you are making when you already have such a wide fan base.

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