CD Cover analysis

blur:Best Of - This album covers is one of the most iconic and famous certainly in this country,Designed by Jeremy plumb and Dan poyner and Painted by Jullian Opie. This denotes a sense of being British as Jullian Opie was born in oxford in 1958. The pop art movement started in Britain in the mid 1950s this is obviously where her influence comes from. compare this to the Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe and the similarity's become more apparent. The pop art movement is very similar to the journey blur took from being an English band to being a worldwide band touring the US to recoup their finances. The album cover also bares resemblance to another iconicly British band Queen and there 1982 release of Hot Space. All these elements capitalize on being historically British

I Think the album cover works so well because of how simple it is. Looking at most album covers which include shots of the band there always seems to be someone in front of the other members which is normally the 'Front Man' or lead singer, but in the case of this album cover they are all at the same depth within the image which is denoting that they are all as important as each other. The bright vibrant colours are eye catching and appealing. The album cover draws heavily on minimalistic art and the ideas and concepts behind it which try to expose the essence, essentials and identity through eliminating all non essentials or features. This is captured beautifully with this album cover the essence and essentials to blur have always been the four band members so in hind-sight to have an image of something else would not work. It also exposes the identity of all the members but still leaves a bit to the imagination. It seems to have an idea of no distractions and not trying to deceive any ones expectations of what they will get.

It also uses the trademark blur font which has been used on all the albums the band has released. This album cover has directly influenced my choices in regards to my own album cover.

After looking at this CD cover and realising how many British features are behind it i decided to incorporate some of there ideas into my CD cover adding four images of the band each edited differently to show an intertextual refference to this CD cover.