Selected Album Cover

'Abbey Road' by The Beatles

Image :-

• Staged posed crossing the zebra crossing on the same foot simultaneously contrast with the natural setting behind of an ordinary street with seemingly unpositioned onlookers.
• No matching dress code, presents all members of the band individually giving the audience a personal insight into the individual members own style and fashion.
• The band members are not lookig directly at the camera, more of a profile shot which weakens the directness but emphasises again the natural pureness of the image.
• Absence of the usual glossiness, no makeup or expensive clothing, no exotic/far off location, very natural.
• Natural colours used; green, grey, blue, brown, white.
• LS of the band member allows the consumer to see far back into the background with the cars, street onlookers etc. Emphasises that it is an everyday situtation.
• Simplicity of the layout and camera angle is particuarly interesting as it is easily achieveable with the least amount of editing yet still so successful.
• One of the band members is walking in barefeet and holding a cigarette, with another with his hand in his pocket, things people do everyday contrasting with the staged position as they simultaneously cross the road.
• The Back image is alot more simplistic with just a brick wall and the name of the album and band written as if they were the street name.

Text:-

• There is no text on the front album cover only on the back.
• The album cover 'Abbey Road' is shown on a street sign against a brick wall long with the name of 'The Beatles' above it.
• The use of serif font gives the album a vintage feel, traditional.
• The font is white against a black background to make it stand out towards the consumer.
• There is also a list fot he songs on each side on the vinyl.
• There is a logo of an apple given for the 'Apple records'
• Also a thanks given to a list of names who helped with the potography and printing.

Relationship between text and image:-

• The way that the text is given as a street sign connects to the street setting of the image on the front cover.
• The natural, unstaged setting links to the style of the image, with no makeup or dress code.

Iconography:-

• The natural image represents that bands image as they play all their own instruments and write their own songs, without the use of computer generated sounds.
• The Volks Wagen Beatle in the background is iconographic the the band name

Institutional Context:-

• The absence of a conventionally staged, glossy album cover suggests that the band are alot more niche and underground, even though we know today that they were highly popular and world renowned.
• Suggests that the band could perhaps be on a low budget and funded by an indie record label due to the absence of fancy editing and simple location.

Target Audience:-

• Suggests niche audience due to the local setting and unglossiness.
• Band could be already established as they are shot at a profile shot, as if there is no need to familiarise the audience with them.