Album Cover Analysis - Westlife.

Westlife are an Irish pop band. However, over the years they have changed their genre slightly, to mainly love songs rather than pop. Pop itself has evolved as a genre and has merged with hip hop. Westlife are not a conventional pop group because they are not as young as most of the groups in the charts. The cover hints at love songs in the unsubtle title 'The Love Album'. The rose also helps to indicate love. This gives us the genre.

As they are on the cover it demonstrates that they can be sold as an image as well as music. They are widely recognised and also a lot of people find them attractive. All of this will help to sell their music, and ultimately make them more famous. They have a distinctive image as they are not how we imagine other boy bands i.e. JLS. They are not half naked on the cover like most other boy bands, instead they have evolved into a man band, as they are much more mature than boy bands, and therefore appeal to a wider and perhaps slightly older audience.

The title 'The Love Album' pretyy much does what it says. It contains love songs that they have either written or covered. The fact that it contains love songs would probably appeal to an older female audience, but we must not dismiss younger audiences as well. The title is simple, much like the band themself. They have an established fanbase and most boy bands are compared to them nowadays, or aim to be like them. They are well known for writing love songs and this album sums up their genre. The name goes with the picture as it is very engaging and almost seductive.

The use of the black background and white light purely on them emphasises the image. Black also represents mystery and also seduction in some way. Even though it is a plain colour, it works as the band do not like to use bright colours, as that is mainly associated with younger bands. From the positionning of the band we can tell that Shane is the front man or main singer as he is in the chair and the others are positionned around him. They all have different facial expressions and gestures, however they all have a serious look and are concentrating on the camera. They all have some kind of 'rugged' look about them as they either have their top buttons undone or part of their shirts also. This creates a sort of 'sex appeal' and will automatically make the album more appealing to the audience. The use of the rose being held by Nicky also relates back to the theme of love. Love is associated with the colour red and also roses. One rose is said to be the most romantic flower you could give to someone. They all have different poses however they all come together very well. Shane looks relaxed in the chair, whereas Nicky is posing on the floor. Kian is leaning into the chair which looks almost a flirtacious pose, and Mark is turned slighty away to the left, which creates mystery about him.

The use of the light creates an almost mock candle light situation, once again associated with love. This is because of the dark background and one single light (on the band). It creates a romantic mood which is reflected in the poses of the band members which indicates a rugged sense which is appealing. The camera angle of straight on almost makes it look like a painting. It is a very simple image which makes it effective.

I believe the typical target market would mainly be female, from the age of late teens right up until the middle ages. This could be because women idealise with the concept of love more than men, typically. The idea of an album called 'The Love Album' goes along with this idea, which is backed up by the use of the rose and the seductive poses.