User:Emilyespinosa/sandbox

Album covers are one of the various ways in which first impressions affect an audience's perception of a given musician or band. Album covers' design cover may also add to how an audience forms an opinion of them and their music. There are various ways in which an album cover is visualized. Some examples include artists choosing to put a photo of themselves, such as Childish Gambino's "Because the Internet" album, which is one of the factors that add to the observation of the band, the musician, and the music. There are many different options of ways to display yourself and the type of music you are putting out. This being said, there are a few different ways in which an artist can display themselves through their album cover.

Representation in Album Covers

A genre of music that people have found issues in album covers is reggae. There are certain reggae artists that feel that the way they are displayed on their own album covers is not an accurate way of describing themselves and their culture. The stereotypical rasta lifestyle depicted on many reggae album covers is only displayed that way because this is what the white audience seemed to appreciate the most. This version of the reggae artists is what many people take notice of and what makes them unique in regards to other genres. However, these album covers do not accurately represent the core values of typical people in Jamaica but they deal with this representation because they know that the audience is familiar with the stereotypical rasta depiction. These album covers tend to display inauthentic versions of their considerations of style and sexuality and do not accurately display "Uptown" Jamaica.

Parental Advisory Labels

Parental advisory labels are warning labels that are required to be placed on album covers when the music on the album contains explicit content such as vulgar language. These labels have been known to be controversial when it comes to keeping underage audiences from this content. There are a few different theories on this, such as the "forbidden fruit" and "tainted fruit" theories. The "forbidden fruit" theory states that when a child sees the parental advisory label on an album cover they will be more likely to listen to it because there is an increased attractiveness to the music. There are many adolescents that follow the "forbidden fruit" theory as a way to either lash out at their parents or to make themselves feel more mature than they are. They may use explicit music as a way to be rebellious and to appear cooler to their friends, even if they are much too young to be exposed to that kind of music. The "tainted fruit" theory states that the child will see the label and immediately know to avoid this kind of content because it is inappropriate for their age. These children are the ones who see the label and do not even acknowledge this album or these songs because they know that it is not made for them. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) introduced this warning label and it is now a requirement on any explicit music. However, the RIAA is unable to actually control whether or not adolescents will be listening to the music but as of now there is no way to fully control what these children are doing.