Analysis of two digipaks

Muse

The front cover of this CD takes a black background with bright blue, the contrasting colours creates an electric sense due to the vibrancy. The lady on the cover appears to be glowing with blue which provides a supernatural sense to the cover aiding the space-age theme that appears to be. This is reinforced by a moon or planet in the top left corner. This links to the style or their music aiding fluency between the album and the songs within it. The back cover has the three band members at a low angle shot making them look large and powerful in this space-age world implying they’re powerful in regards to the genre they fit into. Additionally, having them dressed in black with a bright blue background reinforces this dominance. This also conveys how they are establishing themselves as a rock band as oppose to a boy band elevating their status. This appeals to the audience due to the fact that is has the band member’s faces on it as the audience are fans. The space theme is also likely to appeal to their fan base’s aesthetic.

R.E.M

As R.E.M were one of the first alternative rock bands, their alternative style is evident in their digipak. The artwork for their album was done by Howard Finster who produced alternative abstract art and got along well with the band. The group using his artwork for their album is symbolic of how they establish themselves as an art house/ artistic band. The front cover is disjoined with random seeming scribbling’s that are done so finely they appear as scratched in aiding their alternative aspects. Doing this removes them from being mainstream maintaining their place within their niche market. The multi-coloured snake going across the entire album cover provides a grungy sense as the coloured that don’t go together provide an interesting twist. The digipak unfolds and opens out multiple times providing something for their fan base to properly open and explore generating a lot of hype around the product as people want to know what’s inside it, this is exciting to their fans. Furthermore, the handwriting is the lead singers which further links to audience appeal as it provides a more personal touch to the album.