Close analysis of one album cover

Image: iconic image of bassist Paul Simonon smashing up his guitar at The Palladium in New York City - which was at the time the 'Mecca' of punk and new wave music. This has been later voted the greatest rock n roll photograph of all time.

Although we appear to be close to the key figure, the image is still a long shot, and the rest of the band are out of focus - but still visible - in the background. The wires on stage are present in the image which conveys the fact that this is a live performance, proving how much of a spontaneous and impulsive moment the photographer has captured. This moment reflects the rebellious nature of 'The Clash', a band renowned for their passionately political opinions - left wing, anti-monarchy and anti-aristocracy. Furthermore, they're influence stirred up the public as it drew upon contemporary political issues, especially amongst the working classes (for example, their song 'career opportunities' expressed their discontent about the alienation of low-paid, production line style employment and the lack of alternatives.) Therefore, this picture perfectly encapsulates this sense of uprising and rebellion that the Clash's punk movement was actively spreading.

The cover conforms to conventions, with the band name and album title framing the central image. The text is pink and green, in a quite bubbly, slightly jokey-style font, apparently replicating an old Elvis Presley album. It directly contrasts with the black and white image, making the album look much more contemporary and exciting. The text here is in a reasonably large font, to grab the audience's attention and to immediately promote the album. The spine repeats the name and album title also naming the production company and showing the reference number - essential institutional information.

The back cover once again uses a large font, the same style as on the front cover, to name the band and album title. Underneath this is a list of each band member and their role:

"MICK JONES: GUITARS, VOCALS
JOE STRUMMER: VOCALS, RHYTHM GUITAR
PAUL SIMONON: BASS, VOCALS
TOPPER HEADON: DRUMS, PERCUSSION"

This gives a sense of introducing the band, which is essential in selling an album. Underneath this is a list of tracks and their titles. This is a conventional album cover feature, as it informs the consumer of the tracks, and is also a tool for recognition - when the potential buyer of the album reads the back, if singles they know and like appear in the track listing, they are more likely to trust that the rest of the album will be good. This album has 19 tracks. The back cover also includes two more photographs of the band performing live, one of Joe Strummer on guitar with the crowd cheering behind him, and one of Mick Jones and Topper Headon performing around the drum kit. These images once again establish the band as being musical and instrument-based, and anchors their genre of music - they are clearly not a cheesy pop band. Like the front cover, the images on the back are in black and white, keeping the theme and style continuous. More institutional information is included here - 'Columbia records' and their logo, the reference number, the copyright laws statement and symbol, and Sony Music Entertainment is named.

The inner sleeve of my version of the album is probably different to the original as it is a 25th anniversary addition, nonetheless it is apparent that the theme of black and white images, bright green and pink block colours is still used. A font is also used inside which is in the style of scrawly handwriting, giving a sense that the band were quite messy, arty, spontaneous and down-to-earth.

Overall, the cover gives a sense of an underground, independent band. However, this is just where the band had originally emmerged from - at this point, The Clash were huge stars who had even broken America, however they still held onto the 'small indie punk rock band' image. Furthermore, knwoing the huge scale of 'Columbia Records' productions and the importance of Sony in the music industry, it is clear that they are aiming for a huge, much more mainstream audience than you'd originally expect.