Album Cover Analysis - Linkin Park

Linkin Park are an American rock band. From the cover we can tell that they are not a pop or mainstream band as they have not used any bright colours. We can see that they are an alternative band as the cover could be seen as promoting vandalism, and this represents that they are not afraid to take risks. However this could also not be vandalism, it could be someone working on some sort of creative project, and I feel that the band want the audience to be left in the dark as to what the image actually shows.

The artists are not on the front cover. This could be because they were already a very famous band when this album was released, and they felt that they did not need to advertise themselves as they already had a very wide fan base, and they were happy with that. They could also be going for the creative approach to an album cover, which I feel actually works because it gives scope for different interpretation, as does their music.

The album is entitled 'Meteora'. If you look up the definition of the word it is a complex of a monastary in Greece. In Greek it also means "In The Heavens Above". It is unknown to the audience whether or not the group based the album on the definition of the word or whether they simply liked it. The word will not be well known to the audience and therefore it could mean different interpretations could take place, or people may simply over look it.

The setting of the actual image could be in many different locations, however I believe that it is in a studio. The character in it looks like a professional graffiti artist who could be doing some work for the band. Another interpretation could be that the band just wanted an artistic or powerful image to appear on the cover and they set the whole thing up for advertising purposes. From a distance it looks like someone crouching on the end of a wall, and this kind of optical illusion goes with the mystery that the band have already presented through the name that noone will know about and the picture that people cannot decide what it is. The band are represented as being young as this kind of art work is mainly appreciated and carried out by young people. They are not actually seen on the cover and therefore are obviously not image focussed. They would probably say "we try to focus on the music" or something very stereotypical to the rock genre.

The use of an almost sepia tone throughout the image provides us with an authentic picture that the audience can recognise. This also shows simplicity and originality to the group, which is how some of the best music is created. It shows that they do not need to hide behind any fancy images or colours on their album and they can almost be 'stripped back to basics' and that they are purely who they want to be. Costume is dark which goes along with the tone of simplicity as it is black. As there are cables on the floor it shows that the band are not too safety conscious and this could relate to their music as well, as in they do not mind taking risks.

I believe the target market is young people, as it means that they can interpret it with their young minds. Also it contains graffiti or artwork and this is mainly appreciated by younger people.