Appealing CD covers

This weekend as I was getting ready to pop in my Kanye West CD, I got to thinking, how artist come up with a creative concept for their albums which they think would properly represent it. I also began to think of any creative album covers which I felt were eye catching but didn't seem to fit the overall album title or theme of the sounds of the song on the CD. I also wondered what could be the message the artist hopes to convey with their album cover and the content of the album in general. We've all seen the common CD cover with a picture of the artist behind some kind of neutral background. Either they are just posing or it is a head shot of them looking right into the camera. I know what you’re thinking, it might just be logical for an artist to do by having a picture of them on the cover since, well it is their album, yet it is the creative ones that really get us thinking about the character of the musician and the message they might possible be conveying. I found that this new Kanye West CD Graduation was one of those CD’s with that unique album cover with an almost indecipherable message which every time as I listened to the album and looked at it, could never quite figure out. I knew that the album was as it was titled, a representation of his graduation in the music industry and the fact that he worked hard to be able to graduate to a new level of success. This might be the significance of the bear shooting to the top or rising to the top as he is being propelled from the college like structure. I just don’t seem to understand how the symbolism of the bears which he commonly uses on his album covers, ties into his kind of music. The cover as well seems to be a light- hearted humorous drawing of yet hyperbolic imagination of college which seems whimsical while the album is mostly set in a serious and more realistic tone of life and his life experiences and struggles. Perhaps he strikes this contrast to be sarcastic as the artist himself is quite a sarcastic and outspoken person at times. Or maybe it was just a cover he liked or thought was cool, yet one thing’s for certain, he definitely leaves it up to the listeners to make the connects and find the message.

-AveMaria Okolo