The reason I am analysing this CD is because there is many reasons for Katy Perry choosing these stylistics, and I want my artist to have some relevance to an artist like she has. Also she is from the Pop genre, and my genre is Pop/Dance, so I might be able to take some ideas from this.
Katy Perry is an American 27 year old female musician. She has been on the music scene for 10 years but only got signed in 2007 to Capitol Records. She has had two albums both of which have been really sucessful. These albums include 'One Of The Boys' and 'Teenage Dream' and has hits such as 'California Gurls' and 'Firework'. She also holds the record for the most number 1's off one album. This album was released on August 24th 2011.
Cover Art
Looking at the Cover Art for the Teenage Dream album, you can see that Katy wanted to go for a very delicate look. The colours (Baby colours) show a swell that the album has some fun involved, the colours are not dark and boring and it stands out which she will want her music to do. The font on the cover is also very fun and different, it works well with the rest of the cover, the top font looks like strawberry laces and the bottom font looks like a candy cane, also the clouds are made of cotton candy, this could be because the album is called Teenage Dream, and looking at audience research, her target audience will be teenagers and people in their 20's, and the thing they love to eat most is Sweets and Candy, so she is appealing to the audience well. Although Katy isn't wearing any clothes on the cover, I still think that its respectable and reserved, there is nothing implying that the music on the album will be raunchy or different to her old music, but again it works well with the title, Teenage Dream, so she wants people to find her attractive on the cover.
Back Art
The back of the CD of course still works well the front of the CD cover. There is still the same colour theme and also the same background as the front, sometimes artists use completely different backgrounds and styles, but this works well and blends together well. The font is a little different, its still the same colour theme again and also still has the candy cane within the O's, but the font is a little thicker, its to make the songs stand out. The bonus album tracks are a different colour which I think is good to let the audience see the difference, as the audience will have had to have paid more for the deluxe version of the album so letting them see what they are getting for extra is good. It also tells you all the relevant information like about the record company and the people involved with the album.
CD
The CD for the Teenage Dream album is the design again of a candy cane which works well with the rest of the album design, so with the front and back. Katy also made sure that within every CD there was a scent of Cotton Candy, so when you buy the CD and open it up it smells like what the cover looks like which I thought was a nice idea for the audience and made them excited to buy the album as that's something that not many artists do and get involved in.
Will Cotton
When creating the Teenage Dream CD, Katy Perry already had an idea in mind. She really liked the work of the artist Will Cotton and there was one piece of his artwork in particular that she really like and was inspired by (Picture Underneath). When she made the video for California Gurls, she incorporated this artwork into the video as well and also other pieces of art he had done, so the video was basically Will Cotton's ideas but Katy Perry brought them to life. For example, the picture below, she added in the laces that she eats during the video, the painting is on the left and the Katy Perry video is on the right and just looking at the pictures you can see that they are very similar but Katy has put her own spin on it.
After the video had been made, Will decided to paint a few paintings of Katy Perry, including the cover for her album, which was based upon a painting he did earlier in his career. Having not only him inspire her for one of her videos but also a cover is a good thing for the artist I think, and they all work well together, plus since the album is mainly upbeat and fun, the artwork works well with the album.
Here are a few of the painting he did after the video was made. I think the reason for him doing these was because he was such a part of the music video and by him being so, it helped him create other art that was similar to his own pieces, so not only does it benefit Katy, it also benefits him helping create the music video.
This was actually on the music video 'California Gurls' which Will was Artistic Director of, he then painted a couple of the main scenes from the video. This is the scene where Katy comes out to make Snoop Dogg go away as he is the bad guy. She squirts him with cream which is meant to act as a gun. Katy hasn't used this artwork in anything like her digital booklet or on her album.
This is also another main scene in the music video, which he painted. This is the part where Katy is looking around and searching for the girls to save and then help her defeat the bad guy. Again Katy hasn't used this in any of her work like album cover or digital booklet.
Will also didn't just create the front cover for Katy, but he also painted a photo that was already taken for inside booklet/digital booklet. Katy didn't use the painted version but Will still painted it for her, and it looks almost identical to the original image. I think the reason that Katy didn't use all of Will's artwork was because she only wanted to be inspired by him, so she used his art to create some new photos and images, and didn't want everything painted as it would look too different and something that people are not used to. Here is a picture of Katy and Will together with the final piece.
The California Dreams Tour
Katy Perry released tour dates for The California Dreams tour, starting Feb 20th 2011 and ending in Jan 22nd 2012. This would mean that Katy would have to come up with a new concept and a new theme for her tour. She still stuck with the candy theme, which worked well as it meant the audience already knew about this and it didn't come as a shock to the fans when they saw her on tour. Everything on tour was candy themed, from the video's that played whilst she was getting ready, down to the outfits and the staging, and just like her album, the arena smelt like cotton candy too. Katy made sure that the album cover and design still worked along side the tour, as it was a tour meaning to promote the album and let the fans see the new material. So I think making sure you stick to the same theme within most things during that albums period is important to do, as it doesn't confuse your fans and it means you can incorporate the theme into most things you do, like the tour and music videos.
Looking at Katy Perry and her album art, has made me think about how I should represent my artist. I want to make sure that there is a theme running, just like Katy, she has sort of made a brand for herself because of the colourful candy and photo's, so I want to make sure that my artist can not only have the design on a CD but also it can be made into a music video and the ideas can also be brought on tour. I think thinking of a colour scheme will be important and also looking at costume and what I want as my theme.
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