CD Analysis- Catriona Morgan

I Googled the top 15 Drum and Bass Albums of 2015 and took screenshots of 5 randomly selected album covers which I will analyse below.

The first one I will be analysing is Tantrum Desire's 'Diversified' which came second in the top 15 Drum and Bass albums of 2015. The cover is very minimalistic, with clear titling for the artist, as well as contrasting fonts used between the name of the artist and the name of the album. As you can see, no bold colours were used, however the lilac sky subtly contrasts with the grey of the mountain. There is obviously no picture of the artist, which is common theme throughout Drum and Bass album covers. I think this cover has quite a futuristic feel to it, which is appropriate as the type of music the artist creates is quite manipulated. Additionally, there is a suggestion of a record label's logo at the bottom.

The second album cover I will be analysing is The Prototypes' 'City of Gold' (which came third.)It is quite similar to the cover of 'Diversified' in that the main focus is the name of the artist, as the audience's attention is drawn straight to the top of the cover. Again, the font used between the artist and album name is different, which helps the audience to differentiate between the two. The colours used are quite dark in comparison to my previous evaluation, which I like as I feel it draws more attention to the name of the artist, as a way of the audience to focus on it without there necessarily having to be a picture of them, as it isn't typical of the genre.

This is Bensley's 'Next Generation' album cover which came fourth in the top 15 Drum and Bass albums of 2015. I find it interesting as it uses similar colours as 'Diversified', with grey being the main focus, however there is a suggestion of colour towards the top, which could suggest that's what the type of music is like. For example, the songs could be meaningful, represented through the grey, but made interesting through the use of Drum and Bass, represented through the use of colour. Interestingly, the fonts used between the artist and the title aren't drastically different, however the size is obviously bigger for the artist, as the artist is being sold just as much as the music. There is also a suggestion of a record label's logo at the bottom.

This is Xanadu's 'Through the Oort Clouds' (which came eleventh.)  I find it interesting as it is completely contradictory to my previous research in terms of colour used. It also links with the title of 'Clouds' as it appears to be a seriously manipulated picture of clouds. Following closely to my previous research, the name of the artist is bigger than the title of the album. Again, there also appears to be a suggestion of a record label at the bottom.

Finally, this is Fred V & Grafix's 'Unrecognisable' (which was number 14.) I find this cover interesting as it has obviously been manipulated so much that it is 'unrecognisable', which fits nicely with the titling. I like the use of colours as it makes it interesting to look at and similar to 'Next Generation', the font of both the artist and the titling is the same, however the difference in colour helps the audience to distinguish which is the artist's name and which is the name of the album.  

I have found this research very beneficial as it has enabled me to discover common themes among Drum and Bass album covers, those being:

• No visuals of the artist
• (Mostly) different fonts between the artist's name and the album title. However this wasn't always the case, which is something we could consider when it comes to creating ours.
• The use of colour was mostly grey/neutral/ dark colours, however not always the case.
• Often there was a suggestion of a record label at the bottom.

As a majority of our video is black and white, I think we should stick to the common convention of using grey colours for our album cover.

We could then contrast this with bright colours for the titling, as this is common among the research I have done.

I think the change between fonts of the titling can be optional depending on the image we use, as it does not necessarily have to be different (however I feel it could be more effective to, to allow the audience to easily differentiate between the two.)

Finally, as unanimously there were no images of the artists for the covers, I think we should follow that convention and not include an image of the artist for the cover, as it is not typical of the genre.