CD Digipaks and Album Covers

A CD digipak is the modernised alternative of the traditional CD Jewel Case. Although it initially was only planned for limited editions, the clever design soon became popular and musicians use them to give off a specific image-orientated or concept-driven version of themselves with the help of a designer or artistic team. Digipaks are becoming increasingly important in terms of originality due to the increase in online downloads and non-physical ways of acquiring and listening to music. They must support the image of an artist, their ideology and their genre of music.

I will compare and analyse three different CD covers: "Black Holes & Revelations" by Muse —the acclaimed British alternative rock band—, "Pablo Honey" by Radiohead —a more classic band from the 80s, and "A boot and a shoe" by Sam Phillips, an indie, acoustic singer.

Muse's "Black Holes & Revelations" album is not their first one, which is one of the reasons why a band would not show their physical appearance. However, in the case of this band, they have always been more interested in conveying a message through their lyrics. They pay attention to their concept, and their songs are usually about politics, war or love among other themes. This CD has a dystopian connotation which is represented throughout, especially in the cover where we can see a futuristic meeting of bold men in a desertic place. It definitely preserves the atmosphere of the whole album.

In "Pablo Honey", Radiohead definitely wanted their creative team to innovate, proposing a new and surrealistic approach in terms of the artwork. The cover is interesting by itself without owing anything to the music, it is more detatched if compared to the clear synergy throughout Muse's album. Radiohead have always tried to come across as edgy and revolutionary in every piece of work they put together. They also avoid having a fixed image or exploiting the appearance of the members of the band as they try to appeal to a fairly intellectual audience with a mature perspective of life, rather than a superficial point of view.

Sam Phillips has clearly tried to construct a "hipster" image around herself, trying to appeal to a more mainstream audience because of the huge popularity that this social tribe was gathering when the CD was released in the market. She obviously gives a bit more importance to her image of a natural woman. The singer included a black and white photograph of herself in the forest to support an organic image which is probably quite styled. This photograph, together with the picture of the Polaroid camera, conform a typical approach when aiming to represent the modern "hipster" trend among young audiences.

In spite of the individuality of any artist, some details which must be included for the audience are definitely the artist's name, the album name, a track listing, contact info and corporate info (the company that the artist/band is signed with).