CD Covers

Moving on from the music video, I have now been looking at various female artists' album covers. I find it interesting that a majority of females in the Jamaican culture portray themselves in a revealing and an explicit manner. This makes me wonder why do these women complain about not being treated 'right' or 'respected' by the opposite sex when they display themselves in a cheap, tacky and degrading way.

Here are some CD music covers I've found which undoubtedly are very degrading for women and reinforce the idea that women should be seductive and revealing a lot of skin in order to please and attract men:

Here, the main focus is on the bottom half of this woman's body. The see through - fish net outfit (or whatever you call that!) reveals her body in almost a teasing way. This again reinforces mainstream ideas that women should be portrayed a sex objects - a pleasure for men. I've noticed that the bottom half of this image (her buttocks) has a strong glow next to and almost around it. This draws the attention t

Her makeup is rather suttle which goes with the whole 'beach' concept of this album cover.

Here again, the these three women are dressed provocatively, the middle women is even topless and slightly covering her assets with her arms.

The colours also integrate the concept of women being sex symbols as pink/red tends to symbolise 'love, lust and danger'

However, taking more time and determined to find something different as opposed to the typical seductive and sex selling look, I found these females who in a way could represent culture and women (particularly in the Caribbean).

The examples:

This artist 'Lady Sawl' has portrayed herself as an independent, almost classy young female. The fact that she's covered and challenges mainstream ideas and representation of women in the Dancehall/Reggae genre leaves curiosity and mystery - something I'd like my artist to portray in her front cover. Perhaps with more confidence.

 



This is a mid close shot of the artist 'Shade'. Again, very little skin is revealed but the bright colours reinforce the mainstream dancehall and reggae CD covers as it represent culture and background. - Something I'd consider either for the CD cover OR the Magazine Advert.