Table of ContentsIntroductionThe Role of Cover Art in Music MarketingExtending Visual Art in Music VideosThe Powerful Imagery of Kendrick LamarConclusionWork CitedIntroductionFor Many years in the past and for many years to come, musicians' album covers artwork, including that of Harry Styles, prove to play a major role in the success of music. These covers can tend to go unnoticed in terms of importance. There are people in this world who will listen to any music if they are intrigued by the cover. This is one of the main marketing tactics that artists incorporate in order to sell either their music itself or merchandise featuring the artwork. The cover art is one of the first glimpses buyers get of an artist and from there, people begin to formulate their opinions about the music. In theory, album artwork and images, in general, play a major role in representing the message and meaning of the music. Not only can musicians use lyrics to describe their meanings, but they also use the album cover as a way to foreshadow what is going to happen in the music. Not only can it help portray the message behind everything, but it also serves as one of the biggest selling points for the artist. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Role of the Cover in Music Marketing The cover is one of the first images listeners get when it comes to musicians releasing their new projects. Since it's one of the first things listeners know about the new project, it plays a pretty big role in marketing their music. This cover gives the listener an idea of ​​what the music can be and what the overall theme of everything will be. That being said, it's the listener's first impression of the artist and it's what people will use to make their first judgment about the music. In the article "You Can Judge an Artist by an Album Cover: Using Images for Music Annotation", the author writes: "While the perception of music tends to focus on our experience of When listening acoustically, an artist's image can play a role in how we categorize (and therefore judge) artistic work. (Shah 1) This shows the general idea that the imagery of the artist and their work can affect how their music is received by the audience. To further explain this, this same article uses a good example to summarize this idea. In the first paragraph, the author begins by saying, “Imagine you are attending a large summer music festival. You walk over to one of the side stages and observe a band about to start their soundcheck. Each member of the group has long, unkempt hair and wears black t-shirts, black boots, and tight black jeans with a studded black leather belt. It would be reasonable to expect them to play heavy metal. (Libeks 1) This completely explains the idea of ​​the importance of imagery to an artist. If you see a band warming up dressed in stereotypical heavy metal attire, you're probably going to assume they're playing heavy metal. Based on their aesthetic, you make judgments about the music they play and this will ultimately affect how you perceive their work. This idea works the same way for the cover art. In the same way you judge a band's soundcheck, you judge an artist's work based on theirpouch. For example, one mainstream artist who recently released his album title and cover art is Harry Styles. Style's new album is titled "Fine Line" and the accompanying cover uses the colors pink and blue. Styles has been a major advocate for the LGBTQ community in his past. With the title and cover art, people have already started speculating about the theme of his album. His fans believe that it can be a fine line between happiness and sadness in life or even a fine line between masculinity and femininity (cover image below). With these speculations, his unreleased album has already attracted a lot of attention and marketing based on its cover art alone. This just goes to show the power that imagery and cover art have for a musician in selling their work. Expansion of Visual Art in Music Videos Not only are covers the biggest selling point for musicians, but music videos for the piece are just as important. a role in identifying and indicating the overall theme of the project. In an article titled “Music Industry Market Research,” the author explains in more detail the importance of cover art and imagery in general. It reads “Tangible products such as records, cassettes and CDs all carried album art. When a consumer picks up one of these products, the pouch is the first visible feature. Holding something visual brings an associated connection with the album and the artwork. Album covers look a lot like brand logos. (Kitchen 13). This once again proves my point that secret art and imagery, in general, has a massive effect on the marketing side of an artist. Continuing with Harry Styles' upcoming second album, the combination of the cover and music video gives his fans and listeners a general idea of ​​what his album will be like. The images he uses throughout the lead-up to the release of his new project play a central role in hinting at its theme. In the well-directed music video for his single "Lights Up" (video cited below), he uses scenes in which he looks directly into his eyes in a mirror, is stunned by bright lights, and is seen wearing a wide variety of clothing. With these images in mind, fans assumed he was trying to figure out who he really was as a person despite all the bright lights and fame he had. This speculation about these images goes hand in hand with the speculation about his cover art speculations, adding even more publicity to this upcoming album. Impactful Imagery Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly has one of the most powerful album covers of this decade (quoted below). Lamar, known for his witty lyrics and sense of purpose, released this hard-hitting album in early 2015. For someone who wasn't aware of this album's release, it was very difficult not to be released shortly after its release. The imagery Kendrik used for this cover art aided in a lot of meaning and gave the listener a major idea of ​​the type of message he was trying to send. Not only did it give the listener a clue, but it caught fire and he received a lot of publicity for the statement he was trying to make. In an article titled "The Narrative Potential of Album Covers", the author writes "album covers can and do exist over time, and offers a type of analysis that shows how still and moving images s integrate with music to create a modal hybrid that is greater than the simple sum of their parts. (Belton 1). This statement along with Kendrik's cover art shows the importance of album covers to the artist..