Music craves an identity, It
requires a captivating visual of eye candy representing a body of
work. The canvas, or the album cover, silently tells a story, sets the mood,
and sparks the imagination of music, and in some cases, the cover can become
more iconic than the actual music itself. As someone who has made a lot of cover art
over the years. I judge a book by its cover, and I don’t think I’m alone on that. I’ve come across YouTube videos discussing
“what makes a good album cover” but they didn’t really make the correct points,
rather saying an album cover is good as an afterthought from the music being
so good. and that’s no shot at them. One thing I noticed about the videos
is that every one of them mentioned and praised Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” This cover features a black-and-white
photo featuring African-American boys and men celebrating in front of the White
House with a judge lying motionless. Every point the other creators made was,
you know what you’re getting from the album. You can make the assumption
you’re gonna hear some meaningful, dark, celebratory, and perhaps provocative music. But if we’re only making that point, then Lil
Xan’s “Xanarchy” is just as good. Terrible album, but I know what to expect, from seeing the
cover. We see a thin teen with tattoos, grills, and a non-sober demeanor. I
expect it’s gonna be a drugged-out soundcloud album and that’s what it is,
especially since it was released in 2018. So what actually makes To Pimp a Butterflies cover better than covers like
Xanarchy.. Well, color theory. And most importantly for this video. color.
Color can express mood and emotion. It's why we associate a yellow smiley face with happiness,
a red angry face with rage, and a blue sad face with melancholy. Colors speak to our feelings.
For instance, The Iowa Hawkeyes football team has their opponent's locker room pink, in the hope of
softening their feelings before the game since the color pink is more nurturing and empathy. Rather
than a color like red to bring out aggression. So when we examine 'To Pimp A Butterfly's'
color palette, we see black, grey, and white. Black symbolizes strength and
power, white represents purity and hope, and a sense of space, while grey conveys themes
of equality, modernity, and timelessness. This color palette coupled with its composition
creates a focus point and almost like a frame, turns the cover into a story in itself
without even hearing the music yet. Another album that shares a similar
color palette and composition is “The Trilogy” by The Weeknd, one of
my favorite albums of all time. However, 'The Trilogy' uses these colors in
a different way. Black signifies darkness or mourning something, while grey within the
border portrays passiveness or acceptance. We can make this assumption by looking at the image
itself. Abel, the artist, wearing a black shirt, his focused and dark-shaded face
suggesting an emotional singer, His somewhat messy hair may imply
a lack of concern for appearance, prioritizing his music above all else. The
presence of a woman might signify that women are essential to him and can get the woman, rather
than a heartbreak from a single relationship, and lastly the balloon ribbon hints
at a dissatisfied party lifestyle. This is an example of an album
cover that looks like how it sounds. And while yes this is one of the
most influential R&B albums ever, The dark vocals and atmosphere really get
highlighted because of the cover. If this cover had featured brighter colors like yellow,
red, or blue – it would have felt out of place, but those colors do fit with Starboy. Starboy
was the most pop aesthetic music The Weeknd has gotten to from outside his R&B sound.
The vibrant colors blending in with abels dark character can have someone expect that
this might be a pop maybe 80’s inspired album but having a dark theme to it. Rather than the
cover being the signature pop star self-portrait. Artists like The Weeknd have created
a sense of theme for themselves. I’m not a huge MF Doom, Travis Scott, or Tyler The
Creator fan but I can respect their visuals and representation, which reflects their image. Lil
Uzi also has good album art as well, maybe that’s cause I’m biased, but his earlier cartoon artwork,
as well as his new covers, align with his image. But imagine The Weeknd having a Lil Uzi-styled
cover for his album it just wouldn’t fit at all.. But on the other hand, you have some
artists that disregard the theme entirely. Take Beyoncé, for instance, with her
self-titled album showing nothing but her name, and seeing this just know she’s about
business. many albums by Daft Punk and ACDC have a similar structure by just slapping their
brand front and center, with minor tweaks, and calling it an album cover.. Or how about Frank
Ocean using an orange background for his Channel Orange which happened to be the best album from
that year. Or Kanye with a black screen for Donda. And let’s not forget Drake,
having some of the worst cover art in recent times.
Like Wtf is this? What I’ve learned is that if an
album cover has basic art principles, it doesn’t matter what the cover looks like
as long as the album’s music quality is good. Space
Balance Color
Unity Shape
Variety Form
Emphasis Value
Movement Texture
Pattern Line
Proportion Those are the categories, that can easily
make an album appealing to listeners. So In general, does an album
cover truly have importance? I think that’s left to your own opinion
opinion I really appreciate all the love I've been getting these past past few months
it means a lot like this community I mean I'm loving YouTube right now I'm currently
recording this video on a USB microphone in a closet cuz as some of you know if you
follow me on Instagram I'm moving into a place in Florida and my homie is about
to move in with me and he's a big part of envisioning voice acting production and all
that I'm excited to see what the future has in store also I've been getting comments on
every video asking if I draw and animate my videos my name is jivo draws bro and thank
you to the people who have already bought some merch I'll be sure to update it with more
designs when you watch this video okay goodbye
