Genre Research 3: Album Cover Research

Relapse (2009) by Eminem

Image of the artists face at quite a close up angle shows how important he believes himself to be and how he should be noticed as the centre of attention. The pixelated face represents him breaking apart and him spreading out beyond his persona. This also could represent how he is feeling about himself, like a part of him has been lost or separated from him. The idea behind the album, as stated by Eminem, is that it represents his departure from rehab and 'thus rap as if he was on drugs again'. He also used it as a way to re-introduce his alter ego as Slim Shady. The name represents him going back to all these aspects of his former life and embracing them. The type face is quite simplistic at a glance, but uses an X under the R, to represent the end of how he formerly was and a backwards E, like that in his stage name, to relate the album to him, and show how he is 'going back'. 


The Beginning (2010) by The Black Eyed Peas

The four band members are represented here by 8-bit SNES like images which give the idea of it being old and outdated, yet retro and still can be popular. The members of the band have been shown as younger than they are at this point in time to show how they have gone back to the beginning.  They are shown on a blue background, which could be representing of a high school photo, and the beginning of their lives as musicians. The backgrounds are all the same to show how they came from similar places and have come together later in life. The type face is representative of the bands logo and shows that the band created the album. The Beginning is a sequel to the previous album, The E.N.D and represents new ideas and a new outlook.




Shine (2007) by Estelle

Estelle is wearing a long leather coat to represent the power she has as a female Hip Hop artist. The type face is a logo of the artist and relates the album to her.The lighting is very vibrant, but used to show a 'Shine' and not to represent a club scene and used to show her outline and make her stand out from the darkness she is walking away from.. She is looking down, which can lower her stage status, but does so in a way that represents her looking at where she is going and moving forward. The colours are surrounding her to make her stand out in the centre and to be different to the rest of the black background.