CD cover influences

Looking at different CD cover images, I've noticed that a lot of dancehall/reggae covers are quite explicit and a chance for women to almost sell themselves to the male society. I thought it would be a good idea to look at artists have Caribbean background and have represented their culture one way or another. A prime example is Rihanna. Originally born and raised in Barbados, she has become one of the most famous female artists around.

Rihanna's music contains strong influences of Caribbean music which includes dancehall and reggae. The video 'Rude Boy' was especially inspired by her Caribbean roots.

This particular look (particularly the colours) has given me plenty of ideas for out CD cover. I like the idea of using the colours to enhance the cultural element (targeting the Afro - Caribbean culture). I especially like the 'Sin City effect' on this image, leaving the artist in black and white and selected specific areas and fill them in with different colours.  My initial idea for our artist was to wear sunglasses to firstly show that she's almost 'unknown' as she is an unsigned artist, but also to show she's fashionable as sunglasses are big right now in fashion especially now in the music industry/

Following on from Rihanna, I've looked at various r&b and hip hop album covers (as those are the genres our artist is in to). I like this CD front cover of the well known r&b/pop princess Ciara. The close up shot reveals her face/makeup in great detail and her defined face shape. The fact that half of her face is covered almost leaves mystery behind the artists' work, which is something I should think about when making the CD cover for our artist. It's simple, sexy and challenges conventions (the typical long shots with hardly any clothing).

 This is America's well known rapper/singer Lil Mama. This cover too is close up- revealing her face/makeup in more detail. The mise-en-scene (clothes, hair and makeup) is quite child-like, something for teenagers. However, there's something charming about this image, the pose. This made me realise I need to think about how my artist is going to pose, whether it will challenge or reinforce convention of mainstream ideas of females dancehall artists.

Famous Dancehall/reggae female artists:

This artist's front cover is very simple to an extent that it doesn't look professional. Thinking critically about this image, ther