Analysis of a Digipak - Beyoncé

Research - Task 9 (part 1)

One of the photos contained within
the front cover

The self-titled album , Beyoncé was released on the 13th of December in 2013 and is the 5th studio album that the American singer and songwriter Beyoncé Knowles has produced. This album was simultaneously released as a visual album, where each song was accompanied by a music video that portray the message and emotions each song conveys. This album communicates themes of feminism, sex, love and relationship issues which many listeners would be able to relate to, which helped this album succeed massively worldwide. Beyoncé is well renowned for  her strong, independent character which encourages her mainly female demographic audience to think independently themselves. Therefore, by portraying these messages throughout her album this will be an incentive for young girls to buy the album and listen to it as they will be able to relate to the lyrics and the messages she is conveying. This particular album was released digitally worldwide without any prior marketing, promotion or announcement, and debuted at number 1 on the U.S Billboard 200 granting Beyoncé her 5th consecutive number one album in the country. The record sold 617,000 copies in the United States, and 828,773 copies worldwide in its first 3 days of availability, becoming the fastest-selling album in the history of the iTunes Store. It was released again in November 2014 as part of a platinum edition, along with an extended version of new songs. This album received universal approval from critics who praised its exploration of sexuality, production and Beyoncé's vocals. It has sold 5 million copies worldwide as of November 2014, and has also created the singles "XO", "Drunk in Love", "Partition", "Pretty Hurts" and "Flawless".

The front cover of the album is incredibly simplistic, as it purely consists of a black background and the singer's name in pink, large, bold, sans-serif font. The sheer simplicity of this album cover shows that Beyoncé does not require an eye-catching album cover to enable her to sell millions of copies, as she is universally famous and has fans all over the world. As the album was also released unannounced this further reinforces that she doesn't need to market her products in a conventional style. An artist named Tourso designed the cover for the album, and revealed that he chose such a simplistic design as he was inspired by the cover of Metallica's 1991 fifth album to create a bold statement, and specifically to diverge from a  stereotypical "beauty shot" of Beyoncé which he felt would be expected from the majority of audiences. Tourso used a font similar to boxing-match placards to represent abrasive masculinity which he then contrasted with the pink font which he described as "a subversion of femininity".

The back-cover of the album followed the same simplicity, consisting only of a black background and the song titles written in pink, sans-serif font which matches the title.

The singer did not release any other products relating to the album, so there are no official adverts or posters that helped to market the album, which I assume is because she released the album without any prior announcement.