GENERIC C

ONVENTIONS IN

POP

DIGIPA

CKS

FONTS AND TITLES

The font used for the Album name all depends whether it is a boy band, single female

artist or male artist. However all seem to follow a common theme, whether it is the

text for the album name or the artists/band name, the font tends to be simple and

always overlays the album image. The font is medium to big not covering the

whole digipack therefore not covering up the artists image and therefore letting the

image carry and sell the album rather than the writing because no one buys an album

because of the writing but because of the artists public image. A boy band will tend to

have a trendy and catchy font, which can be recognized globally by the audience.

Female artists have the tendency to have a fancy female style of font, males have the

tendency to have bold writing without much fanciness.

COLOUR

The most reoccurring colours are bright vivid and vibrant colours such as yellow, red,

orange, light blew and pink. Pink especially for female artists because it makes it

seem very girly helping young teenage girls relate to the artist. Such as in the Rihanna

album cover below. Something that is in trend for male artists especially is the black

and white effect. Such as used in the One Direction Album below. More mature artists

such as Adele tend to stay away from the vibrant colours to set a more adult tone.

Warm and vibrant colours are used because they appear to be welcoming, attracting

a wider range of mass audiences, unlike Rock and Heavy Metal which are sombre

and dark front covers who are targeting a specific audience.

COMPOSITION AND POSITION OF THE ARTISTThe body positioning of the artists is either face on or side on, with it mainly being a

mid shot or a close up. The artists faces are always centred in the shot. With the

surrounding of the artists face being illuminated with bright colours to help enhance

facial features. The artists for the most seem to keep a serious tone, with the

exception of boy/girl bands . Some younger artists such as Ariana Grande sometimes

don’t always comply with the conventions. The expression on the face of an artist or

band can most of the time predict the sort of songs and the feel of the album will have.

Such as an artist smiling with a welcoming face suggests songs that possibly be related to love

stories that have taken a good turn. However an artist with a stern upset face suggests the possibility of

songs related to relationships gone bad or a tragedy or less happened in their life. But even then as

shown in the Little Mix album below in their own sort of way the girls are all centred in the corners of

the front cover. The reason artists stay centred to the shot is to expose themselves to the audience

but also so that they become the centre of attention.

PROPS AND CLOTHING

Props aren’t very common within pop album covers apart from the odd guitar, but

even then the connotations behind an acoustic guitar suggest either Country or Indie

music. Pop doesn’t have a particular typical prop such as in other genres like Heavy

metal more often than not have either an electric guitar or and drums in the album

cover. Or R&B usually having some bling worn by the artist such as golden chains and

rings. The reason pop artists stay away from having props is because the most

common theme and trend for most humans is to not be wearing bling and the

majority of the population listen to pop rather than heavy metal. And therefore pop

artists have to dress like the majority of the population so that audiences can relate

to them. But also so that the items of clothing are accessible to the mass. This means

that if the fans want to dress like their artist they can, and try to resemble them as fans

always want to be like their idol.