Greatest Album covers of all time


The Beatles Abbey Road: Abbey Road is the eleventh album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom and on 1 October 1969 in the United States. The recording sessions for the album were the last in which all four Beatles participated. Although Let It Be was the final album that the Beatles completed before the bands split in April 1970, most of the album had been recorded before the Abbey Road sessions began. A double A-side single from the album, "something"/"Come Together", released in October, topped the Billboard chart in the US.It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world".The image of the Beatles on the crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans and there is a webcam featuring it. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade 2 listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year. In 2013, Kolkata police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?" The cover has been parodied on several occasions, not least from McCartney's own 1993 live album, Paul is live. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers' The Abbey Road EP parodies the cover with the band crossing a similar zebra crossing near-naked, though the musical content is different.

The Clash London Calling:
The album's front cover features a photograph of bassist Paul Simenon smashing his Fender Precision Bass against the stage at The Palladium in New York City on 20 September 1979 during the Clash  US tour^. Penny Smith, who photographed the band for the album, originally did not want the photograph to be used. She thought that it was too out of focus, but Strummer and graphic designer Ray Lowry thought it would make a good album cover in 2002, Smith's photograph was named the best rock and roll photograph of all time by Q magazine.
The cover artwork was designed by Lowry and was an homage to the design of Elvis Presley's self-titled debut album. The cover was named the ninth best album cover of all time by Q magazine in 2001.



Nirvana Nevermind:By January 1992, it had replaced Michael Jackson's album dangerous at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. The album also produced three other successful singles: "Come as You Are", "Lithium", and "In Bloom". The Recording Industry Association of America has certified the album Diamond (over 10 million copies shipped), and the album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Nevermind was in part responsible for bringing alternative rock to a large mainstream audience, and has been ranked highly on lists of the greatest albums of all time by publications such as Rolling stone and Time.
The Nevermind album cover shows a circumcised baby boy, alone underwater with a US dollar bill on a fishhook just out of his reach. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births with Grohl. Cobain mentioned it to Geffen's art director Robert Fisher .An alternate cover without the penis was discussed, as they were afraid that it would offend people, but relented when Cobain made it clear that the only compromise he would accept was a sticker covering the penis that would say, "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile.". Nevermind was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in November 1991, and was certified Diamond in March 1999. It was also certified Diamond in Canada (1,000,000 units sold) by the Canadian Recording Industry Association in March 2001^[ and four times Platinum in the United Kingdom.^[

The Male Gaze Theory

The concept of the male gaze theory is one that adheres to how an audience views characters or actors presented in the form of media being viewed.

For Women and Feminists the theory of male gaze can be viewed in three different ways :

1. How men look at women
2. How women look at themselves
3. How women look at other women

The main features of the theory (1975)

1.The representation of women as sexual fantasies and from a heterosexual point of view.
2.Scopophilia- The pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies
3.Patriarchal society
4.Objectification of female characters
5.Active male and passive female.
6.Mencontrolling subjects
7.Women as an image
8.Men do the looking and the women are there to be looked at
9.Needs of the male ego

Laura Mulvey created the term male gaze in 1975. She believed that film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

The camera lingers on the curves of the female body and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction to these events.

Slaves - Cheer up London

Textual analysis

The beginning of the video is made to look just like a normal drive in a van with the radio playing in the background and murmuring from the driver and his passenger , I believe this is used as quite an alternative start to a video. The song itself is supposed to appeal to normal everyday people during the video it shows a businessman , a normal white van driver and some kids playing football in the park. This could have been done for a number of reasons; for example it could have been done purely to appeal to a wider range of audiences or to demonstrate the norm of everyday life throughout the video.

The video then takes a turn again I believe to demonstrate the problems of everyday life it shows a white van driver cutting up a cyclist and getting Into an altercation. This is shown to demonstrate to people that there is no need for this type of behaviour and to show how stupid they look. This then reveals the meaning of the video to show people there is no need for this hatred in everyday life and encouraging them to be nicer to each other, hence the title of the song ; 'cheer up London'. The video then goes on to a pop/punk sequence which is going against the regular conventions of this theory once again. There are cheerleaders and brightly coloured balloons , signifying to people that life can be a party and can be fun . This is used to clearly demonstrate how a situation can be twisted into a happy scene instead of an argument. I believe slaves have used cheerleaders in their video that would usually be accossiated with American pop artists to show that we should enjoy everything in life and give everything ago even if our taste does not suit it.

This does not adhere to Hodge and kresses genre theory as they said genre controls the behaviour of products of such texts. This genre is punk and the typical genre conventions of this is bright coloured hair and anarchy , whereas this video does include some aspects of this it is actually quite alternative and indie. Which leads me to disbelieve Hodge and kresses genre theory as they are basically saying the genre dictates the video which in this case is not true.

This shot again opposes the theory as the band are purposefully going against the normal conventions of a punk genre, although it could be argued that they ares till keeping some of the original genre by getting close in the camera shouting and basically being quite brash . However the Mise en scene and clothing choices are completely against the genre, I believe slaves chose to do this as this is predominantly their 'flagship' song and I believe they are aiming to appeal to wider audiences. I can prove this as this sort of Mise en scene is not evident in their othger videos , they have a pure punk genre to appeal to their stronger viewers and not disappoint them.

Controversial music videos

Controversial Music video

Blurred lines by Robin Thicke is one of the most modern controversial music videos it was released in two different version the unrated version and the normal version. There was a huge scandal surrounding this music video as it was portrayed to glorify rape and encourage violent sex. The university of Edinburgh was the first to ban the blurred lines video as well as a large number of other universities. Although I personally believe that Thicke did not mean to encourage rape or violent sex , as he has said in many interviews it is aimed at his wife . On the other hand the music video was always going to cause some problems as it does include naked women and children's parents are not going to want their children to view this content, I believe that these parents are being quite naïve : due to the digital age and new technological advances children of a younger age are going to me open to this content throughout the entirety of the internet and it is only a matter of time before they come across something like this over the internet , which I do believe is quite sad that the internet can have this massive effect on peoples lives. Some people and fans may argue that Thicke was aiming towards making a political statement of women having to cover up and are looked down upon if they show too much skin , this ties in with the shots within the video itself. As in one of he shots it show the women in the video in see through clothing and underwear which suggests they are made to cover up but they shouldn't have to. My personal view on the reasoning behind this video is purely to cause a scandal and attention. As the video has got so much attention and has been banned in many different places it actually entices people into watching the video. In essence they want to know ' whats the big deal ' This obviously in turn makes more money for the artist and inevitably gets the artist and/or group more attention and therefore more profits.