CD Analysis - New Breed

Jay Park is a very well known Korean-American rapper/singer. He's been known as the leader of all boy group 2PM but in his early years a few mishaps occurred and he was taken off the band. This lead him to go back to America where he was able to pursue his B-boying career but at the same time still follow his singing career as a many “J-walkers” (his fans) protested and wanted him to sing solo. Then in early 2007 he came back into the Kpop industry. This album is his latest which is a mixture of English and Korean songs.

The Front

This is the front of the album follows all of the conventions of a CD. For example the album follows a simple colour scheme, the black and white gives the album a very formal and respectable vibe. This may have been done to target Jay Park’s target audience which is slightly older than the regular Kpop audience which means that his album needed to have a sense of maturity and sophistication.  The audience are firstly attracted to the cleaver photo of Jay which is a medium close up shot, his left face shows a neutral reaction however the right side is a darker side of Jay which is shown by the skeleton makeup on him on the contrary, the white background behind him may signify innocence and purity but it also helps make him stand out against the matte black cover. The effect of using serif font for his name as well as the albums name it connotes superiority and boldness again attracting an older rage of audience however, by having the texts on below the image allows the audience to first familiarise Jay’s face. 

The inside 

This is the inside of the CD and as you’ve probably noticed the CD looks like a normal western album this is because Jay is also known in America and wanted to fit in with the western standards. The colour scheme of black and white is carried on to carry on the elegant feel. But there is a little change with the actual CD itself as it is red, the red may signify that the cd is full of his hard work and passion which he poured into while recording. The title of the album is again shown on the photo book and a mid shot of Jay is used to show more of his suit to emphasise his maturity moreover the skeleton makeup shown on the front cover is gone which may signify that we are “inside” him, in other words we are in his brain where we are able to hear his thoughts and senses through his songs.

The Back

This is the back of the 2012 New Breed album and it’s very bare and not much to it however it does follow the main conventions such as having a simple font clearly here they have used white against a black background as it’s easier to read and still follows the colour scheme. There’s also a track list and track numbers which has been laid out to follow a pattern. The unusual thing about the back of this album is that there are no copyright information or record label information this is because they have placed it inside the photo album to make the back look sleek and clean, there isn’t a barcode on the album itself either as when purchasing it, it is wrapped in a plastic like material where the barcode is placed on the right hand side. I think that it has been done this way to keep the hard copy clean and undamaged.

In conclusion, I have gathered that the album should look clean and modern by using various techniques such as putting all the label information in the photo book instead of the back.