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Black and white album covers

FoamFoam Posts: 145
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in Music #1
What is with all these black and white album covers by successful artists? Most recently Florence Welch basically just copies Adele's 21. Whether it's Emile Sande with Our Version Of Events, Sam Smith's debut or FOUR by 1D.

I wouldn't mind but these albums are always the most successful of the year. It's just boring and lazy in my opinion and lacks originality. I know it's trivial and 'get out more' worthy but still it's annoying!

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    scottie2121scottie2121 Posts: 11,284
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    I'm not sure why you say the covers are boring and lazy and black and white. Possibly the ones you mention aren't all that inspiring but the use of black and white in itself doesn't render an album cover boring or lazy. Besides, some of the album covers you mention aren't black and white e.g.

    https://consequenceofsound.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/sam-smith1.jpg?w=1200

    http://www.fuse.tv/image/544016f2ad9f2b1e1e000054/one-direction-four-album-cover.jpg


    Perhaps you'll prefer this

    http://www.superfi.co.uk/blog/Media/Default/BlogPost/blog/white-album.jpg ;-)
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    Heston VestonHeston Veston Posts: 6,495
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    #3
    Foam wrote: »
    What is with all these black and white album covers by successful artists? Most recently Florence Welch basically just copies Adele's 21. Whether it's Emile Sande with Our Version Of Events, Sam Smith's debut or FOUR by 1D.

    I wouldn't mind but these albums are always the most successful of the year. It's just boring and lazy in my opinion and lacks originality. I know it's trivial and 'get out more' worthy but still it's annoying!

    Yeah, as if nobody before Adele, Sandi, Smith or 1D had ever used a B&W cover before.
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    mgvsmithmgvsmith Posts: 16,458
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    scottie2121 wrote: »

    http://www.superfi.co.uk/blog/Media/Default/BlogPost/blog/white-album.jpg ;-)

    Or perhaps The Black Album?
    Heston Veston wrote: »
    Yeah, as if nobody before Adele, Sandi, Smith or 1D had ever used a B&W cover before.

    Dr Feelgood - Down by the Jetty (1975)
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    Heston VestonHeston Veston Posts: 6,495
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    #5
    mgvsmith wrote: »
    Dr Feelgood - Down by the Jetty (1975)

    The Beatles - With The Beatles (EMI hated this cover because they weren't smiling); Revolver

    Yes - Time And A Word - not used in the US because of the bare nipples; they substituted a colour photograph of the wrong line-up of the band.
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    gelbma0991gelbma0991 Posts: 4,783
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    Foam wrote: »
    What is with all these black and white album covers by successful artists? Most recently Florence Welch basically just copies Adele's 21. Whether it's Emile Sande with Our Version Of Events, Sam Smith's debut or FOUR by 1D.

    I wouldn't mind but these albums are always the most successful of the year. It's just boring and lazy in my opinion and lacks originality. I know it's trivial and 'get out more' worthy but still it's annoying!

    Well, the only one you got correct there was One Direction - and that's only the deluxe edition. Florence's only really looks similar because of the lighting, the cover is completely different. And neither Sam Smith, nor Emeli Sande's album covers are in black and white - they're both colour, but Emeli's is quite low saturation.

    To be honest with you, the issue with the covers is due to your distate for black and white imagery. Sometimes it's just as simple as a black and white cover works better for the album, or the image looks better b&w. It's not lazy, it's a conscious decision to make the image b&w because the chances are they're not shooting these images on an old 35mm SLR on b&w film with no choice.
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