Album Art Research "The Strokes - Is This It" "The Pussycat Dolls - PCD" "Destiny's Child - The Writing's On The Wall"

I have done some research on album art and its conventions, and below I have referenced and briefly analysed the albums I thought were the most interesting or relevant. 

The Strokes - Is This It (Male Indie Rock Band - Debut Album)

• Album art intended to raise awareness : shock factor
• Creates a band identity of not conforming to normality, connoting the band may bring something original to the industry 

The Pussycat Dolls - PCD (Female Pop Group - Debut Album )

• Lead singer clearly established: centred and illuminated
• Lack of instruments and similar stances connotes all singing group as a pose to band
• Very clear sex appeal: flat stomachs on show, wearing short skirts and shorts

Destiny's Child - The Writing's On The Wall (Female R&B Group)

I chose this album because by this point Beyonce had been established as lead vocalist, and by having a lead makes the group more relevant to Chaos Killed The Dinosaurs, and so I have decided to study this album art instead of the debut. 

• Lead vocalist clearly positioned in the centre foreground of the album cover, strongly connoting her status/position with regards to the rest of the band
• The band are not overly sexualised but still look attractive and fashionable - this is something we would also like to achieve

Conventions

1. Position and status within the band is often clearly demonstrated on female group album art by simplying depicting the lead in the centre front. This would be a simple convention for us to follow, although we could chose to go against this because this convention commonly occurs across the album art of female groups, not bands. 
2. The focus is on image and not text, artist name and album name are all that is on the front cover. We will sick to this convention because it has proven very effective, audiences like it and we have no reason to break it. 
3. The image used is usually quite simple, and with a sole purpose and message to translate to audiences. I think we will stick to this convention because it will help us to clearly convey artist identity to audiences, which is key for a debut album. 

Above is a sketch of an initial idea for our album cover. It denotes Arianna in the foreground and the band members in the background, literally pulling Arianna back, restraining her with chains. This connotes the relative positions of band status, which is a message we would really like to get across through our debut album to get across a clear synergetic audience message.

N.B. From doing this research it has proven hard to find a current all girl band in which it is females playing their instruments as well as singing, rather than being just a vocal group. This research conforms that Chaos Killed The Dinosaurs would fill a gap in the market (which has a viable audience) .