Analysis on Earth Wind, & Fire Album Cover

“Greatest Hits” was Earth, Wind & Fire’s 2^nd album of their collection of greatest hits, between 1973 – 1981; this album was released in November 1998. It was ranked number 12 and number 6 on Allmusic's list of the Top Funk and Smooth soul albums of all time respectively.

Looking at Earth Wind & Fire’s album cover, it uses a range of vibrant colours which complement the symbols and the name of the band. Using colours such as blue, red/orange, green and brown represents the earth’s natural four elements of water, earth, wind and fire which could connote the bond the artist have together, and how they’ve stuck to their roots within their music to keep it original for their audience. This may entice their consumers because it’s colourful and it works well with the band’s name. The main image represents the origin of Egyptian culture, by using symbols such as pyramids, this may interest their audience because it makes the album seem mysterious and it may intrigue them to want to know what inspired them as a group to be connected with that particular country. Also each symbol can represent a part of them and their personality.

With typography its bold upper case lettering which enables it to stand out from the cover, also by using white it allows the artists name and title to be more prominent and noticeable for the consumer.  The title gives of the impression that this group have been around for along time using words such as ‘Greatest’, symbolises experience within the music industry and it showcases their talent as a group. The genre that they derive from is American R&B and Soul, these genres might appeal to an older audience because they were alive when the music was released or recorded, so not many of the younger audience would prefer this kind of sound compared to the current sound of R&B or Pop.

This album would’ve been successful because all the elements link and work well together, there’s a good range of colours being used and the main image stands out the most which will catch the consumer’s eye; but whereas in some cases some people would not understand the meaning of this main image, and the symbols on this cover may not appeal to them.