Research and Analysis
Taylor Swift is my chosen artist. She currently has released 11 albums. Here are the albums in order of their release.
Taylor Swift (rel. 2006) Lover (rel. 2019)
Fearless (rel. 2008) Folklore (rel. 2020)
Speak Now (rel. 2010) Evermore (rel. 2020)
Red (rel. 2012) Midnights (rel. 2022)
1989 (rel. 2014) The Tortured Poets Department (2024)
Reputation (rel. 2017)
Research and Analysis
Taylor Swift, is a country music album. It had an adolescent theme that was deemed inappropriate for country music’s middle aged audience.
Fearless is a country pop music album. The album reflected her "fearless" attitude to embrace the hardships and challenges in love and life.
Speak Now is country pop, pop rock, and power pop music album. Swift wrote the album entirely herself within two years while touring. The album reflects on her transition from adolescence into adulthood.
Red combines pop, country, and rock, using acoustic instruments alongside synths and drum machines. The tracks draw on styles such as electronic, arena rock, Britrock, dance-pop, and dubstep.
Research and Analysis
1989 is a synth-pop music album. The album was conceived to show her artistry in pop after critics disputed her status as a country musician.
Reputation is an electropop and R&B music album. The album is a response to the media scrutiny on her private life and public image after her surge in popularity.
Lover is an electropop, pop rock and synth-pop music album. Lover was a reflection on her personal life and state of mind.
Folklore is an indie folk and alternative rock music album. Folklore consists of songs exploring points of view that diverge from Swift's life, including third-person narratives written from perspectives of characters that interweave across the tracks.
Evermore is an alternative rock and chamber rock music album. Evermore is an intimate album heavily rooted in elaborate first-person storytelling from third-person perspectives,character studies, and narrative mythmaking.
Research and Analysis
Midnights is a synth-pop and electropop music album. Midnights is primarily about love and the reflections that ensue. It is also about Swift’s regrets and late-night thoughts during her countless sleepless nights.
The Tortured Poets Department is a synth-pop and folk-pop music album. The album is an introspect on her public and private lives, showing her sorrow via motifs of self-awareness, delusion, anger, mourning, and humor.
Identify
I think that designing an alternative cover art based on an existing cover art is ethical. The design does not directly copy the design of the original cover art. The design is also made to help promote the same album and artist, having the interest of fans at the center of the design’s purpose. I think the design also upholds the humans' rights as it still credits the same artist for the art, and it respects the efforts of the original cover art and its designer. The main image used in the design is also copyright free and is from a photoshoot done with the artist.
I think my design is visually appealing as it uses the appropriate colours for the theme of the album. The colours used are darker and moodier, which is aligned with the album themes of regret and sleepless nights filled with thoughts. The use of double exposure to blend the smoke with Taylor Swift’s body is to show how she is “disintegrating” into her own thoughts and regrets late at night. The fonts used are also very clear and readable, making it easy for people to know it is art for her new album. The main image used also symbolises her reaching out for help and to try and stop thinking about the past, trying to move on.