Album Cover Analysis of Color Use in The Album Art

Introduction

There is no question that the use of color plays a role in mass media, and specifically in marketing. The publication, Impact of color on marketing, presents the statistic that between 62-90 percent of people’s initial assessments of products is “based on colors alone” (Singh). Therefore, advertising companies must carefully consider the choice of color when designing brand logos and marketing material. This has applied to music sales for decades, as album art can be seen on vinyl casings, CD covers, and digital squares on iTunes. In today’s digital world, how do musicians and the graphic designers they hire work to get the consumer to buy their albums? One way is to make an album cover that grabs their attention. Album cover analysis reveals that an album cover is the first thing consumers see, and a strong album cover can evoke emotions and entice viewers to buy that record. The artists creating the album can exploit the importance and connectedness of a person’s relationship to both music and color. Color is a vital component of album art because it can be used to communicate subconsciously with and catch the attention of consumers, often conveying the emotional content of the music.

The Psychology Behind Album Cover

Modern music is most often purchased on platforms like iTunes or streamed via Spotify, although vintage record players have become trendy again. A platform like iTunes is a digital marketplace, where people may or may not click on an album. Though album art may not matter significantly for mainstream artists, it is a crucial component of sales for smaller musicians. These artists rely on making a strong visual impression to entice people to listen to their music. If not used well, color and design can function as a barrier preventing a band from getting their foot in the door. The use of color for this purpose is complex. Of course, individual consumers can perceive color very differently based on their own personal experiences. However, advertising is about appealing to the masses. One strategy is to use a color palette commonly associated with the emotions conveyed by the album’s music.

There is a correlation between color and emotion. For example, blue is the color of sadness, while yellow might remind one of sunshine and joy. There is also a correlation between music and color, which was studied and discussed in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences article. Their concrete results provide a better understanding of how nonsynesthetes perceive sound-color relationships. They found that when people listen to upbeat music, they tend to associate it with bright, saturated (often yellow) colors. Similarly, most test subjects attributed darker grey and blue colors to slow music. The study also encompassed music-emotion associations by showing the subjects photos of emotive faces. In this branch of the study, there was an apparent linkage of upbeat music with happy faces, and slower music with sad expressions (Palmer et al. 8839-8840). These results indicate that music-color associations in most people are mediated by emotions.

Exploring Emotions and Meanings in an Album Cover

The relationship between color and emotion is evident in different genres of music as well. Lodoly, author of How Colorful Are Hip Hop Album Covers, writes of web developer Peter Margaritoff, who took 2,000 songs from Spotify and arranged them into genres such as Indie, Rock, and Hip Hop. He then sorted each row by the hue of the albums, resulting in a distinct colorful row for each genre. The visual results showed that the Hip Hop row had more subdued hues. Lodoly attributed these hues to the struggles that many hip-hop artists may have had in their lives and how hip-hop music itself gives a voice to those struggles. In contrast, house music is more reflective of the party scene and dance therefore, the row that represented the house genre had more colorful hues. The author also looked at the top 50 hip-hop albums of all time and found that these album covers generally utilized darker toned colors (Lodoly).

It is evident that artists can take advantage of the emotional weight of color to visually represent their music. An album featuring angry or empowering music might use red on its cover because it conveys dominance, seen in The White Stripes’ Elephant. SOHN’s Rennen also exemplifies this idea, using a turquoise background with black geometric designs. The usage of blue and black reflects the somber lyrics and slow-paced melodies on the album. However, the turquoise has a bright, electric undertone to represent the electronic influence in SOHN’s music. The Cure’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me album cover is dominated by a bright red pair of lips. In this case, red indicates romance, passion, and longing. One can analyze specific examples of intensely colored album art and conjecture the intended meaning, especially in relation to the musical content of the album. Yet, the real process is far more complex than this one-dimensional view.

Conveying Emotions Through Album Cover

Arriving at an album cover in its final form may take a comprehensive analysis of the color palette, images, font, theme, and the overall mood. The amalgamation of these components delivers a nonverbal message to potential buyers. Marketing strategists spend years understanding the psychology of cover design. Cover art sets the tone for the whole album and, without being too literal, it should reflect the concept of the artists music. Artists can create cover art which is “memorable and interesting by choosing colors and other elements of design which are associated with the right emotions” (Melder). Some designers choose to use a color wheel to identify complementary colors or colors that pop (Melder). It is becoming increasingly crucial for an album to stand out visually.

Business Insider released an article that compiled the cover art of the 50 best-selling records of all time. Most albums on the list were released in the 1950’s-1980’s. This list is quite bland and colorless; the majority of the album covers use neutral colors or normal faces, creating a drab visualization of some of the most ‘colorful’ music (Lynch and Clark). Perhaps during those decades, album art was relatively unimportant. Modernly, iTunes is a virtual candy store of music consumption. Particularly for budding musicians, the first visual impression of a single or album is critical for sales. Thus, these artists may use unusual color combinations, or incorporate common symbols with unnatural colors to get the consumers’ attention. An example of the former would be The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Though the scene pictured is busy, the viewer’s eye is drawn to the flamboyant, neon jackets in the center of the image. An example of unnaturally-colored objects can be seen in Coast Modern’s single, Dive. This band often depicts people and body parts with red skin, and this particular cover features two bright red hands. Although deciding on album art can be an involved process, some artists choose to delve even deeper into exploring music-color relationships.

Contemporary artists can take their artistic vision further by producing a colorful vinyl record, possibly complementing the album packaging; records themselves can become pieces of art. Colored vinyl was produced as far back as 1920, however it was cost prohibitive. Modernly, colored vinyl is popular with collectors. The Beatles’ White Album was pressed on gray and white vinyl and is worth $1,495 in today’s market (“Colored Vinyl Records”). In addition to colored vinyl, artists can create interactive album covers using color. For example, Beck created a customizable sleeve for his album Colors. While a customer listens to Beck’s experimental music, they can themselves experiment with the album sleeve by changing the colors and geometric configuration (Morby). The novelty of colored vinyl can improve the appeal of online promotions for the album. Interactive, exciting colors can add another dimension to the listening experience.

Conclusion

In a field as competitive and saturated as the music industry, new artists entering the market might struggle to make their names known. Producing intentional, unique cover art is a key strategy for making a strong visual first impression. In the contemporary digitalized market, there becomes a greater emphasis on the visual, which allows for increased artistic exploration. The consideration of music-color relationships adds depth to the dynamic field of music. Deciding on album cover art can be a complex, extensive process in which many components must be considered. Musicians must balance their artistic style with an understanding of advertising strategies and human tendencies. Color plays an important role in marketing, which leads to a rather intriguing connection between the purely auditory field of music and the standard visual perception of color. 

References

1. Singh, Satyendra Singh. 'Impact of color on marketing.' Management Decision, vol. 44, no. 6, 2006, pp. 783-789.
2. Stubbs, David. 'Aphex Twin: Richard D. James talks new album Syro.' NME, 13 Sept. 2014, p. 38.
3. Lester, Paul. 'Aphex Twin interview: 'I'm making up for boring techno'.' The Guardian, 6 Sept. 2014.
4. Palmer, Stephen E., et al. 'Music–color associations are mediated by emotion.' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 110, no. 22, 2013, pp. 8836-8841.
5. Lodoly, Gwenn. 'How Colorful Are Hip Hop Album Covers.' Rap Research Lab, 14 Aug. 2017.
6. Melder, Keith. 'Colors in Album Art: What Does it Mean?.' DropTrack, 13 Oct. 2021.
7. Lynch, Jason, and Tim Clark. 'The 50 best-selling music artists of all time.' Business Insider, 21 July 2021.
8. 'Colored Vinyl Records.' Coin and Stamp Gallery, accessed 21 Aug. 2023.
9. Morby, Aaron. 'Beck announces new album 'Colors' and shares single 'Dear Life'.' The Fader, 15 Aug. 2017.