Jack Johnson - Inbetween Dreams Predominantly the first thing that stands out when you look at this album colour is the bright golden/yellow background. Straight away this introduces a lot of symbolism that comes from connotations of the colour. Gold connotes thoughts so of luxury and riches. This could represent the music is quite well made and that the CD process involved a lot of money perhaps. The yellow tinge to the background connotes thoughts of summer. It could represent the sun which is a very powerful and important role in the circle of life. It could also represent the bright and summery colours of the flowers that are fully in bloom in summer. Both of these connotations could relate back to the music in the sense that the music is very summery and cheerful.
Another main feature in the CD cover is the tree on what appears to be a cliff. The tree could again symbolise the summer feel to the album as judging buy the amount of leaves on the tree it is in summer. Trees often symbolise family, faith and life, which again could reflect to the positive feel of the music. Trees are also the only living thing to continue to grow over its lifetime, which again Jack Johnson could be trying to represent his music in continuing to grow after this album. Also an article on Wikipedia about Jack Johnson and his music states that " The album cover depicts a mango tree, referring to the Mango Tree, the studio where In Between Dreams was recorded." The way he is picking a mango from the tree could also relate to being close to nature and this brings in genre guesses such as acoustic, and also perhaps create stereotypes of hippyness. Thecliff could perhaps represent a risk involved in the music in the sense that it might be a change from his previous material and that the risk is winning over a new audience but continue to maintain his older fans. The cliff connotes thoughts of height and heights could represent power. In this sense, this could represent that he is at the top of the world representing the huge amount of success he had.
Jack Johnson himself is making an appearance on the album front cover. He is shown with an acoustic guitar around his back representing the genre of the music and giving the audience a indication of what style of music the CD is without listening to it.
The text font is quite smooth and rounded and this could perhaps represent the calming/easy listening music that it is. His name is in black and the album name is in white. White connotes images of innocence and peace, and along with the name "inbetween dreams" it creates a happy feel about the CD.
Good work Harry. You have read the text in depth, referring to symbolism and stereotypes well.
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