Digipak Textual analysis - "Starboy" - The Weeknd

In this blog post I am going to textually analyse the digipak cover to "Starboy" by The Weeknd. I also textually analysed the music video to his song "Can't Feel my Face" as well which was under the same genre as this song and this artist in general.

First of all, the front cover generally; the colours that are used in the digipak are mainly yellow and pink (other than the person in the photo). In my opinion, these are not a very common combination because pink symbolises calmness and compassion meanwhile the colour yellow symbolises joy and happiness. I feel that this combination of colours and meanings do not symbolise the emotion shown on the face of the person in the picture. The body language that the character in the photo shows to me that he is rather defensive and frustrated. This tells me that the mood of the songs in this album are about the disappointment in himself while there is joy and calmness going on around him.

The colour of him stands out amongst the background which is very luminous as well which emphasises key parts of him such as his eyes and his hands and the cross. I feel that the cross is very symbolic as well otherwise he wouldn't have posed with it in the photo. I feel that this, just like with the hands on his head and the colour contrast has some relevance to the music that he has created.

The back of the digipak is similar to that of the front in terms of the colour scheme. The font of the songs are the same to the text on the front cover however are larger than the font underneath to inform the person purchasing the digipak that these are the names of the songs. 

In terms of the target audience, I believe that it is male teens and adults as it allows the listeners to relate to similar things that may have happened in their lives previously. I feel that these are life stories that the Weeknd may have experienced aswell.

The design of the CD is also rather simple but effective showing the image of the cross again with the same colour scheme as the back and the background of the front of the digipak as well. The lightning bolts on the CD are connotations of danger and therefore are not related to the cross I dont think. I feel like they have been placed there in order to symbolise the type of music that The Weeknd has produced.