EH - Ancillary Tasks - Similar Product Research 2

Solo Task: Emma Hall 9162

This is a completely different album cover for the same genre of music, and uses a photograph of the artist and clever use of colour to create a distinct representation. As this is the debut album for this artist, it is important for it to establish the singer’s image, and so it is understandable that Gabrielle would be featured on the front, even in long shot.

The title ‘English Rain’ is cleverly combined with the photograph, as the girl holds an umbrella yet wears a short dress and is running across a beach – a humorous reference to the rainy summers often found in England. This implication would only be picked up by someone familiar with the country, however, and it is understandable that for a first album, the singer is targeting her own country, and not looking internationally to start with – though the quaint nature of the image would appeal to Anglophiles in America. The black and white background helps to enhance the image of England as gloomy, whilst also giving an old-fashioned look with its darkened corners, matching the ‘traditional’ theme many folk albums have. The singer however is in colour, with the umbrella in particular brightly multi-coloured. This infers that the singer is a ray of sunshine in a dark world, and suggests the music within is uplifting. The singer also wears a white, lacy dress that is a symbolic sign for innocence, and her stance with the umbrella is quite dainty and sweet, suggesting a traditional ‘pretty girl’ representation. In terms of Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’, the shortness of the dress is directly aimed at a male audience. Rayner describes representation as "the process by which the media present the 'real world'", and here, the representation of Gabrielle is clearly not a direct translation from the 'real world', as the stylised decolouring of the background is clearly contrived - we are not supposed to believe that Gabrielle is the type of girl who would run along beaches in short skirts. Whilst there are plenty of signs to signify her as a fragile, innocent character, the fact she is the centre of her own solo album, holding her own suggests a level of independence that is probably a more accurate presentation of her 'real world' image than what is shown here.

The grey also suggests that the album has sadder, more ballad-like songs, as well as the uplifting ones. This supports Abercrombie's theory that "boundaries between genres are shifting", as this cover hints at several genres of music, from pop (with the voyeuristic short skirt) to indie (with the black and white background) to romantic ballads (the mournful seaside location). The dark lower third also pushes the user’s focus up into the lighter top 2/3s. With the singer centralised, despite being quite small, she is clearly focused on – although the emphasis seems to be on getting the singer’s name to be recognisable more than her face, which is difficult to see. The name however, is in bold, large serif font, whilst the album name is in a handwritten font. This fits with the old-fashioned look of the black and white, whilst the handwritten style fits the young, girly image. Whilst there is a vintage look to this album cover, its simplicity, thin font style and grey pallor is quite modern, appealing to a young target audience, and making her appear current. The focus on style and setting up of tone is especially important here as it is her debut album – this will similarly be important for our cover, in order to establish a star image. The use of black and white is also something we could maybe look at, after already considering it in our photograph props – whilst the subtly and minimalism is a very current trend in covers and will work with our more concept-based music video.