Furthur album art research

Often the album art, Promotional material and music video's share a common theme and/or style. This is often in relation to genre and lyrical content.

 

 The Album The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance is a concept album about death and the afterlife. It's two alternative album covers are in black and white with scrawled writing. The album covers could show life as light and death as dark. Also, the idea of a black parade contrasts something jolly and joyous with something depressing and bleak

This style is also used in several of the music videos from the album. The video for I Don't Love You represents relationships and death. The video goes with the colour scheme by not only being filmed in black and white but having everything designed in black and white to stand out more. Also the video for Welcome To The Black Parade use a similar style. Whilst this video is not actually shot in black and white, the way the make up and set design is used gives it that same look and feel. However the flowers around the float and several extra's wear red to connote love and life, contrasting the song's dark subject matter and matching it's faster tempo.

 

 

Often, artist will release concept albums, using a series of songs to tell a story. Alice Cooper's album Along Came a Spider is a concept album in wich the story is about a  serial killer known as Spider. "The police are baffled by the bodies of Spider's victims, which are cocooned in a silk web, and are each missing a leg. Spider's task is to collect eight legs in order to complete the construction of his own spider. However, things get complicated when he falls in love with his eighth victim." The story reflects in the album's cover and the promotional artwork for the album. Cooper also made a short film of the same to promote the album, which is basically three intervoven music video's stuck together. The film contains the songs Vengeance Is Mine (featuring Slash, who also appears in the film), (In Touch With)Your Femenin Side and Killed by Love. The film also matches the albums lyrics and plotline and is all connected to Cooper's character Spider.

 

 

Screenshot from segment two of the film, which is

like an interval from the serial killer story and features a

more traditional performance style.

 Screen shots from along came a spider segement 1
Vengeance is Mine

 
Screen shot from Along Came a Spider segment 3 Killed by Love. The film and album, like most of Cooper's work, is inspired by the horror film genre

Promotional photograph for the album, featuring Cooper in character as Spider. Again there is a heavy horror influence.

The full promotional music video/short film: