CD cover Analysis 3

I am going to analyzing the album cover by Girls Aloud. This is a very successful and established pop girl band. The front cover shows the band and who they are clearly, with the title Girls Aloud as the top heading in clear bold capitalized writing. The band is then the only image on the cover, all attention on them. The genre of pop is suggested by the whole mise en scene, For example, with the girls all in matching outfits, all being fully black and plain. This shows they are similar and a lot of pop groups often have matching or similar clothing to show them as one group. Also, their make up and hair is presented very glamorous which is another factor related with pop bands. The costumes looks very clean-cut and glamorous with high heels, again often associated with girl pop groups, highlighting the glamour. They are presented as strong, glamorous females.
The title of the album is Call the shots. I think this is supported by the cover, because the girls all look very in control, they all have very strong poses with their body, and strong eye contact to the camera. They also have serious and full facial expressions, so it is showing them as in control, them as calling the shots. This represents this band as very strong and in charge, as strong confident female models. Also, I think the idea with the chains is effective. It is very simple; however you normally would associate chains with more dangerous things, but in this case the girls are in control and using the chains around them, so they are clearly the ones with the power and in control, which is all relating the title of the album.

The cover is very straight forward, with them as the only image, there are no special effects or pictures, just a simple purple colour background not to detract from the band. So all attention is on the girls, Purple may have been chosen because the target audience is mainly females, and is a plain simple light colour that will not pull the attention away, and the girls will stand out more. The light is very clear, and quiet natural light. Shadows of the girls can be seen slightly, this may have been created too add some texture to the background, which is very simple. The colours used are simply light purple and black, very simple and clear.
The angle used is straight on the girls, and they all have eye contact with the camera and the audience, which is putting them on similar level to the audience. The atmosphere created by the whole album is confident and direct, which I think the band wanted for this album.
I think there is a clear target audience, this band is very well known, established and successful so already has a clear audience. Their target audience seems to be females, of a wide age range. This is targeted by this cover with the glamour of the band, and then the light purple colour picked. Also, the idea about females calling the shots, with females in control which is a modern idea compared with the traditional view about men being the ones in control. So this aiming more towards females in the modern day.
Overall I think this is good example of a straightforward pop album. It is kept very simple and straightforward, with the focus on the members of the band.