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Visual Metaphors on Covers: An Analysis into Graphic Design’s Effectiveness at Conveying Genres

by Vivian Le

A THESIS

submitted to

Oregon State University

Honors College

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Accounting and Business Information Systems (Honors Scholar)

Presented May 29, 2020 Commencement June 2020

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF

Vivian Le for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Accounting and Business Information Systems presented on May 29, 2020. Title: Visual Metaphors on Album Covers: An Analysis into Graphic Design’s Effectiveness at Conveying Music Genres.

Abstract approved:______Ryann Reynolds-McIlnay

The rise of digital streaming has largely impacted the way the average listener consumes music. Consequentially, while the role of album art has evolved to meet the changes in music technology, it is hard to measure the effect of digital streaming on modern album art. This research seeks to determine whether or not graphic design still plays a role in marketing information about the music, such as its genre, to the consumer. It does so through two studies: 1. A computer visual analysis that measures color dominance of an image, and 2. A mixed-design lab experiment with volunteer participants who attempt to assess the genre of a given album. Findings from the first study show that color scheme models created from album samples cannot be used to predict the genre of an album. Further findings from the second theory show that consumers pay a significant amount of attention to album covers, enough to be able to correctly assess the genre of an album most of the time.

Key Words: album, music, marketing, album covers, album design, symbol, color, genre, art

Corresponding e-mail address: [email protected]

©Copyright by Vivian Le May 29, 2020

Visual Metaphors on Album Covers: An Analysis into Graphic Design’s Effectiveness at Conveying Music Genres

by Vivian Le

A THESIS

submitted to

Oregon State University

Honors College

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Accounting and Business Information Systems (Honors Scholar)

Presented May 29, 2020 Commencement June 2020

Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Accounting and Business Information Systems project of Vivian Le presented on May 29, 2020.

APPROVED:

______Ryann Reynolds-McIlnay, Mentor, representing the School of Marketing, Analytics and Design, Marketing and Merchandising Management

______Andrea Marks, Committee Member, representing the School of Marketing, Analytics and Design, Design

______Robert Santelli, Committee Member, representing the School of Music, and Performing Arts

______Toni Doolen, Dean, Oregon State University Honors College

I understand that my project will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University, Honors College. My signature below authorizes release of my project to any reader upon request.

______Vivian Le, Author

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS....………………………………………………………………………8

INTRODUCTION …....…………………………………………………………………………...9

LITERATURE REVIEW...... 10

A. HISTORY OF ALBUM ART...... 10

B. THE ROLE OF ALBUM ART...... 14

C. ADOPTION AND IMPACT OF DIGITAL STREAMING...... 16

STUDY 1: COMPUTER VISUAL ANALYSIS...... 18

A. METHODOLOGY ...... 19

B. ANALYSIS...... 22

C. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...... 23

D. LIMITATIONS...... 27

STUDY 2: ALBUM ASSESSMENT EXPERIMENT...... 27

A. METHODOLOGY ...... 27

B. ANALYSES AND RESULTS ...... 28

C. DISCUSSION...... 32

D. LIMITATIONS...... 36

CONCLUSION...... 37

APPENDICES ...... 40

REFERENCES ...... 77

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the members of my committee for their support on this project: Dr. Ryann Reynolds-McIlnay, Andrea Marks, and Robert Santelli.

I am especially grateful to my mentor, Dr. Reynolds-McIlnay, for her ongoing support and expertise during the research period, for her time and knowledge while walking me through various data analysis processes, and for the amount of effort she put into helping me edit my thesis. This research endeavor and thesis would not exist without her continual support and mentorship.

I am thankful for the Honors College at Oregon State University for providing me the opportunity to finish this thesis and for granting me the DeLoach Work Scholarship which assisted me in research costs.

I am also indebted to every student who helped participate in my experiment as part of this research project. This project would not have been complete without their help.

Lastly, I would like to thank my mom and dad for their love and support throughout this entire process. Your sacrifices have made me who I am, and I owe everything to you.

INTRODUCTION

Music labels increase the sale of through numerous marketing methods. Perhaps the most memorable method is through the development of eye-catching, visual designs on album covers. This method was most relevant during the decades in which the physical sales of albums outnumbered digital sales.

Album art conveys both subtle and explicit information to the customer. Information such as the name of the artist and album work together with the graphics of the to provide consumers a more comprehensive understanding of the music contained within each album. The artwork featured on albums can lead consumers into better understanding implicit aspects, such as the genre, based solely on the album cover itself. This allows for an increase in music discovery within a listener’s preferred genre. As a result, an album cover can be a significant factor in a consumer’s decision to buy an album.

When streaming became the most dominant form of music consumption in 2015, the marketing aspect of album art may have diminished. From 2016 to 2017, there was a 58.7% overall increase for on-demand audio platforms such as or (Nielsen

Holdings, 2017). This occurred concurrently with the decline of physical album sales, which decreased 16.5% in the same time period.

There has not been much research focusing specifically on the design of album art created after the rise of digital streaming. This mixed method research seeks to determine whether album art remains a relevant way of conveying information about music to consumers, utilizing two different methods of data collection across two studies. While both methods allow for the analysis of quantitative data, the first study measures the color similarities of album covers based on various genres using hex codes. The second study verifies whether the average

listener can determine the genre of contemporary albums based on the graphics displayed on album covers.

The role of album covers has evolved alongside the evolution of the .

Album art has become less influential in selling physical albums. Instead, album covers have focused more around selling the artists’ image in a way that allows for an increase in merchandise sales. This research seeks to provide context to this notion and to clarify the role album art currently plays in an industry driven by music streaming. Although a large body of research exists within the fields of music and graphic design, a limited quantity of this research has been dedicated to studying the various aspects of album . Now, I discuss the history and foundational concepts of album art and propose two hypotheses that are tested in two studies.

HISTORY OF ALBUM ART

Album covers became a functional solution to new music recording technology developed during the early 20th century. Starting in the 1910s, flat disc phonographs began to replace wax cylinders, which previously were the earliest medium for producing and storing commercial music (University of , Santa Barbara, 2005). Wax cylinders had the disadvantage of having a limited surface area; as a result, albums were only identified using small slips of paper enclosed within the packaging. Flat disc technology provided an increased surface area – the early discs design had a diameter of 10” (Library of Congress, n.d.). Packaging at this point allowed for basic images, “… the title of the selection, and the , all pressed into glossy black surface of the disc…” (Library of Congress, n.d.). Record stores further innovated the process of customizing record sleeves, though this was limited to classical records

(Jones & Sorger, 1999). These classical records often required more than one disc for each album due to the average length of a live classical . As a result, a sturdier type of paper was used as an all-encompassing sleeve for the complete album. This heavier material allowed for the printing of portraits and scenes depicting the composters or performing artists directly onto the outside album cover itself (Jones & Sorger, 1999). Thus, the concept of album art was born.

The evolution of album art continues as a result of new music recording technology. In

1948, developed the Long Play record (The Vintage Record, 2014). Printed onto vinyl instead of shellac, this format of music consumption increased the size of the disc from 10” to 12” in diameter. Vinyl also had a more delicate surface than shellac, which caused album packaging to change. The paper sleeve used for shellac discs “damaged the delicate grooves on LPs, [so] record companies started using a folded-over board format sleeve”

(Chilton, 2019, p. 3). Cardboard allowed for a greater variety of colors, prints, and designs on the cover, facilitating room for experimentation and creativity among album designers.

Jazz albums became the first genre in which creative experimentation by graphic designers was first noticed by consumers. A variety of factors contributed to ’s role in helping the music industry realize the importance of the artwork featured on albums: Firstly, jazz gained extreme popularity during the 1950s, which coincided with the development of LP recording technology. Secondly, it was around this time that “record stores shifted from having their products located behind the counter with their thin spines outward to an where customers were allowed to browse through racks of colorful record jackets” (Dougherty, 2006, p.

48). Another factor had to do with the unique nature of jazz. jazz did not contain lyrics that had to be printed on album covers. This provided album covers with more space to

experiment with design. It also changed the behavior of consumers. People looking for new music were now more inclined to physically pick up albums so that they could “gain some insight about the mood, tone, and style of the music inside” (Dougherty, 2006, p. 48).

Lastly, part of jazz’s increasing reputation for featuring unique and colorful album art involved the racial tensions prominent in the 1950s. “[Jazz] needed to be packaged so that—in accordance with the rules of an aestheticized consumption economy—what was sold was not merely recorded sound, but the suggestion of a whole lifestyle” (Voelz, 2017, p. 7). This was because of jazz’s distinct association with urban, black musicians. Visually, in order to sell to white listeners, jazz album covers evolved to hide any connotations of jazz being a racialized genre (Voelz, 2017). Jazz albums that successfully went mainstream at this time often had covers relating to abstract art rather than portraits of the black musicians. Many of jazz’s most iconic album covers were designed by white designers such as . “It is crucial to emphasize that the increased importance of the visual dimension of the jazz art world was from the start involved in the frictions of a racist, overwhelmingly segregated society” (Voelz, 2017, p. 11).

Overall, the jazz era became another significant era for the development of album art covers. Graphic designers discovered a new medium for their artwork, one with ample design space and fewer physical restrictions. The added emphasis of album artwork provided demand for creative designers. Record labels started to recognize the importance of album artwork as a marketing signal to potential consumers. These effects cumulated in the era of , which produced some of the most influential and recognizable album covers of all time.

LP sales peaked in the 1960s and the 1970s. This was a period where rock music dominated not only airwaves and album sales but also impacted American society as a whole.

This era is also the point in which album art fully crosses over into the world of fine art.

Fitzgerald (2010) argues that the tipping point for album art came when famous artists, such as

Peter Blake and Hipnogsis, started bringing conceptual art into the world of music. This was the time when album covers became more “culturally relevant” and “influential [in] imagery” than any paintings from the fine art world as “no artist could have enough exhibition to rival the exposure of even a moderate-selling LP” (p. 110). This is reflected in the prices of developing album art covers as well. ’ debut album Please Please Me cost £400 to develop and record. In contrast, their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cost £1500 for the cover design alone (Inglis, 2001).

According to Alleyne (2014), “the modest concepts and meager budgets generally characterizing the medium’s early years were largely replaced in the rock realm from the mid-

1960s by visual ambitions that mirrored musicians’ aspirations” (p. 251). Throughout the rock era, musicians became more than their music. Often, they embodied extreme fame and were idolized in ways that jazz musicians from the 1940s and 1950s were not. The positive feedback loop of fame and influence further extended the cultural and artistic impact of album covers. The impact of rock album art influences LP sales to this day. According to the 2017 Nielsen Year-

End Music Report, the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles’ Abbey

Road, and ’s Dark Side Of The Moon all took spots on the Top 10 vinyl album sales of 2017 (Nelsen, 2017).

With the established theory that music technology directly influences the development of album art, the introduction of the CD contributed to the decline of album art’s importance. CDs shrunk the size of the canvas from 12” inches in diameter to 5” inches of space, which “imposed unwelcome physical restrictions on graphic artists, making album art less significant from that point onwards and with reduced audience impact” (Alleyne, 2014, p. 258). The jewel box

method of packaging CDs also left much to be desired. No longer could graphic artists experiment with different papers, inserts, cuts, raised typography, or gate pockets. “The CD jewel box has virtually eliminated the ‘browsability’ of the product – where you’d be looking at the graphics that attract you to pick up the package” (Jones, 1999, p. 90). At the same time, the price of an album doubled, which changed consumer behavior (Ochs, 1996). Expensive albums meant that customers started to purchase only music albums from well-known and familiar artists. Album art lost its role as a facilitator of new music discovery. Thus, album art began to decline in cultural and marketing significance.

THE ROLE OF ALBUM ART

Graphic designers agree that album art has embodied many roles throughout its evolution. These roles not only influenced branding and advertisement culture, but also influenced pop culture and societal values. The average consumer may assume that album art is only a way for artists to visually showcase their music. However, album art has three main roles: advertisement, accompaniment, and emerging product. The impact of digital music and streaming further complicates the role that album art plays in the modern era.

Firstly, album art offers a method for music labels to advertise the music contained in each record. The album cover industry parallels that of covers. As a Music Editor at

COLORSXSTUDIOS, Shah (2017) observed that “the artwork adorning the [album] sleeve is essentially the equivalent to a book’s front cover”. D’Astous found that the attractiveness of a book cover had a “statistically significant impact on the readers’ interest and can be used to influence people’s interest” in an unfamiliar book (Gudinavičius, 2016, p. 432). Further research found that the package of a product can significantly influence the level at which people perceive

a product’s quality. This effect still holds true for products that can be subjective in judgement, such as songs or albums (Stokes, 1985).

Secondly, album art serves as an accompaniment to the music it is associated with (Inglis,

2001). Album art often incorporates information such as the musician or band name, song titles, and sometimes, lyrics within the art itself. Because of this, typography plays a significant role within album art design. Album art also often contain photographs or artistic depictions of the musician or performers. This adds another way in which album art is intertwined with the music itself. This role of album art makes the album covers “not a superfluous thing to be discarded during the act of listening, but an integral component of the listening which assists and expands the musical experience” (Inglis, 2001, p. 84).

Lastly, album art can become a product or merchandise in its own right. The impact of fine art becoming featured on album covers helped ensure album art’s new role as a commercial product. This is especially relevant in accompanying sales to albums. Items such as posters, shirts, and other merchandise must be correlated or designed with the current album art in mind.

The discussion so far has conveyed that the purpose of album art and the ways in which it has evolved parallel to every significant change in music technology. Previous research utilizing self-organizing maps and artificial intelligence has shown some similarities between certain genres based only on image features, such as color or the usage of portraits and objects within the cover itself (Mayer, 2011, p. 8). However, this research was conducted before the rise of digital streaming and did not differentiate between albums created during different eras of music technology. Thus, I hypothesize that the various visual elements of albums created after 2015 are associated with specific music genres.

H1: Contemporary album cover art visual elements (e.g., colors or symbols) vary

across music genres.

As album art has an ever-changing and nuanced role in the music industry, the evolution of music technology and music consumption directly influence the progression of album designs.

Defining the traditional roles of album art provides context to understanding the current function of album art in a world of modern digital technology.

ADOPTION AND IMPACT OF DIGITAL STREAMING

The advent of streaming came roughly years after the invention of digital music services such as iTunes. Compared to the previous timeline given for the evolution of music technology, the jump from buying digital music to streaming digital music occurred fairly quickly. Digital streaming requires media companies to maintain large libraries of content, to which consumers can rent or buy access (Datta, Knox, & Bronnenberg, 2017). Streaming often occurs at a fixed, non-binding, and monthly payment model, providing a large advantage to consumers who want to explore new media without having to pay extra for that privilege. Digital streaming achieved its status as the most method to consume music in 2015 (Nielsen

Holdings, 2015).

Digital streaming and, to an extent, the invention of digital music distribution ultimately affected the distribution and influence of album art in two different ways. First, the popularity of digital music meant that the size of the album art canvas shrunk once more from 5 inches of space to size constraints that varied on each consumer’s distinct device. “[S]creen size, resolution, bandwidth, browser type, connection speed, computer display type, HTML, and many

other new elements provide the constraints on the visual means by which music is delivered to consumers” (Jones, 1999, p. 94). This initially posed effects upon album art similar to the effects noted from the transition from vinyl LPs to CDs – a decreased importance on album art as a way to visually brand the musician and the reduction of album covers’ role as an art product itself.

Second, the rise in digital streaming facilitated an increase in music consumption overall, increasing the rate at which album art is consumed and distributed. Because consumers now pay so little in order to access a large library, musicians make much less revenue from each song sale compared to any other generation of musicians that came before the digital era (Ingham, 2019).

This means that the majority of music profits now come from live performances and merchandise sales. A study of online streaming found that the average consumer’s total music consumption increased about 63% in the six months after the adoption of a streaming service such as Spotify (Datta, Knox, & Bronnenberg, 2017). The ease of digital distribution means that the number of musicians distributing their music is at an all-time high. No longer do musicians need a to front the cost of distributing their physical albums to record stores.

Consequentially, artists must find ways in order to differentiate so that fans are willing to pay to see them live and for merchandise. While previous album art facilitated the sale of music, the primary goal of modern album art has changed, as illustrated by Skelton

(2017):

“A strong visual identity gives fans something tangible to grasp onto during a

time when most music consumption happens digitally. A fan with a Spotify

subscription doesn't need to buy records, but they might choose to if they have an

emotional attachment to the cover art and want a physical memento of their

favorite artist.” (p. 15)

Album art no longer encourages the buying of albums. Instead, album covers encourages consumers to invest in the artist’s visual brand. Modern merchandise and often center around the initial album design itself. In a world of digital streaming, a strong and cohesive visual brand can increase profits for musician. As the pressure to sell merchandise and live concerts alongside the streaming distribution of albums has increased the necessity to utilize cohesive visual cues on the album art itself, I hypothesize that modern consumers pay attention to contemporary album art in a way that allows them to predict the genre of a given album.

H2: Consumers are able to predict the genre of contemporary albums based off the

graphic design of the respective album cover.

Now I will discuss the two studies that will be used to test both hypotheses. The first study involves a personally-coded application that outputs the five most dominant colors of a given image. Study 1, the analysis of color dominance and symbol usage within album covers, tests the validity of H1. This study also analyzes the type of symbolism used on each album cover. The second study is a mixed-design lab experiment that asks participants to assess the genre of an album given its album cover and tests H2.

STUDY 1: COMPUTER VISUAL ANALYSIS

This study seeks to analyze the relationship between the graphical elements of contemporary album covers in the digital streaming era with the album genre. As prior research

(Mayer, 2011) has utilized self-organizing maps and artificial intelligence to examine the relationship between certain genres based only on image features pre-digital streaming, computer visualization analysis of album art is conducted in study 1.

Methodology

Album Art Sample. Nielsen’s 2017 Year-End Music Report revealed that the top five genres (in order) were R&B/Hip-Hop, Rock/Alternative, Pop, Country, and Electronic. Using

AllMusic (an online music database) and its advanced album search, album images for each genre listed was found. Filters further narrowed down the search to only allow albums released in the year 2015 or later since 2015 was the year in which digital streaming peaked. Because this research seeks to analyze the effects of digital streaming on contemporary album covers, this was an appropriate filter to apply to the search results. Each album result was then cross-referenced using Spotify and Apple Music in order to ensure that the album’s genre was appropriately labeled on the AllMusic database. After that, the album’s image was downloaded and run using the color-dominance Python software that was custom developed.

Each genre had a sample of 200 albums selected for analysis. A listed compilation list that includes the name and genre of each album that was used in the computer visualization analysis is provided in Appendix A.

K-Means Clustering. The visual analysis was done through a color dominance software that was coded using Python. When designing the framework of the code itself, it was determined that K-means clustering would provide the most efficient way to do color analysis.

This type of clustering divides a certain number of observations (n) into a specified number of clusters (k). Each cluster has a determined centroid. Observations closest to the centroid or the mean of each cluster are sorted into that data space. The main objective of k-means is to discover

patterns by grouping similar data points. The number of clusters in a dataset is fixed and chosen by the researcher. This method of clustering was used in order to find the five most dominant colors within any given album cover. The number of observations varies per picture and is dependent on the number of pixels that each image contains.

Secondly, Python has the option to import various libraries. This research made use of three Python libraries:

import cv2 import numpy as np from sklearn.cluster import KMeans

The OpenCV library (labelled cv2 above) allows the computer to read images from any specified file. The NumPy library provides arrays and tools that can used for mathematical and scientific computing. Lastly, the Sklearn library allows for statistical modeling. Importing the KMeans module from the Sklearn library was chosen as it allowed for the use of K-Means clustering as the base for the code.

Conversion from .JPEG to RGB. Each color cluster within the image was then normalized into a color histogram. This histogram, although not visually represented to the user, allowed for the collection of percentage values for each color cluster. Because there was a predetermined amount of five clusters, the sum of the percentage of clusters totaled 100% even if the image had more than five colors.

Each color cluster was then converted into an RGB value. This was done through the

OpenCV library. The RGB color model was designed to construct each individual color using a combination of red, green, and blue hues. Each hue has integer values from 0 to 255, which represents the intensity of each hue. The software then displayed each image’s five most

dominant colors in its RGB form alongside the percentage of color dominance. Shown below is an example of the code output using the album Gode by Andrew Bratten:

[20.94224056 17.09869883 16.28435417] 1.38% [143.40015161 134.99971121 134.28005198] 12.12% [92.37914743 86.66469588 87.35822467] 16.21% [194.3069177 188.35312812 185.70860279] 23.69% [219.33246309 160.44353142 158.59437099] 46.60%

Each bracket represents an RGB value rounded to the eighth decimal place. The percentages represent the color dominance of each cluster relative to the other four clusters. For instance, while this album might have more than five colors, if the album cover were to be reduced to its top five colors, the color [219, 160, 158] would take up 46.60% of that edited color space.

Conversion from RGB to HSV. RGB is a useful color model for the analysis of images using computer software. However, the HSV color model is a more useful tool to segregate colors based off characteristics that are more relevant to human analysis. The HSV color model measures each color by quantifying hue shift, saturation, and value (brightness).

Hue shift is related to base color. It is measured from a scale of 0° to 360°. The HSV color model includes eight hues and it cycles through the degree of hues in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, and pink. Saturation controls the amount of gray in each color. The level of saturation can range from 0 to 100. Zero (0) represents white, or a lack of saturation, while numbers close to 100 represent the fullest saturation of the hue. Lastly, the value of the color corresponds to the level of brightness of each color. It ranges from 0 to 100 as well. Zero (0) represents black, or a lack of brightness, while numbers close to 100 represent the brightest version of the hue. After the initial software output, separate software was then used to convert each RGB value into an HSV value. Here is an example of the output given when converting the values taken from the album Gode above:

[15, 20%, 7.8%]

[0, 6.3%, 56.1%] [350, 6.5%, 36.1%] [20, 4.6%, 76.1%] [2, 27.9%, 85.9%]

Using the updated HSV value, each color cluster was able to be quantified into a labelled color. Each cluster was then categorized into one of 12 color labels: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan blue, purple, pink, white, gray, black, and brown. Eight of the color labels were denoted solely using the hue (H) value. Exceptions were made to the colors white, gray, black, and brown depending on the level of each hue’s saturation (S) and value (V). The color brown also includes all skin tones picked up from the color-dominance software. Appendix B shows the chart used to categorize each color cluster. The chart puts specific ranges for each of the color labels relative to its HSV dimensions.

Symbols. Album covers often feature and utilize symbolism. A common example of this would be portraits or images of the musician. During data collection, a note was made on whether each album featured an image or portrait of the artist. It was also noted whether other objects and symbols were featured on each album. Albums that only utilized basic typography and colors were noted to have zero symbolism.

Analysis

SPSS Statistics version 25 was used to analyze the data. Correlation analysis, linear regression and discriminant function analysis were used to test the first hypothesis. There were three main variables in the data. The first variable was the genre itself, identified as either country, pop, rock/alternative, electronic (EDM), or hip-hop/R&B. The second variable was the level of color dominance rated by percentage. The last variable was categorical, determining whether the album featured an image of the artist or whether it contained symbols other than text. The analyses explored whether there was statistical significance relating to usage of certain

colors or usage of symbols to genres. Analysis was also used to determine whether or not an album’s genre could be predicted using the linear models created for each genre.

Results and Discussion

The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was first used to measure the linear correlation between genre and both of the other variables: color and symbolism. A two-tailed test shows the significance of a correlational relationship in both the positive and negative direction.

Table 1 reports the correlations between genre and color. There are some notable correlations between the colors and genre of an album. The largest coefficient was the amount of correlation between the color brown and albums associated with (r(998) = .195, p

< .001). Throughout the collection of data, there were a large number of country albums that featured sepia tones or landscape backgrounds with brown tones. These tones and colors were significantly more present at an observational level compared to all other genres. Information reported in Table 2 supports this result as well. When analyzing the correlation between genre and symbolism, country albums were found to have the highest positive coefficient in regard to the frequency that artists or musicians were featured on their album covers (r(998) = .195, p <

0.01). Because the HSV values for the color brown also included skin tones, it is reasonable that the color brown was the most correlated with country albums.

The second notable result was the amount of correlation between the colors purple

(r(998) = 0.071, p = 0.024) and pink (r(998) = 0.103, p = 0.01) in pop albums. In comparison, other genres such as country had a statistically significant and negative coefficient for the color purple (r(998) = -0.073, p = 0.021). One explanation for this would be that the art movements dominating popular culture tend to lean towards eye-catching colors. The design of pop albums in the digital age are more focused on “a lot of bold colors and fonts that allow for an image to

hit with immediate impact” (McKinney, 2015). This provides a reasonable explanation for bolder colors being more prominent within pop albums.

Table 1. Correlations Between Genre and Color COLOR COUNTRY ROCK1 POP HIPHOP2 ELECTRONIC RED Pearson -.027 .019 .005 .013 -.010 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .392 .554 .870 .673 .749 ORANGE Pearson -.043 -.034 .026 .010 .040 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .174 .287 .407 .741 .206 YELLOW Pearson -.041 .009 -.008 .014 .027 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .191 .783 .803 .658 .402 GREEN Pearson -.047 -.016 .011 .034 .018 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .139 .615 .727 .283 .576 CYAN Pearson -.006 -.006 .026 -.005 -.009 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .846 .839 .406 .877 .781 BLUE Pearson -.036 .014 .038 -.066* .049 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .256 .656 .230 .038 .118 PURPLE Pearson -.073* .002 .071* -.024 .023 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .021 .947 .024 .454 .465 PINK Pearson -.056 -.020 .103** -.006 -.021 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .077 .524 .001 .853 .499 BROWN Pearson .195*** -.020 .012 -.038 -.149*** Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .537 .698 .227 .000 GRAY Pearson .103** -.017 -.049 -.031 -.006 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .594 .120 .328 .853 BLACK Pearson -.078* .025 -.103** .099** .056 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .014 .434 .001 .002 .076 WHITE Pearson -.070* .017 .013 -.001 .041 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .026 .581 .672 .970 .200 Notes. * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *** Correlation is significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed). 1 Rock category also includes albums associated with . 2 Hip-hop category also includes albums associated with R&B.

Table 2. Correlations Between Genre and Symbolism COUNTRY ROCK POP HIPHOP ELECTRONIC PERSON Pearson Correlation .195*** -.257*** .177*** .119*** -.234*** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 OTHER Pearson Correlation -.108** .114*** -.190*** .033 .151*** SYMBOLISM Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .000 .000 .295 .000 Notes. ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. *** Correlation is significant at the 0.001 level.

Table 2 showcases the correlational values between album genre and the usage of symbolism. In this case, person refers to a photo or depiction of the artist or musician on the album cover itself. Other symbolism refers to the usage of any other symbol or object on the album cover. For this research, albums that only utilized basic typography and colors were noted to have zero symbolism. In general, genres that had statistically positive correlation with musicians being featured on the covers generally had negative correlation regarding the usage of other types of symbols. This was true for country, pop, and hip-hop/R&B albums. These genres were more likely to feature photos of the musician on its albums and less likely to use other objects or symbols on their covers compared to other genres.

For the other genres, the reverse seems to hold true: Genres that had statistically positive correlations with the usage of other symbols generally had negative correlations with the use of the musician’s image on the album cover. This was especially true for rock and alternative rock albums, which had the largest negative correlation for the person category (r(998) = -.257, p <

.001). Rock and alternative rock albums were more likely to feature multiple objects and symbols on the cover but are less likely to utilize pictures of the musician or artist on its album covers compared to other genres.

This finding can be explained by the way the digital age has influenced how album covers are designed. Because technology limits the size of album covers to pixels, certain design elements have been eliminated in favor of others. Burke observed, “Right now, I think it’s a lot

about simple, clean graphics. Those hold up really really well on the 2-inch square” (in

McKinney, 2015). Albums created in the modern era are more likely to favor a minimalist design. Covers that tend to feature one type of symbol, whether it be a depiction of the musician or other objects, are less likely to use another type of symbol within the same cover as it can lead to clutter on a small screen. As an additional factor, it seems that genres in which there are many musicians within a group, such as rock or alternative rock, tend to favor other forms of symbols or artwork over using portraits of the musicians. This trend has gained consistency with the reality of small display screens.

These results provide partial support of the first hypothesis. Certain colors and symbols are correlated with certain genres. However, these results are somewhat limited in substance and cannot be used to fully prove that certain genres are definitively associated with certain color schemes or symbols. Further analysis involving discriminant functions and linear regression must be used in order to determine whether the measures of these variables can be used in order to predict the genre of an album cover.

Discriminant function analysis assigned weights to each of the color variables in order to determine whether or not each album was a certain genre. These weights give the discriminatory value of each factor (Appendix C). The higher the weight, the more the color variable was used to determine whether or not each album was correlated with the specific genre being analyzed, with Wilk’s lambda providing insight into the level at which the function can discriminate between genres of an album. In addition, � shows how much variance, whether the album is of the specified genre or not, can be explained by the function. Although the weight of each color variable for each genre were appropriate given the correlational values, the results were not significant (l = 0.929 to 0.996). This meant that functions could not discriminate between the

genres of an album. On average, the functions could only explain very little variance between each genre (� = 2.9%). The function for country albums had the highest success defining variance between country and non-country albums (� = 7.1%).

Linear regression was also used to show the level of classification accuracy when predicting the genre of an album. The model shows the level of accuracy with and without the predictors. For every genre, the level of accuracy using color predictors was equal to the amount without predictors. In other words, when using color variables as the predictor, the model’s accuracy of assessing album’s genre was 20%. This was essentially equivalent to random choice.

Both this result and the results from the discriminant functions fail to support H1. Although some colors do statistically correlate with certain genres, the album cover’s color scheme cannot be used to predict the genre of an album.

Limitations

The selection of albums qualifies as a small limitation to this study. Genre can be greatly subjective and albums that straddle the line between genres can be hard to categorize. Although albums were cross-referenced between Google, Spotify, and Apple Music, there may be a few albums that do not neatly fit into the genre this study had categorized it as. Although this should not have a significant impact on the overall results of the computer visual analysis, it should be a consideration of the results of the study.

STUDY 2: ALBUM ASSESSMENT EXPERIMENT

Methodology

A mixed-design lab experiment was conducted with undergraduate business students (n =

172, ages 18-24, M = 18.71 years, 62% female, 37% male) for partial course credit during

February 2020. The experiment’s goal was to evaluate whether the average person could assess the genre of a modern album based on its cover art. During the experiment, participants were randomly exposed to 10 images of album art, one at a time, from total selection of 20 albums

(Appendix D). The selected album art stimuli included four albums from each of the five genres tested in the study 1: Hip-Hop/R&B, Rock/Alternative, Pop, Country, and Electronic. These albums were chosen randomly from the AllMusic database and filtered to ensure they were released after 2015.

After viewing an album art stimulus, participants were asked to indicate the genre(s) to which they felt the album art belonged. Participants were able to select multiple genres per album if they felt the need to do so. For instance, if a participant felt that an album could be either country or rock, they were could select both genres as their final assessment. Participants also completed an open-ended item asking for the factors that led the participants to pick the genre(s) that they did. After viewing and completing the items related to the ten randomly assigned album art images, participants then complete measures of their music consumption habits, followed by demographics, a hypothesis probe, and a debriefing. The lab study was administered through Qualtrics, and the questionnaire is presented in Appendix E.

Analyses and Results

Music Consumption Habits. Over 50% of the participants reported that they notice album art most of the time (32%) or every time (24.4%) they listen to music and 67% of the participants reported noticing album art at least half of the time during the consumption of music. In other words, the vast majority of consumers pay attention to album art at a fairly frequent rate. While the role of album art has changed throughout its history, it still garners the attention of a majority of consumers.

Selected Correct Genre. On average, participants selected the correct genre 5.75 (SE =

.13) times when viewing ten albums, providing support for hypothesis 2. For each random album displayed to the participants, there were five genres from which to select. If there was truly no relationship between the album cover and its genre, there should only be correct assessment of an album genre about 20% of the time. However, participants were able to correctly assess the genre about 58% of the time. This suggests that there are factors that people use in order to assess the genre of an album.

A mixed ANOVA was conducted to examine the likelihood of correctly selecting the genre based on the album art while accounting for within-subject differences (F(1, 171) = 15.22,

2 p < .001, ηp = .08, non-centered effect = 15.22). The between-subject ANOVA (λ = .87, F(4,

2 186) = 6.45, p < .001, ηp = .13, non-centered effect = 25.78) suggests participants were able to correctly identify hip-hop/R&B albums (M = 1.45 SE = .07) more often than rock (M = 1.03 SE

= .06, p < .001), pop (M = 1.05 SE = .07, p = .001), electronic (M = 1.05 SE = .07, p = .001) and directionally more than country (M = 1.17 SE = .07, p = .068) album art. All other genre comparisons were not significant (ps = 1).

When the participants selected more genres for each album, they were more likely to select the correct genre. Participants were able to select up to five genres for each album displayed, but the vast majority of responses (82%) showed that in general, participants tended to select one genre per album shown. Additionally, the number who selected more than three genres for an album was exceedingly rare (2%). While the average number of correct answers per album art would most likely be reduced if each participant was limited to selecting only one genre per album displayed, this may not have impacted the results significantly given that few participants selected more than two genres.

ANOVAs examined selection of the correct genres as a function of the method used most often when to listen to music versus the other methods (digital streaming F(1, 170) = .13, p =

.722; CD F(1, 170) = 2.54, p = .113; vinyl F(1, 170) = 6.33, p = .013; digital downloads F(1,

170) = 1.84, p = .176; online radio F(1,170) = 4.11, p = .044; FM radio F(1, 170) = 1.29, p =

.008; video streaming F(1, 170) = 3.58, p = .060). The results suggest that those who use vinyl

(M = 1.37 SE = .03) as the main method of listening to music were more accurate at assessing the genre of a given album compared to those who listen to music using other methods (M = 1.13

SE = .03, p =.013). However, those who listen to online radio (M = 1.05 SE = .06, p = .044) as their main method of music consumption were less likely to accurately assess the genre of an album based on its cover art than participants who used other methods (M = 1.18 SE = .03).

Selected Genre Reason. Participants were asked to write out the factors that helped them decide on the genre of each album cover. There were 1720 total open-ended responses, a response for each of the ten of 20 albums that the 172 participants viewed. Each response could be classified into at least one of 13 categories. Categories included factors such as familiarity with the artist, connotations of the album title, familiarity with the genre associated with the album, font, color, usage of symbolic images, familiarity with the album cover, album aesthetic, the emotion(s) associated with a cover, similarity to other known album covers, similarity to other familiar artists, similarity to other known genres, and any higher meaning associated with the album art. Out of all factors, the three of most common responses from participants were the color, symbolism, and aesthetics of a given album cover. For this experiment, color is defined as the mention of color conceptually or the discussion of specific color hues, saturation and/or brightness. Responses are put into the symbolism category whenever there is a mention of an image or object within the album art that leads to the perceived genre. Lastly, a response is

classified in the aesthetic category whenever participants mention that the album art conveys a certain mood, energy, vibe, or aesthetic. Definitions and examples of all other categories are presented in Appendix F.

Three coders classified each open-ended response into specified categories. Each coder recorded the number of thoughts that fit each of the categories and the total number thoughts that each participant expressed for every album. An analysis of inter-coder reliability suggests each coder had similar results to each other (α = .96) indicating is extremely high internal consistency between the three coders, with coefficient remaining consistently above .90 when any one of the coders were removed from the analysis. Because of the high internal reliability of each coder’s results, all three of the coders’ data were averaged as the dependent variable for analysis. The number of thoughts ranged from zero to eight per participant for each album. Out of the number of responses, over 80% of the responses contained only one or two thoughts, with the average being 1.58 (SE = .02) thoughts.

The average number of thoughts for each of the 13 categories was analyzed with a

MANOVA as a function of the genre (F(52, 6,824) = 9.43, p < .001). The ANOVAs examining being familiar with the genre (F(4, 1715) = .33 , p = .86), the album art being similar to that of another artist (F(4, 1715) = 1.36, p = .247, and mentions of the album art (F(4, 1715) = 1.27, p =

.278) were not significant. The factors relating to familiarity of the musician (F(4, 1715) = 14.90, p < .001), font (F(4, 1715) = 8.75, p < .001), color (F(4, 1715) = 21.36), p < .001) , symbols (F(4,

1715) = 16.72, p < .001), aesthetic (F(4, 1715) = 30.43, p < .001), emotion (F(4, 1715) = 5.31, p

< .001), familiarity of other known album art (F(4, 1715) = 3.08, p = 0.15), familiarity of the respective genre (F(4, 1751) = 4.66, p = .001), the meaning derived from the album art (F(4,

1715) = 4.10, p = .003), and album art title (F(4, 1751) = 26.68, p < .001) were all significant

ANOVA.

Within certain significant models, there were large differences between the mean number of thoughts depending on the genre of the album. Having artist/musician familiarity, for instance, was cited much more often for country (M = .11 SE = .01) and hip-hop/R&B (M = .11, SE = .01) than for the pop (M = .01 SE = .01, p <.001) and rock/alternative (M = .02 SE = .01, p < .001).

For pop (M = .39 SE = .02, ps < .001), color was referenced significantly more often than for country (M = .12 SE = .02), rock/alternative (M = .22 SE = .02), electronic (M = .25 SE = .02), and hip-hop/R&B (M = .16 SE = .02). Responses that mentioned symbols as a factor were more often associated with country (M = .66 SE = .03) albums compared to the rest of the album genres: hip-hop/R&B (M = .56 SE = .03, p = .006), rock/alternative (M = .44 SE = .03, p < .001), pop (M = .40 SE = .03, p < .001), and electronic (M = .47 SE = .03, p < .001).

For the aesthetic category, country (M = .16 SE = .02) and hip-hop (M = .23 SE = .02) were associated much less often with that particular factor compared to rock (M = .38 SE = .02, p < .001), pop (M = .40 SE = .02, p < .001), or electronic (M = .40 SE = .02, p < .001) albums.

Lastly, when analyzing responses, participants were significantly more likely to mention the album title as their main deciding factor for the hip-hop/R&B (M = .23 SE = .02) compared to electronic (M = .03 SE = .02, p < .001), pop (M = .08 SE = .02, p < .001), rock/alternative (M =

.11 SE = .02, p < .001), and country (M = .17 SE = .02, p = .008).

Discussion

Overall, the results of study 2 suggest that gleaning genre information from an album cover is an inherently complex process. While the average person is more likely than not to be able to assess the genre of a given album cover, there are different factors that consumers use in

order to do so. This process is further influenced by the music consumption habits that consumers take part in. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this specific study is that consumers are receptive to and pay attention to album art at a frequent and significant level, despite the drastic decrease in the size of space that album covers are expected to encompass.

On a genre-specific level, hip-hop/R&B albums were correctly identified about 40% more often than pop, electronic, or rock/alternative albums. For each pop, electronic, or rock/alternative album correctly identified, there are about 1.5 hip-hop/R&B albums correctly identified on average. This result provides partial support of hypothesis 2, as there are certain visual components of hip-hop or R&B albums that make it easier to identify them compared to other genres.

Further analysis of the open-ended responses were also intriguing given the results of the first study, which imply that while certain forms of symbolism and certain schemes of color are correlated with the genre of an album, no models or functions created from the album samples can accurately predict the genre of an album using those variables. Even though Study 1 suggests that these measures are not reliable measures of a genre of an album, it seems as though participants use these exact variables most often in order to form predictions about the genre of an album. There can be many reasons for this. Factors such as color, symbolism, and aesthetic are often more accessible and embedded in culture compared to other factors such as the font or title of an album. Given the trend of minimalist album design, modern album artwork tends to feature one main concept. Factors such as symbols and color are able to convey a wide range of information about the album to consumers in a more efficient manner than smaller design aspects such as font. These secondary factors, such as the title of an album, the artist name, and font, are

less likely to be noticed by the consumer at first glance. On many modern albums, the name of the artist or the title of the album are not included for the sake of space.

There are also some notable inter-genre results relating to the categories discussed earlier: color, symbols, and aesthetic. These results can also be seen as profile plots for better visual examination (Appendix G). When assessing the responses that mentioned color, there is a statistically significant difference between pop albums and all other genres of albums (p <

0.001). This result is reasonable given the outcome of the first study showed a higher prominence of bolder colors such as pink and purple in pop albums. Many pop albums are designed with bold visuals in mind, which translates to using eye-catching colors (McKinney,

2015). This experiment shows that consumers are picking up on this trend and are using an album’s color schemes to help assess pop albums in particular.

When analyzing the responses that mentioned symbolism, there was also a significant difference between country albums and all other genres of albums (p < .001). For country albums that featured a portrayal of the musician on the cover, the responses often used the artist’s image as a factor. Responses such as “the man looked country” or “because of the man portrayed on the front” were frequent. Even country albums that did not include portrayals of the artist often had participants reference to symbols such as “cowboy”, “cactus”, “acoustic ”, or “horses”.

Given the history and ties of country music to a rural lifestyle, it is notable that these culturally relevant symbols are still portrayed in modern albums and are recognizable to many participants, even those who do not generally listen to country music.

Participants that mentioned aesthetic as a factor in their decision were more likely to do so for rock, pop and compared to country or hip-hop albums. For this research, the definition of aesthetic meant the mood, energy, or feeling that the participants felt when

viewing the album. This broader definition makes it hard to definitively pinpoint the reasons why participants were more likely to use this factor as a response to rock, pop, or electronic albums.

Perhaps the design factors of an album cover work together more coherently within those specific genres. Small details like font choice, color, artwork, object placement, and symbols must work together in order to be able to convey a specific mood or aesthetic to the audience. It is possible that within these genres, the usage of a cohesive artistic image is more common.

Comparatively, country music and hip-hop/R&B music are more likely to utilize standard symbols, such as depictions of the artist or other culturally relevant symbols, as its main visual component rather than focusing on the complete artwork of an album. This may impact the way consumers perceive certain genres of music. There was consistent variance in open-ended responses based on the specific genre of an album, suggesting that many consumers have preconceived notions of what certain genres of albums should look like.

Lastly, there was some significance relating to the variance in music consumption habits of the experiment participants, especially those who consume vinyl or online radio. In regard to

LPs in particular, these types of albums are a unique product in the world of music consumption.

There are arguably much easier means to buy and listen to music, yet vinyl records (both new and used) have seen a resurgence in sales in the past few years, surpassing sales in both online radio and CDs (Rosenblatt, 2018). Those who buy vinyl do so for its “collectability” factor. There are aspects of vinyl that cannot be found on any other form of music consumption – its 12 inch by 12 inch canvas for album art being the main one. The technology of vinyl means that to be able to listen to music, consumers often have to pick through a collection of physical albums, carefully take out the vinyl disc inside, and set it up on a turntable. This increases the amount of time that each consumer is able to look and process the cover of each album. This fact paired with the results

of this research imply that participants who use vinyl as their main method of music pay a noticeable amount of attention to the album art itself. This has translated into the results of the experiment; participants who prefer vinyl can accurately assess the genre at a higher rate.

The results regarding participants who utilize online radio as the primary method of listening to music are not surprising given the history and average usage of online radio.

Pandora, with the largest market share of the online radio industry, was created with the intent of helping consumers passively discover new music using its algorithm. Pandora relies on consumers who use it mainly for background music. This was shown in its business model: One could only wait for individual songs to play at a time – the consumer could not specifically select or create playlists of songs that they wanted to listen to (Wang, 2018). It can be argued that consumers who use online radio as their main method of listening to music do not actively pay attention to a song’s album art in any significant capacity. This correlates with the results.

Although the effect of consuming online radio on a participant’s ability to assess genre is a smaller effect than the effect of consuming vinyl, it is still statistically significant and an interesting finding.

Limitations

The experiment was limited to students attending Oregon State University, and as a result, the population surveyed cannot be considered a random sample. Because of that, the results of this study cannot be perfectly extended to provide context to the general population. In addition, the age range of the participants ranged from 18 to 24 years. It is possible that participants were more familiar to the music created in the digital streaming era compared to other age groups due to the younger age range. Thus, the results may not generalize to older consumers.

Each item also limited the number of genres that each participant could choose from, which overall limited the variance of responses that each participant could give. Perceived time limits within the study setting itself may have also made it difficult for respondents to spend more time on the open-ended questions. However, given the sample size and the method for collection, the quantitative results from this experiment are more than adequate to test the hypotheses. The limitations discussed above are not significant enough barriers to disregard the results of the study.

CONCLUSION

The goal of graphic design is to visually communicate information. The specific usage of factors such as typography, image, color, or placement may increase or decrease the speed at which consumers devote attention to and process the information. Album covers have played a multitude of roles throughout its history, but its importance remains consistent even as music technology as changed rapidly. The overall results of these studies have revealed a lot of information about the way album covers are designed and the way consumers interact with the album covers themselves.

Study 1 revealed that certain colors are more prominent within certain genres. However, the correlation between colors and album art are somewhat minimal to the point where linear models or discriminant functions could not predict the genre of an album only based off its color scheme. While colors may play an important part in the design of a cover, it is by no means the most defining factor of the genre of an album. The implications are that perhaps color is more indicative of the artist brand itself rather than the genre of an album.

Study 1 also revealed that modern albums were more likely to abide by minimalist design: albums with a depiction of artist on the front were less likely to simultaneously use other types of symbols on the cover and vice versa. This has certain implications for the development of album artwork today. For instance, a more minimal design is generally preferred for a cover, but it may prove to be difficult to create an extensive merchandise line with only minimal designs. However, having a more minimal design may make it easier to tie visual cohesiveness between the album cover, , and live concert performances. As visual cohesiveness is a significant part of selling the brand of an artist, the trend of minimalism may help the artist more easily sell their music.

Study 2 revealed interesting aspects about the way consumers view album art. For one, the vast majority of consumers pay attention to album art more than half the time. Cover art remains an important aspect of music that should not be dismissed or glossed over by any musician. It is also important to note that methods of music consumption do play a role in the way people view cover art. Based on the results, it can be assumed that those who collect vinyl pay much more attention to cover art than those who listen to music using online radio. When designing the cover of an album, it may be reasonable to design it with certain audiences in mind. For instance, seeing as vinyl sales increase annually, having an album design that fares well in both digital and vinyl format may be an important consideration.

The study 2 results also revealed the ways in which consumers pay attention to album covers. When asked to assess album covers, the open-ended responses reveal that factors such as color, symbolism, and aesthetic play a large part in the participant’s thought process. With symbolism in particular, it seems as though symbols play a large part in genres that have cultural ties such as country, hip-hop and R&B. With the other genres, it seems as though consumers

tend to view these albums holistically, taking into account things such as font, color, album title, and artwork and comprehending them entirely as an aesthetic. All of these are factors that a graphic designer can take into account when designing albums.

The rise of digital streaming means that, now more than ever, musicians are able to share their music without the need for a label. Conversely, this implies that music labels are no longer the ones responsible for the design and distribution of album covers – many musicians now play a bigger role in the design of their own albums. The marketing aspect of album art has not diminished in the face of digital streaming – in fact, it is a necessary component of being able to form a visual brand. A comprehensive understanding of the way consumers perceive album art can be instrumental in selecting the design of an album. Subsequent research may continue to explore the ways in which the design of album art has evolved or the ways in which album art have facilitated the trend of having a cohesive visual brand. Album artwork is unique in that it is a one of the few visual mediums that can tie together auditory art. This fact makes it a subject worth researching.

APPENDIX A

Study 1 Album List for Visual Analysis

NUMBER ARTIST ALBUM NAME YEAR GENRE 1 / Bradley Cooper A Star Is Born 2018 Country 2 Carry Fire 2017 Country 3 Mr. Misunderstood 2015 Country 4 Kill the Lights 2015 Country 5 Last Man Standing 2018 Country 6 The Lumineers Cleopatra 2016 Country 7 Eric Church Desperate Man 2018 Country 8 Willie Nelson Ride Me Back Home 2019 Country 9 Kylie Minogue Golden 2018 Country 10 Willie Nelson God's Problem Child 2017 Country 11 Rosanne Cash She Remembers Everything 2018 Country 12 Luke Bryan Spring Break… Checkin' Out 2015 Country 13 The Mountain 2018 Country Willie Nelson / Merle 14 Haggard Django and Jimmie 2015 Country 15 Willie Nelson My Way 2018 Country 16 The Lumineers III 2019 Country 17 The Bus Songs 2017 Country 18 Luke Bryan What Makes You Country 2017 Country 19 Threads 2019 Country 20 Toby Keith 35 MPH Town 2015 Country 21 Dierks Bentley Black 2016 Country 22 2015 Country Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings 23 Willie Nelson Gershwin 2016 Country 24 The Breaker 2017 Country 25 Kacey Musgraves A Very Kacey Christmas 2016 Country 26 Windy City 2017 Country 27 Lady Antebellum Ocean 2019 Country 28 Texoma Shore 2017 Country 29 Zac Brown Jekyll + Hyde 2015 Country 30 Blake Shelton If I'm Honest 2016 Country 31 Zac Brown Welcome Home 2017 Country 32 Kip Moore Slowheart 2017 Country 33 Tim McGraw 2015 Country 34 Ryan Adams Live at Carnegie Hall 2015 Country 35 Cry Pretty 2018 Country 36 Joe Nichols Never Gets Old 2017 Country 37 Pure & Simple 2016 Country

38 Angels and Alcohol 2015 Country 39 Lady Antebellum Heart Break 2017 Country 40 Cosmic Hallelujah 2016 Country 41 The Lonely, the Lonsome & the Gone 2017 Country 42 Down to My Last Bad Habit 2016 Country 43 The Weight of These Wings 2016 Country 44 Dolly Parton I Believe In You 2017 Country 45 Jason Isbell Something More Than Free 2015 Country 46 The Ghosts of Highway 20 2016 Country 47 Little Big Town Nightfall 2020 Country 48 Kenny Wayne Shepherd The Traveler 2019 Country 49 Chris Young Losing Sleep 2017 Country 50 Lucinda Williams This Sweet Old World 2017 Country 51 Carrie Underwood Storyteller 2015 Country 52 Kenny Chesney 2018 Country 53 Second Hand Heart 2015 Country 54 Vince Gill Okie 2019 Country 55 Rascal Flatts Back to Us 2017 Country 56 Darius Rucker When Was The Last Time 2017 Country 57 Rodney Crowell Christmas Everywhere 2018 Country 58 Zac Brown The Owl 2019 Country 59 Reba McEntire Stronger than the Truth 2019 Country 60 Guy 2019 Country 61 2015 Country 62 Rearview Town 2018 Country 63 Keith Urban Ripcord 2016 Country 64 Rhiannon Giddens Freedom Highway 2017 Country 65 Reba McEntire Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope 2017 Country 66 Miranda Lambert Wildcard 2019 Country 67 Darius Rucker Southern Style 2015 Country 68 Reba McEntire Love Somebody 2015 Country 69 Marty Stuart Way Out West 2017 Country Emmylou Harris / Rodney 70 Crowell The Traveling Kind 2015 Country 71 Faith Hill / Tim McGraw The Rest of Our 2017 Country 72 Blackberry Smoke 2016 Country 73 Chris Hillman Bidin' My Time 2017 Country 74 Alabama Southern Drawl 2015 Country 75 Kip Moore Wild Ones 2015 Country 76 LeAnn Rimes Remnants 2016 Country 77 Chris Young I'm Comin' Over 2015 Country 78 Line Can't Ain't Country 2019 Country 79 Pretenders Alone 2016 Country

80 The Devil Don't Sleep 2017 Country 81 Lee Brice Lee Brice 2017 Country 82 Steven Tyler We're All Somebody from Somewhere 2016 Country 83 Old Crow Medicine Show Volunteer 2018 Country 84 The Avett Brothers Live, Vol. 4 2015 Country 85 Eli Young Band Fingerprints 2017 Country 86 Traveller 2015 Country 87 Tanya Tucker While I'm Livin' 2019 Country 88 The Mavericks Mono 2015 Country 89 American Love 2016 Country 90 Bigger 2018 Country 91 Rascal Flatts The Greatest Gift of All 2016 Country 92 Rodney Crowell Close Ties 2017 Country 93 Ashley Monroe Sparrow 2018 Country 94 Delbert McClinton Tall, Dark, and Handsome 2019 Country 95 Martina McBride Reckless 2016 Country 96 Brett Eldredge Glow 2016 Country 97 Honky Tonk Time Machine 2019 Country 98 Rodney Crowell Texas 2019 Country 99 Old Crow Medicine Show 50 Years of on Blonde 2017 Country 100 Dwight Yoakam Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars… 2016 Country 101 Buxton Half a Native 2015 Country 102 Keith Urban Graffiti U 2018 Country 103 Billy Currington 2015 Country 104 Sara Evans Words 2017 Country 105 Jake Owen Greetings from… Jake Owen 2019 Country 106 Mary Chapin Carpenter Sometimes Just The Sky 2018 Country 107 George Strait Cold Beer Conversation 2015 Country 108 Jr. It's About Time 2016 Country 109 Chris Stapleton From A Room: Volume 1 2017 Country 110 Chris Stapleton From A Room: Volume 2 2017 Country 111 The Jayhawks Paging Mr. Proust 2016 Country 112 I'll Be Me [Original ] 2015 Country 113 Hero 2016 Country 114 Chris Young It Must Be Christmas 2016 Country 115 Old Dominion Happy Endings 2017 Country 116 Brantley Gilbert Fire & Brimstone 2019 Country 117 Love and War 2017 Country 118 Brothers Osborne Pawn Shop 2016 Country 119 Steep Canyon Rangers Radio 2015 Country 120 The Mavericks Brand New Day 2017 Country 121 Ryan Bingham Fear and Saturday Night 2015 Country 122 Dave Alvin / Phil Alvin Lost Time 2015 Country

123 Rhiannon Giddens There Is No Other 2019 Country 125 Kinda Don't Care 2016 Country 124 Brett Eldredge Brett Eldredge 2017 Country 126 Old Dominion Old Dominion 2019 Country 127 Brothers Osborne Port Saint Joe 2018 Country 128 The Devil Makes Three Chains Are Broken 2018 Country 129 The Jayhawks Back Roads and Abandoned Motels 2018 Country 130 Blackberry Smoke Find a Light 2018 Country 131 Carrie Rodriguez Lola 2016 Country 132 Glen Campbell Adios 2017 Country 133 Shelby Lynn I Can't Imagine 2015 Country / Steep Canyon 134 Rangers The Long-Awaited Album 2017 Country Garth Brooks / Trisha 135 Yearwood Christmas Together 2016 Country 136 About to Get Real 2015 Country 137 Jason Aldean They Don't Know 2016 Country 138 Mark Chesnutt Tradition Lives 2016 Country 139 Billy Ray Cyrus Thin Line 2016 Country 140 Charlie Daniels Night Hawk 2016 Country 141 Old Dominion Meat and Candy 2015 Country 142 Buy Me a Boat 2015 Country 143 Chris Janson Everybody 2017 Country 144 Crystal Gayle You Don't Know Me 2019 Country 145 Jason Aldean 9 2019 Country 146 Rhiannon Giddens Tommrow Is My Turn 2015 Country When I'm Alone: The 147 Lissie Retrospective 2019 Country 148 Brett Eldredge Illinois 2015 Country 149 State I'm In 2019 Country 150 Trisha Yearwood Every Girl 2019 Country 151 Daniel Romano If I've Only One Time Askin' 2015 Country 152 Maren Morris Girl 2019 Country 153 The Devil Makes Three Redemption & Ruin 2016 Country 154 Robert Earl Keen Live Dinner Reunion 2016 Country 155 Maddie & Tae Start Here 2015 Country 156 Lissie Castles 2018 Country 157 Ronnie Milsap The 2019 Country 158 The Bellow Then Came the Morning 2015 Country 159 We the People 2019 Country 160 Robert Ellis Robert Ellis 2016 Country 161 Garth Brooks Gunslinger 2016 Country 162 Lonestar Never Enders 2016 Country 163 Lissie My Wild West 2016 Country

164 Steep Canyon Rangers Out in the Open 2018 Country 165 The Mavericks Play the Hits 2019 Country 166 Here's to You 2018 Country 167 Robert Ellis Texas Piano Man 2019 Country 168 Big & Rich Did It for the Party 2017 Country 169 Shooter Jennings Shooter 2018 Country 170 The 21 Project 2015 Country 171 Chris Janson Real Friends 2019 Country 172 Brooks & Dunn Reboot 2019 Country 173 Justin Moore Late Nights and Longnecks 2019 Country Wyonna Judd / Wyonna & 174 the Big Noise Wyonna & the Big Noise 2016 Country 175 What It Is 2019 Country 176 Aaron Lewis Sinner 2016 Country 177 Old 97's Graveyard Whistling 2017 Country 178 Jim Lauderdale From Another World 2019 Country 179 The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years 2016 Country 180 Sturgill Simpson A Sailor's Guide to Earth 2016 Country Shelby Lynn / Allison 181 Moorer Not Dark Yet 2017 Country 182 Scotty McCreery Seasons Change 2018 Country 183 Sara Watkins Young in All the Wrong Ways 2016 Country 184 Josh Turner Deep South 2017 Country 185 Joan Shelley Over and Even 2015 Country 186 Joan Shelley Like the River Loves the Sea 2019 Country 187 Luke Winslow-King Blue Mesa 2018 Country 188 Joe Ely Panhandle Rambler 2015 Country 189 Now 2017 Country 190 Things That Can't Be Undone 2015 Country 191 Tangled Up 2015 Country 192 Pokey LaFarge Something in the Water 2015 Country 193 Randy Houser Magnolia 2019 Country 194 Norman Blake Wood, Wire, & Words 2015 Country 195 The Lone Bellow Walk Into a Storm 2017 Country Kelly Jones / Teddy 196 Thompson Little Windows 2016 Country 197 Cody Johnson Ain't Nothin' to It 2019 Country 198 Full Circle 2016 Country 199 Josh Turner I Serve a Savior 2018 Country 200 Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour 2018 Country 201 Stories 2015 Electronic 202 Avicii Tim 2019 Electronic 203 Peace is the Mission 2015 Electronic 204 The Prodigy The Day Is My Enemy 2015 Electronic

205 Born in the Echoes 2015 Electronic / La Bagatelle 206 Magique Love Is Free 2015 Electronic 207 Jean-Michael Jarre , Vol. 2: The Heart of Noise 2016 Electronic 208 Jean-Michael Jarre Oxygene 3 2016 Electronic 209 David Guetta 7 2018 Electronic Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing 210 Moby Hurt 2018 Electronic 211 Goldfrapp Silver Eye 2017 Electronic 212 Ryuichi Sakamoto 2017 Electronic Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining 213 Underworld 2016 Electronic More Fast Songs About the 214 Moby Apocalypse 2017 Electronic 215 / Underworld Teatime Dub Encounters 2018 Electronic 216 Bjork Utopia 2017 Electronic 217 Timeflies Just for Fun 2015 Electronic 218 The Chemical Brothers 2019 Electronic 219 Music for Installations 2018 Electronic 220 Justice Woman 2016 Electronic 221 LateNightTales 2015 Electronic 222 The Prodigy No Tourists 2018 Electronic 223 Chase & Status RTRN II JUNGLE 2019 Electronic 224 Bjork Live 2015 Electronic 225 Brain Eno Reflection 2017 Electronic 226 Jon Hopkins Singularity 2018 Electronic 227 M.I.A. AIM 2016 Electronic 228 Aphex Twin Collapse 2018 Electronic 229 Justice Woman Worldwide 2018 Electronic 230 Tom Rogerson / Brian Eno Finding Shore 2017 Electronic 231 Skilled Mechanics / Skilled Mechanics 2016 Electronic 232 Maximum Rock 'n Roll: The Singles 2019 Electronic 233 Gliss Riffer 2015 Electronic 234 Zedd True Colors 2015 Electronic 235 Air TwentyYears 2016 Electronic 236 Flume Skin 2016 Electronic 237 Kraftwerk 3-D: The Catalogue 2017 Electronic 238 Brian Eno The Ship 2016 Electronic 239 Age Of 2018 Electronic 240 Bjork Vulnicura 2015 Electronic 241 Chase & Status Tribe 2017 Electronic Orchestral Manoeuvres in the 242 Dark Souvenir 2019 Electronic 243 Alientronic 2019 Electronic 244 Kaskade Automatic 2015 Electronic

245 Digitalism Mirage 2016 Electronic 246 Jean-Michael Jarre Oxygene Trilogy 2016 Electronic 247 Breakbot Still Waters 2016 Electronic 248 S U R V I V E RR7349 2016 Electronic 249 Jlin Autobiography 2018 Electronic 250 Major Lazer Know No Better 2017 Electronic Conrad Schnitzler / 251 Schneider TM Con-Struct 2016 Electronic 252 Oneohtrix Point Never 2017 Electronic 253 Tricky ununiform 2017 Electronic 254 Paul van Dyk The Politics of Dancing, Vol. 3 2015 Electronic 255 Mr. Ozio All Wet 2016 Electronic 256 Tim Hecker Love Streams 2016 Electronic 257 Lover Chanting 2018 Electronic 258 Trentemoller Fixion 2016 Electronic 259 Ellen Allien Nost 2017 Electronic 260 Daniel Avery Song for Alpha 2018 Electronic 261 Steve Aoki Neon Future, Vol. 2 2015 Electronic 262 AFX / Aphex Twin Orphaned Deejay Selek: 2006-2008 2015 Electronic 263 Disclosure Caracal 2015 Electronic 264 DJ Shadow The Mountain Will Fall 2016 Electronic 265 Plaid Polymer 2019 Electronic 266 Modestep Road 2015 Electronic 267 Blaqk Audio Only Things We Love 2019 Electronic 268 David Guetta Listen Again 2015 Electronic 269 Trentemoller Obverse 2019 Electronic 270 Autechre NTS Sessions 2018 Electronic 271 UNKLE The Road: Part II (Lost Highway) 2019 Electronic 272 Lantern 2015 Electronic 273 Colleen A Flame My Love, A Frequency 2017 Electronic 274 Lee Bannon Pattern of Excel 2015 Electronic 275 Kygo Cloud Nine 2016 Electronic 276 Iteration 2017 Electronic 277 FKA twigs Magdalene 2019 Electronic 278 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Ears 2016 Electronic 279 Lust for Lust for Youth 2019 Electronic 280 Pole / Conrad Schnitzler Con-Struct 2017 Electronic 281 u-Ziq Challenge Me Foolish 2018 Electronic 282 Squarepusher Damogen Furies 2015 Electronic 283 Oneohtrix Point Never 2015 Electronic 284 Hercules & Love Affair Omnion 2017 Electronic 285 Maya Jane Coles Take Flight 2017 Electronic Daniel Lanois / Venetian 286 Snares Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois 2018 Electronic

287 Arca Arca 2017 Electronic 288 Ladytron Ladytron 2019 Electronic 289 Oval Popp 2016 Electronic 290 Soulwax From Deewee 2017 Electronic 291 UNKLE The Road: Part I 2017 Electronic 292 Com Truise Persuasion System 2019 Electronic 293 HONNE Love Me / Love Me Not 2018 Electronic 294 Baths Romaplasm 2017 Electronic 295 Gudrun Gut Moment 2018 Electronic 296 Emika Drei 2015 Electronic 297 The Juan MacLean The Brighter the Light 2019 Electronic 298 Goldie The Journey Man 2017 Electronic 299 Lamb The Secret of Letting Go 2019 Electronic 300 Rabit Communion 2015 Electronic 301 Prins Thomas Prins Thomas, Vol. 5 2017 Electronic 302 Tim Hecker Konoyo 2018 Electronic 303 Colleen Captain of None 2015 Electronic 304 Bibio Ribbons 2019 Electronic 305 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith The Kid 2017 Electronic 306 Big Black Coat 2016 Electronic 307 Clean Bandit What Is Love? 2018 Electronic 308 Jamie xx In Colour 2015 Electronic 309 Carl Craig Versus 2017 Electronic 310 Actress AZD 2017 Electronic 311 The Field Infinite Movement 2018 Electronic 312 LP5 2019 Electronic 313 Oval Scis 2020 Electronic 314 Arca Mutant 2015 Electronic 315 Aphex Twin Cheetah 2016 Electronic 316 Jeff Mills Moon: The Area of Influence 2019 Electronic 317 Gui Boratto Pentagram 2018 Electronic 318 Maya Jane Coles Waves & Whirlwinds 2018 Electronic 319 III 2016 Electronic 320 Kygo Kids in Love 2017 Electronic 321 DJ Shadow Our Pathetic Age 2019 Electronic 322 Tiesto Club Life, Vol. 4 - City 2015 Electronic 323 The Orb Moonbuilding 2703 AD 2015 Electronic 324 Bibio Phantom Brickwords 2017 Electronic 325 Bibio A Mineral Love 2016 Electronic Todd Rundgren / Emil Nikolaisen / Hans-Peter 326 Lindstorm Runddans 2015 Electronic 327 Ceronne Red Lips 2016 Electronic 328 Egyptrixx Transfer of Energy (Feelings of Power) 2015 Electronic

329 Flamagra 2019 Electronic 330 Shit Robot What Follows 2016 Electronic 331 Forest Swords Compassion 2017 Electronic 332 Prins Thomas Principe del Norte 2016 Electronic Juan Atkins / Mortiz von 333 Oswald / Borderland Transport 2016 Electronic 334 Com Truise Silicon Tare 2016 Electronic 335 Laurel Halo DJ-Kicks 2019 Electronic 336 Tim Hecker Anoyo 2019 Electronic 337 Prins Thomas Ambitions 2019 Electronic Computer Controlled Acoustic 338 Aphex Twin Instruments, Pt. 2 2015 Electronic 339 Juana Molina Halo 2017 Electronic 340 FaltyDL is for Quitters 2016 Electronic 341 Fink Horizontalism 2015 Electronic 342 Laibach Also Sprach Zarathustra 2017 Electronic 343 Essaie Pas Demain Est une Autre Nuit 2016 Electronic 344 Chrome Sparks Chrome Sparks 2018 Electronic 345 Ryuichi Sakamoto async: Remodels 2017 Electronic 346 David Guetta 2U 2017 Electronic 347 Lindstrom It's Alright Between Us as It Is 2017 Electronic 348 Plaid The Digging Remedy 2016 Electronic 349 The Orb COW / Chill Out, World! 2016 Electronic 350 Illum Sphere Glass 2016 Electronic 351 The Orb History of the Future, Vol. 2 2015 Electronic 352 Cassius Ibifornia 2016 Electronic 353 Tycho Weater 2019 Electronic 354 The Chainsmokers Bouquet 2015 Electronic 355 Blue Hawaii Tenderness 2017 Electronic 356 Julianna Barwick Will 2016 Electronic 357 The Field The Follower 2016 Electronic 358 GABI Sympathy 2015 Electronic 359 Maribou State Portraits 2015 Electronic / On-U Sound 360 System Outside the Echo Chamber 2017 Electronic 361 Mr. Ozio The Church 2015 Electronic 362 Prefuse 73 Rivington Nao Rio 2015 Electronic 363 Pan Sonic Atomin Paluu 2016 Electronic 364 Daphni Joli Mai 2017 Electronic 365 Daphni Frabiclive 93 2017 Electronic 366 Hurts Desire 2017 Electronic 367 Frabic Presents Bonobo 2019 Electronic 368 Fennesz Agora 2019 Electronic 369 99.9% 2016 Electronic

370 Evan Caminiti Meridian 2015 Electronic 371 Georgia Seeking Thrills 2020 Electronic 372 Antwood Sponsored Content 2017 Electronic 373 Jan St. Werner Miscontinuum Album 2015 Electronic 374 Jan St. Werner Felder 2016 Electronic 375 The End 2019 Electronic 376 Pye Corner Audio Hollow Earth 2019 Electronic 377 Enigma The Fall of a Rebel Angel 2016 Electronic 378 Holy Ghost! Work 2019 Electronic 379 Tropics Rapture 2015 Electronic 380 Mura Masa Mura Masa 2017 Electronic 381 Prefuse 73 Sacrificies 2018 Electronic 382 Leon Vynehall Nothing Is Still 2018 Electronic 383 Demdike Stare Wonderland 2016 Electronic 384 Maribou State Kingdoms in Colour 2018 Electronic 385 Throwing Snow Loma 2018 Electronic 386 Andy Stott Too Many Voices 2016 Electronic 387 A Moment Apart 2017 Electronic 388 Carl Craig Love, Vol. 2 2019 Electronic 389 Cassy Donna 2016 Electronic 390 Nightmares on Wax Shape the Future 2018 Electronic 391 Prins Thomas / Bjorn Torske Square One 2017 Electronic 392 Laurel Halo In Situ 2015 Electronic 393 Golden Retriever Rotations 2017 Electronic Adrian Younge Presents the 394 Adrian Younge Electronique Void 2016 Electronic 395 Georgia Georgia 2015 Electronic 396 Bonobo Migration 2017 Electronic 397 Helena Hauff Qualm 2018 Electronic 398 Anamanaguchi [USA] 2019 Electronic 399 Roly Porter Third Law 2016 Electronic 400 Andre Bratten Gode 2015 Electronic 401 Nicki Minaj Queen 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 402 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 403 Kendrick Lamar DAMN. 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 404 Starboy 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 405 Return of the Tender Lover 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 406 Ne-Yo Non-Fiction 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 407 Mary J. Blige Strength of a Woman 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B Walking to : Remembering Chuck Berry and Fats 408 George Benson Domino 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 409 Mary J. Blige HERstory, VoL 1 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 410 / Tyga Fan of a Fan: The Album 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B

411 Chris Brown Royalty 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B Adrian Younge / Ghostface Adrian Younge Presents Twelve 412 Killah Reasons to Die II 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 413 Chris Brown Heartbreak on a Full Moon 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 414 Anti 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 415 Kendrick Lamar Black Panther: The Album 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 416 The Weeknd Beauty Behind the Madness 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 417 Chris Brown Indigo 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 418 T.I. The Dime Trap 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 419 Jose James Lean on Me 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 420 The Queen of Soul 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 421 A$AP Rocky At.Long.Last.A$AP 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 422 24K Magic 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 423 Czarface / Czarface Meets Ghostface 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 424 Big Sean Dark Sky Paradise 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B Ghostface Killah / 425 BadBadNotGood Sour Soul 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 426 B.o.B. Ether 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 427 Unbreakable 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 428 Bush 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 429 Jose James Love in a Time of Madness 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 430 Rick Ross Black Market 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 431 The Time is Now 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B Aretha Franklin / Royal 432 Philharmonic A Brand New Me 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 433 Jay-Z 4:44 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 434 B.o.B. Pychadelik Thoughtz 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 435 Here 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 436 Darkness and Light 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 437 Khalia 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 438 Common Black America Again 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 439 Apache 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 440 Big Sean / Double or Noting 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 441 TM104: The Legend of the Snowman 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 442 Ghostface Killah Ghostface Killah 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a 443 Wyclef Jean Refugee 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 444 Sex & Cigarettes 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 445 Janelle Monae Dirty Computer 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 446 Miguel Wildheart 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 447 Nas The Lost Tapes II 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 448 Mavis Staples We Get By 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 449 Snoop Dogg 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 450 Late Nights: The Album 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 451 Miguel War & Leisure 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B

452 Pitbull Greatest Hits 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 453 Jeezy Church in These Streets 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 454 R. Kelly The Buffet 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 455 Beyonce Lemonade 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 456 Nas Nasir 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 457 Lionel Richie Hello from Las Vegas 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 458 Common 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 459 Rick Ross Part of 2 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 460 Brian McKnight Genesis 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 461 Logic Everybody 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 462 Logic The Incredible True Story 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 463 Jason Derulo Platinum Hits 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 464 Everything's Beautiful 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 465 Snoop Dogg Snoop Dogg Presents 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 466 's Bleeding 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 467 Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 468 4Ever 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 469 Revival 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 470 The Divine Feminine 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 471 Jeezy Pressure 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 472 Marvin Gaye Volume One: 1961 - 1965 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 473 The Life of Pablo 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 474 Logic YSIV 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 475 Mavis Staples If All I Was Was Black 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 476 Big Sean I Decided. 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 477 Caution 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 478 Jill Scott Golden Moments 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 479 Meek Mill Wins and Losses 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 480 Ludacris Ludaversal 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 481 Best of 50 Cent 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 482 The Heart Speaks in Whispers 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 483 Jeezy Trap or Die 3 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 484 Mavis Staples Livin' On A High Note 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 485 Blood Orange Negro Swan 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 486 Rap or Go to the League 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 487 J. Cole KOD 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 488 Mac Miller GO:OD AM 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 489 DJ Khaled Major Key 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 490 1992 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 491 YOUTH 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 492 Brian McKnight Better 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 493 Eli "Paperboy" Reed 99 Cent Dreams 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 494 DJ Khaled Grateful 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B

495 Trey Songz Tremaine the Album 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 496 Logic Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 497 Wu-Tang Clan The Sage Continues 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 498 K. Michelle Kimberly: People I Used to Know 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 499 Nao For All We Know 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 500 CrasH Talk 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 501 J. Cole 4 Your Only 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 502 Rick Ross Rather You Than Me 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 503 Young Thug So Much Fun 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 504 Eli "Paperboy" Reed My Way Home 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 505 Ciara Jackie 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 506 with His Bad Self 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 507 Jill Scott Woman 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 508 Ne-Yo Good Man 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 509 Future DS2 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 510 The Game Streets of Compton 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 511 G-Eazy The Beautiful & Damned 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 512 Tyler, the Creator 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 513 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis This Unruly Mess I Made 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 514 Ledisi The Intimate Truth 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 515 Wyclef Jean J'ouvert 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 516 Solange A Seat at the Table 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 517 Lupe Fiasco Tetsuo & Youth 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 518 Hard II Love 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 519 iLoveMakonnen Drink More Water 6 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 520 Maxwell blackSUMMERS'night 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 521 Public Enemy Man Plans God Laughs 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 522 Ledisi Let Love Rule 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 523 Meek Mill DC4 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 524 Mac Miller Swimming 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 525 Mayer Hawthorne Man About Town 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 526 Prince Originals 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 527 G-Eazy When It's Dark Out 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 528 Allen Stone Building Balance 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 529 Chaka Khan Hello Happiness 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 530 Public Enemy Live from Metropolis Studios 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 531 The Meth Lab 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 532 Keyshia Cole 11:11 Reset 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 533 Post Malone Stoney 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 534 Migos C U L T U R E 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 535 / Future What a Time to Be Alive 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 536 2 Chainz Pretty Girls Like 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 537 Yo Gotti The Art of Hustle 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B

538 Scream 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 539 Pitbull Libertad 548 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 540 Uptown Special 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 541 Mac Miller Circles 2020 Hip-Hop/R&B 542 Post Malone Beerbongs & Bentleys 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 543 K. Michelle More Issues Than Vogue 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 544 Astroworld 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 545 Travis Scott Rodeo 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 546 Drake 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 547 The O'Jays The Last World 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 548 Talib Kweli Radio Silence 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 549 Talib Kweli / 9th Wonder Indie 500 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 550 Drake Scorpion 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 551 T.I. Us or Else 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B / The Notorious 552 B.I.G. The King & I 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 553 YG Still Brazy 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 554 Ciara Beauty Marks 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 555 Drake Care Package 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 556 Big K.R.I.T. 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 557 Big K.R.I.T. K.R.I.T. Iz Here 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 558 Meshell Ndegeocello Ventriloquism 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 559 2 Chainz ColleGrove 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 560 Choose Your Weapon 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 561 Craig David 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B The Atlantic Singles Collection, 1967- 562 Aretha Franklin 1970 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 563 Special Effects 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 564 Tyler, the Creator IGOR 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 565 Shine 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 566 Sharon Jones Soul of a Woman 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 567 Kid Ink Full Speed 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 568 Eric Benet Eric Benet 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 569 Blood Orange Angel's Pulse 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 570 Tank and the Bangas Green Balloon 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 571 Kanye West Jesus is King 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 572 J Balvin / Willy William Mi Gente 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 573 / Bandana 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 574 Kevin Gates Islah 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 575 Woptober II 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 576 Musiq Soulchild Life on Earth 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 577 Fly International Luxurious Art 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 578 K Camp Only Way Is Up 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 579 Anthony Hamilton What I'm Feelin' 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B

580 T.I. Us or Else: Letter to the System 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 581 Wale The Album About Nothing 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 582 Tech N9ne Strangeulation, Vol. 2 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 583 Monica Code Red 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 584 TLC TLC 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 585 Musiq Soulchild Feel the Real 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 586 Wiz Khalifa / Curren$y 2009 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 587 Cardi B Invasion of Privacy 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 588 Good Thing 2018 Hip-Hop/R&B 589 Drunk 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 590 Machine Gun Kelly General Admission 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 591 The Internet Ego Death 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 592 SZA Ctrl 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 593 The Big Day 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 594 Chance the Rapper Coloring Book 2016 Hip-Hop/R&B 595 Cee Lo Green Heart Blanche 2015 Hip-Hop/R&B 596 Boyz II Men Under the Streetlight 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 597 Freudian 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 598 Daniel Caesar 2019 Hip-Hop/R&B 599 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 600 Kehlani SweetSexySavage 2017 Hip-Hop/R&B 601 Adam Lambert The Original High 2015 Pop 602 Purpose 2015 Pop 603 Dangerous Woman 2016 Pop 604 Lady Gaga Joanne 2016 Pop 605 Ariana Grande thank u, next 2019 Pop 606 Ariana Grande Sweetener 2018 Pop 607 I Am 2015 Pop 608 Red Pill 2017 Pop 609 Lana Del Rey Lust for Life 2017 Pop 610 Delirium 2015 Pop 611 Lover 2019 Pop 612 Made in the A.M. 2015 Pop 613 Rebel Heart 2015 Pop 614 Selena Gomez Revival 2015 Pop 615 Lukas Graham Lukas Graham 2015 Pop 616 Halsey Badlands 2015 Pop 617 Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! 2019 Pop 618 Chvrches Every Open Eye 2015 Pop 619 The Thrill of It All 2017 Pop 620 Shawn Menes 2018 Pop 621 Give More Love 2017 Pop 622 P!nk 2019 Pop

623 Lana Del Rey Honeymoon 2015 Pop 624 Tegan and Sara Hey, I'm Just Like You 2019 Pop 625 Nick Jonas Last Year Was Complicated 2016 Pop 626 Spirit 2017 Pop 627 The Monkees Good Times! 2016 Pop 628 Demi Lovato Tell Me You Love Me 2017 Pop 629 Shawn Mendes Illuminate 2016 Pop 630 R5 Sometime Last Night 2015 Pop 631 Rihanna Anti 2016 Pop 632 Troye Sivan Blue Neighborhood 2015 Pop 633 Mika No Place 2015 Pop 634 Divide 2017 Pop 635 DNA 2019 Pop 636 E-MO-TION 2015 Pop 637 Ricky Martin A Quien Quiera Escuchar 2015 Pop 638 P!nk Beautiful Trauma 2017 Pop 639 Robyn Honey 2018 Pop 640 Florence + the Machine How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful 2015 Pop 641 Shawn Mendes Handwritten 2015 Pop 642 Madonna Madame X 2019 Pop 643 Demi Lovato Confident 2015 Pop 644 Phoenix 2018 Pop 645 David Guetta 7 2018 Pop 646 Duran Duran Paper Gods 2015 Pop 647 Melodrama 2017 Pop 648 Lukas Graham 3 2018 Pop 649 5 Seconds of Summer Youngblood 2018 Pop 650 Kelly Clarkson Piece by Piece 2015 Pop 651 Super 2016 Pop 652 Chvrches Love is Dead 2018 Pop 653 Colbie Caillat The Malibu Sessions 2016 Pop 654 Reflection 2015 Pop 655 25 2015 Pop 656 Tegan and Sara Love You to Death 2016 Pop 657 Summer 08 2016 Pop 658 Marina and the Diamonds Froot 2015 Pop 659 Troye Sivan Bloom 2018 Pop 660 Mike Posner A Real Good Kid 2019 Pop 661 Glory 2016 Pop 662 OneRepublic Oh My My 2016 Pop 663 Taylor Swift Reputation 2017 Pop 664 Florence + the Machine High as Hope 2018 Pop 665 Fifth Harmony 7/27 2016 Pop

666 Lights Midnight Machines 2016 Pop 667 Rest 2017 Pop 668 Nial Horan Flicker 2017 Pop 669 Gwen Stefani This Is What the Truth Feels Like 2016 Pop 670 Jason Derulo Everything Is 4 2015 Pop 671 Lady Wood 2016 Pop 672 Ed Sheeran No. 6 Collaborations Project 2019 Pop 673 Miley Cyrus Younger Now 2017 Pop 674 Fifth Harmony Fifth Harmony 2017 Pop 675 World Be Gone 2017 Pop 676 The Drums Abysmal Thoughts 2017 Pop 677 The Vamps Wake Up 2015 Pop 678 Kesha Rainbow 2017 Pop 679 Bjork Utopia 2017 Pop 680 Timeflies Just for Fun 2015 Pop 681 Feist Pleasure 2017 Pop 682 Mike Posner At Night, Alone. 2016 Pop 683 Trench 2018 Pop 684 Metronomy Metronomy Forever 2019 Pop 685 Birdy Beautiful Lies 2016 Pop 686 Halsey Hopeless Fountain Kingdom 2017 Pop 687 Lianne La Havas Blood 2015 Pop 688 Bastille Doom Days 2019 Pop 689 Santigold 99 Cents 2016 Pop 690 Mika My Name Is Michael Holbrook 2019 Pop 691 Twenty One Pilots Blurryface 2015 Pop 692 Hyperspace 2019 Pop 693 Erasure World Beyond 2018 Pop Nostalgia: An Evening With Annie 694 Annie Lenox Lennox 2015 Pop 695 Cate Le Bon Crab Day 2016 Pop 696 Tove Lo Sunshine Kitty 2019 Pop 697 Idina Menzel idina. 2016 Pop 698 Of Aureate Gloom 2015 Pop 699 Dua Lipa 2017 Pop 700 Dancing Queen 2018 Pop 701 Suede Night Thoughts 2016 Pop 702 Mark Ronson Late Night Feelings 2019 Pop 703 The Chainsmokers Memories… Do Not Open 2017 Pop 704 Tori Kelly Unbreakable Smile 2015 Pop 705 Hot Chip Why Make Sense? 2015 Pop 706 Cuz I Love You 2019 Pop 707 Lykke Li so sad so sexy 2018 Pop

708 Years & Years Palo Santo 2018 Pop 709 Owl City Mobile Orchestra 2015 Pop 710 St. Vincent MassEducation 2018 Pop 711 Jamiroquai Automaton 2017 Pop 712 / Life 2018 Pop 713 What For? 2015 Pop 714 5 Seconds of Summer Sounds Good Feels Good 2015 Pop 715 Sia This is Acting 2016 Pop 716 Of Montreal Innocence Reaches 2016 Pop Orchestral Manoeuvres in the 717 Dark The Punishment of Luxury 2017 Pop 718 All We Are All We Are 2015 Pop 719 Cornelius Mellow Waves 2017 Pop 720 Milky Chance Mind the Moon 2019 Pop 721 Empire of Two Vines 2016 Pop 722 The Drums Brutalism 2019 Pop 723 What's Inside: Songs from Waitress 2015 Pop 724 Antisocialites 2017 Pop 725 Shakira El Dorado 2017 Pop 726 MGMT Little Dark Age 2018 Pop 727 The Veronicas The Veronicas 2015 Pop 728 Fergie Double Dutchess 2017 Pop 729 Melody's Echo Chamber Bon Voyage 2018 Pop 730 Highasakite Camp Echo 2016 Pop 731 Ezra Furman Perpetual Motion People 2015 Pop 732 Nelly Furtado The Ride 2017 Pop 733 Nine Track Mind 2016 Pop 734 Know-It-All 2015 Pop 735 Ingrid Michaelson Stranger Songs 2019 Pop 736 Zedd True Colors 2015 Pop 737 Primal Heart 2018 Pop 738 Little Dragon Season High 2017 Pop 739 Dido Still on My Mind 2019 Pop 740 Flume Skin 2016 Pop 741 Witness 2017 Pop 742 Of Monsters and Men Beneath the Skin 2015 Pop 743 All We Are Sunny Hills 2017 Pop 744 AURORA Step 2: A Different Kind of Human 2019 Pop 745 Camila Cabello Camila 2018 Pop 746 Toro y Moi Outer Peace 2019 Pop 747 Man of the Woods 2018 Pop 748 JoJo Mad Love 2016 Pop 749 Passion Pit Kindred 2015 Pop

750 Camila Cabello Romance 2019 Pop 751 Prince Royce Double Vision 2015 Pop 752 Hozier Wasteland, Baby! 2019 Pop 753 LM5 2018 Pop 754 Title 2015 Pop When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We 755 Go? 2019 Pop 756 Little Working Girl 2015 Pop 757 Liberation 2018 Pop 758 Years & Years Communion 2015 Pop 759 The Vamps Night & Day: Night Edition 2017 Pop 760 Ingrid Michaelson It Doesn't Have to Make Sense 2016 Pop 761 Sara Bareilles Amidst the Chaos 2019 Pop 762 Little Mix Glory Days 2016 Pop 763 DNCE DNCE 2016 Pop 764 Gracetown 2015 Pop 765 Ezra Furman Twelve Nudes 2019 Pop 766 Belle and Sebastian Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance 2015 Pop 767 Sigrid Sucker Punch 2019 Pop 768 Cash Cash Blood, Sweat & 3 Years 2016 Pop 769 The Search for Everything 2017 Pop 770 Sacred Hearts Club 2017 Pop 771 HOLYCHILD The Shape of Brat Pop to Come 2015 Pop 772 Meghan Trainor Thank You 2016 Pop 773 Liam Payne LP1 2019 Pop 774 Fine Line 2019 Pop 775 Hayley Kiyoko Expectations 2018 Pop 776 Charli XCX Charli 2019 Pop 777 Charli XCX Pop 2 2017 Pop 778 PONY 2019 Pop 779 Rex Orange County Apricot Princess 2017 Pop 780 Immunity 2019 Pop 781 2019 Pop 782 You Know I Know 2018 Pop 783 Vanessa Carlton Liberman 2015 Pop 784 Jonas Brothers Happieness Begins 2019 Pop 785 Lucius Good Grief 2016 Pop 786 Carly Rae Jepsen Dedicated 2019 Pop 787 Echosmith Lonely Generation 2020 Pop 788 Alec Benjemin Narrated for You 2018 Pop 789 Shura Nothing's Real 2016 Pop 790 Shura Forevher 2019 Pop 791 The Japanese House Good at Falling 2019 Pop

792 R.O.S.E. 2018 Pop 793 Miley Cyrus Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz 2015 Pop 794 Vance Joy Nation of Two 2018 Pop 795 Heard It In a Past Life 2019 Pop 796 BTS Face Yourself 2018 Pop 797 Charlie Puth Voicenotes 2018 Pop 798 Walk the Moon What If Nothing 2017 Pop 799 Harry Styles Harry Styles 2017 Pop 800 2019 Pop 801 Another Country 2015 Rock/Alternative 802 57th & 9th 2016 Rock/Alternative 803 Paul McCartney Egypt Station 2018 Rock/Alternative 804 The Pale Emperor 2015 Rock/Alternative 805 Crosseyed Heart 2015 Rock/Alternative 806 blink-182 California 2016 Rock/Alternative 807 Ryan Adams Prisoner 2017 Rock/Alternative 808 Western Stars 2019 Rock/Alternative 809 M A N I A 2018 Rock/Alternative 810 Sting My Songs 2019 Rock/Alternative 811 Let's Play Two: Live at Wrigley Field 2017 Rock/Alternative 812 Revolution Radio 2016 Rock/Alternative 813 Ryan Adams 1989 2015 Rock/Alternative 814 Muse Simulation Theory 2018 Rock/Alternative 815 Everday Life 2019 Rock/Alternative 816 Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams 2015 Rock/Alternative 817 Elvis Costello Look Now 2018 Rock/Alternative 818 Joe Jackson Fool 2019 Rock/Alternative 819 Sheryl Crow Be Myself 2017 Rock/Alternative 820 Raise Vibration 2018 Rock/Alternative 821 Ghost Meliora 2015 Rock/Alternative 822 New Order Music Complete 2015 Rock/Alternative 823 Rod Stewart Blood Red Roses 2018 Rock/Alternative 824 Eric Clapton 2016 Rock/Alternative 825 Red Hot Chilli Peppers The Getaway 2016 Rock/Alternative 826 The Decemberists I'll Be Your Girl 2018 Rock/Alternative 827 Eric Clapton Live in San Diego 2016 Rock/Alternative What a Terrible World, What a 828 The Decemberists Beautiful World 2015 Rock/Alternative 829 Mumford & Sons Wilder Mind 2015 Rock/Alternative 830 Wire Wire 2015 Rock/Alternative 831 Van Morrison Roll With the Punches 2017 Rock/Alternative 832 The Singles 2016 Rock/Alternative 833 Dystopia 2016 Rock/Alternative

834 The Book of Souls 2015 Rock/Alternative 835 Motorhead Bad Magic 2015 Rock/Alternative 836 Black Stone Cherry Kentucky 2016 Rock/Alternative 837 August Burns Red Found in Far Away Places 2015 Rock/Alternative 838 Blackstar 2016 Rock/Alternative 839 Van Morrison Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue 2015 Rock/Alternative 840 Paranormal 2017 Rock/Alternative 841 Panic! At the Pray For The Wicked 2018 Rock/Alternative 842 Elbow Giants of All Sizes 2019 Rock/Alternative 843 Bruce Springsteen Western Stars: Songs from the Film 2019 Rock/Alternative 844 This House Is Not For Sale 2016 Rock/Alternative 845 Elbow Little Fictions 2017 Rock/Alternative 846 Disturbed Evolution 2018 Rock/Alternative 847 Who Built The Moon? 2017 Rock/Alternative 848 Sorceress 2016 Rock/Alternative 849 Joe Jackson Fast Forward 2015 Rock/Alternative 850 Blue & Lonesome 2016 Rock/Alternative 851 Neil Young The Monsato Years 2015 Rock/Alternative 852 Wire Silver/Lead 2017 Rock/Alternative 853 Star Wars 2015 Rock/Alternative 854 Papa Roach Who Do You Trust? 2019 Rock/Alternative 855 Widespread Panic Street Dogs 2015 Rock/Alternative 856 Halestorm Into the Wild Life 2015 Rock/Alternative 857 Boxes 2016 Rock/Alternative 858 Iggy Pop Free 2019 Rock/Alternative 859 Jeff Beck Loud Hailer 2016 Rock/Alternative 860 Feed the Machine 2017 Rock/Alternative 861 Papa Roach F.E.A.R. 2015 Rock/Alternative 862 Liam Gallagher As You Were 2017 Rock/Alternative 863 Weezer 2016 Rock/Alternative 864 Tom Jones Long Lost Suitcase 2015 Rock/Alternative 865 Papa Roach Crooked Teeth 2017 Rock/Alternative 866 Synthesis 2017 Rock/Alternative 867 Wonderful Wonderful 2017 Rock/Alternative 868 Blur The Magic Whip 2015 Rock/Alternative 869 Nightwish Endless Forms Most Beautiful 2015 Rock/Alternative 870 Volbeat Seal the Deal & Let's 2016 Rock/Alternative 871 Blondie Pollinator 2017 Rock/Alternative 872 Disturbed Immortalized 2015 Rock/Alternative 873 Iron Maiden The Book of Souls: Live Chapter 2017 Rock/Alternative 874 Paramore After Laughter 2017 Rock/Alternative 875 Opeth In Cauda Venenum 2019 Rock/Alternative 876 Weezer Weezer 2019 Rock/Alternative

877 KT Tunstall WAX 2018 Rock/Alternative 878 Rush R40 Live 2015 Rock/Alternative 879 case/lang/veirs case/lang/verirs 2016 Rock/Alternative 880 First Kiss 2015 Rock/Alternative Sometimes I Sit and Think, and 881 Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Just Sit. 2015 Rock/Alternative 882 Animal Collective Painting With 2016 Rock/Alternative 883 Weezer Pacific Daydream 2017 Rock/Alternative 884 KT Tunstall KIN 2016 Rock/Alternative 885 Drive-By Truckers American Band 2016 Rock/Alternative 886 John Mellencamp Sad Clown & Hillbillies 2017 Rock/Alternative 887 Low in High School 2017 Rock/Alternative 888 Muse Drones 2015 Rock/Alternative 889 Five Finger Death Punch Got Your Six 2015 Rock/Alternative 890 Alabama Shakes Sound & Color 2015 Rock/Alternative 891 Wilco Scmilco 2016 Rock/Alternative 892 Metric Art of Doubt 2018 Rock/Alternative 893 P.O.D. The Awakening 2015 Rock/Alternative 894 Panic! At the Disco Death of a Bachelor 2016 Rock/Alternative Shing and Oh So Bright Vol. 1: No 895 Past. No Future. No Sun. 2018 Rock/Alternative 896 Ghost Prequelle 2018 Rock/Alternative 897 Neil Young Colorado 2019 Rock/Alternative 898 Neil Young Earth 2016 Rock/Alternative 899 Wire Nocturnal Koreans 2016 Rock/Alternative 900 I Love You, Honeybear 2015 Rock/Alternative 901 David Gilmour Rattle That Lock 2015 Rock/Alternative 902 The Nothing 2019 Rock/Alternative 903 Stranger to Stranger 2016 Rock/Alternative 904 Parkway Drive Reverence 2018 Rock/Alternative 905 Wonderful Crazy Night 2016 Rock/Alternative 906 Thirty Seconds to Mars America 2018 Rock/Alternative 907 Imagine Dragons Smoke + Mirrors 2015 Rock/Alternative 908 Andrew Bird My Finest Work Yet 2019 Rock/Alternative 909 Jeff Beck Live+ 2015 Rock/Alternative 910 James Blunt The Afterlove 2017 Rock/Alternative 911 Incubus 8 2017 Rock/Alternative 912 August Burns Red Phantom Anthem 2017 Rock/Alternative 913 Distance Over Time 2019 Rock/Alternative I Like It When You Sleep, For You 914 Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It 2016 Rock/Alternative 915 Lamb of God VII: Sturm and Drang 2015 Rock/Alternative 916 Tool Fear Inoculum 2019 Rock/Alternative 917 Hydrograd 2017 Rock/Alternative

918 Rod Stewart You're In My Heart 2019 Rock/Alternative 919 P.O.D. Circles 2018 Rock/Alternative 920 Black Stone Cherry Family Tree 2018 Rock/Alternative with the Royal 921 The Beach Boys Philharmonic Orchestra 2018 Rock/Alternative 922 St. Vincent MASSEDUCTION 2017 Rock/Alternative 923 Arcade Fire Everything Now 2017 Rock/Alternative 924 PJ Harvey The Hope Six Demolition Project 2016 Rock/Alternative 925 Avril Lavigne Head Above Water 2019 Rock/Alternative 926 Queensryche The Verdict 2019 Rock/Alternative 927 Marilyn Manson Heaven Upside Down 2017 Rock/Alternative 928 2018 Rock/Alternative 929 The Waterboys Out of All This Blue 2017 Rock/Alternative 930 Killswitch Engage Incarnate 2016 Rock/Alternative 931 Andrew Bird Are You Serious 2016 Rock/Alternative 932 Who 2019 Rock/Alternative 933 Arctic Monkey Tranquility: Base Hotel + Casino 2018 Rock/Alternative 934 Humanz 2017 Rock/Alternative 935 Keane Cause and Effect 2019 Rock/Alternative 936 Kate Bush Before the Dawn 2016 Rock/Alternative 937 Queensryche Condition Human 2015 Rock/Alternative 938 Mumford & Sons Delta 2018 Rock/Alternative 939 Wolves 2017 Rock/Alternative 940 blink-182 Nine 2019 Rock/Alternative 941 Foals What Went Down 2015 Rock/Alternative 942 Def Leppard Def Leppard 2015 Rock/Alternative 943 Neil Young The Visitor 2017 Rock/Alternative 944 Death Cab for Cutie Kintsugi 2015 Rock/Alternative 945 311 MOSAIC 2017 Rock/Alternative 946 Stone Temple Pilots 2018 Rock/Alternative 947 Calexico Edge of the Sun 2015 Rock/Alternative 948 Wilco Ode to Joy 2019 Rock/Alternative 949 Snow Patrol Wildness 2018 Rock/Alternative 950 Living The Dream 2018 Rock/Alternative 951 Noel Gallagher Chasing Yesterday 2015 Rock/Alternative 952 A Fool to Care 2015 Rock/Alternative 953 Steven Wilson Hand. Cannot. Erase. 2015 Rock/Alternative 954 Coheed and Cambria The Color Before the Sun 2015 Rock/Alternative 955 Neil Young Paradox 2018 Rock/Alternative 956 Trivium Silence In The Snow 2015 Rock/Alternative 957 Rammstein Rammstein 2019 Rock/Alternative 958 Of Montreal Snare Lustrous Doomings 2015 Rock/Alternative 959 Metric 2015 Rock/Alternative

960 Dinosaur Jr. Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not 2016 Rock/Alternative 961 Switchfoot Where the Light Shines Through 2016 Rock/Alternative 962 Needtobreathe Hard Love 2016 Rock/Alternative 963 Braver Than We Are 2016 Rock/Alternative The Jon Spencer Blues Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 964 Explosion 2015 2015 Rock/Alternative 965 Pixies 2016 Rock/Alternative 966 Silverball 2015 Rock/Alternative 967 Spoon Hot Thoughts 2017 Rock/Alternative 968 American Utopia 2018 Rock/Alternative 969 Django Django Born Under Saturn 2015 Rock/Alternative 970 Bullet for My Valentine Venom 2015 Rock/Alternative 971 Band Gargoyle 2017 Rock/Alternative 972 DragonForce Reaching into Infinity 2017 Rock/Alternative 973 Switchfoot Native Tongue 2019 Rock/Alternative 974 Pixies Beneath the Eyrie 2019 Rock/Alternative 975 Dream Theater The Astonishing 2016 Rock/Alternative 976 John Mellencamp Other People's Stuff 2018 Rock/Alternative 977 Young the Giant Home of the Strange 2016 Rock/Alternative 978 Hardwired… To Self-Destruct 2016 Rock/Alternative 979 Animal Collective Tangerine Reef 2018 Rock/Alternative 980 The Avett Brothers True Sadness 2016 Rock/Alternative 981 The Temper Trap Thick as Thieves 2016 Rock/Alternative 982 Neil Young Peace Trail 2016 Rock/Alternative 983 Biffy Clyro Ellipsis 2016 Rock/Alternative 984 Kid Rock Sweet Southern Sugar 2017 Rock/Alternative 985 Volbeat Rewind, Replay, Rebound 2019 Rock/Alternative 986 All Time Low Future Hearts 2015 Rock/Alternative 987 Sleeping With Sirens Madness 2015 Rock/Alternative 988 Buckcherry Rock N Roll 2015 Rock/Alternative 989 Father John Misty Pure Comedy 2017 Rock/Alternative 990 Against Me! 23 Live Sex Acts 2015 Rock/Alternative 991 LP Lost on You 2016 Rock/Alternative 992 AWOLNATION Here Comes The Runts 2018 Rock/Alternative 993 Alter Bridge The Last Hero 2016 Rock/Alternative 994 Okkervil River Away 2016 Rock/Alternative 995 Garbage Strange Little Birds 2016 Rock/Alternative 996 Lee Ranaldo Electric Trim 2017 Rock/Alternative 997 Nada Surf You Know Who You Are 2016 Rock/Alternative 998 Santana Santana IV 2016 Rock/Alternative 999 Panda Bear Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper 2015 Rock/Alternative 1000 Drive-By Truckers It's Great to Be Alive! 2015 Rock/Alternative

APPENDIX B

Study 1 Color Cluster Chart Color Hue Saturation Value Red 340 - 20 - - Orange 20 – 40 - - Yellow 40 – 70 - - Green 70 - 160 - - Cyan 160 - 200 - - Blue 200 - 260 - - Purple 260 - 310 - - Pink 310 - 340 - - Brown 350 - 60 20 - 60 20 - 60 White - 0 90 - 100 Gray - 0 - 20 15 -90 Black - 0 - 100 0 - 15

APPENDIX C

Study 1 Standardized Canonical Discriminant Function Coefficients Color Country Rock/ Pop Hip-Hop Electronic Alternative R&B Red .120 -.155 -.086 -.041 .192 Orange -.081 .630 .103 -.090 -.194 Yellow -.021 -.036 -.101 -.066 -.057 Green -.046 .365 -.015 -.262 -.019 Cyan .156 .189 .081 .071 .182 Blue .198 .044 .078 .486 -.015 Purple -.100 .050 .295 .147 -.020 Pink .030 .521 .520 .032 .288 Brown 1.008 .589 -.003 .389 1.014 Gray .751 .640 -.266 .350 .399 Black .020 .012 -.562 -.580 -.034

APPENDIX D

Study 2 Album Art Cover Stimuli

rock1 coun1 hiphop1 pop1 elec1 – Toby Keith – 2 Chainz – Rap or Go Shura – Mr. Ozio – All Wet Help Us Stranger The Bus Songs to the League Nothing’s Real

rock2 coun2 hiphop2 pop2 elec2 Coheed and Cambria – Steve Earle & The Nao – Saturn Daphne & Celeste – Little Dragon – The Color Before the Dukes – So You Daphne & Celeste Lover Chanting Sun an Outlaw Save The World

rock3 coun3 hiphop3 pop3 elec3 Sleeping Through the Shooter Jennings - Mr Jukes – God First Years & Years – Palo Flume – Skin War – All Them Shooter Santo Witches

rock4 coun4 hiphop4 pop4 elec4 Taking Back Sunday – Dwight Yoakam – – Pet Shop Boys – S U R V I V E – Wave Second Hand Heart Atrocity Exhibition Super RR7349

APPENDIX E

Study 2 Qualtrics Questionnaire

RESEARCH CONSENT FORM Study Title: The Effectiveness and Prominence of Visual Metaphors within Music Album Cover Art Principal Investigator: Ryann Reynolds-McIlnay, PhD Study team: Vivian Le Version: 12-6-2019

We are inviting you to take part in a research study. Purpose: This study is about the effectiveness in which album cover art can convey the album's respective to consumers. The purpose of the research study is for the completion of an undergraduate honors thesis. We are asking you if you want to be in this study because you are age 18 years or older. Voluntary: You do not have to be in the study if you do not want to. You can also decide to be in the study now and change your mind later. Activities: The study activities include examining album cover art and completion of a questionnaire. Risks: The possible risks or discomforts associated with the being in the study include those associated with daily life. Confidentiality: Your responses will be reported in aggregate. Your information will not be used in future research studies. Payment: You will not be paid for being in this research study. You will receive credit in the SONA System for your participation (e.g., .5 credits for .5 hours of study participation). If you opt to not participate, you may contact your instructor for an available option. Study contacts: We would like you to ask us questions if there is anything about the study that you do not understand. You can call us at (541) 737-3973 or email us at [email protected]. You can also contact the Human Research Protection Program with any concerns that you have about your rights or welfare as a study participant. This office can be reached at (541) 737-8008 or by email at [email protected]. o Yes, the study has been explained to me, my questions have been answered, and I agree to take part in this study.

For this part of the study, you will now be asked to select the music genre of an album based on the cover art. Each question will have five multiple choices of music genre that you may choose from.

[randomized album art image]

Upon viewing this album, which music genre do you believe this album is most closely associated with? o Pop (1) o Rock / Alternative (2) o Country (3) o R&B / Hip-Hop (4) o Electronic (5)

What factors led you to pick the genre that you did?

Have you previously seen this album cover? o Yes (1) o No (0) o Don't remember (2)

For this next part, we are going to ask you some questions about yourself. Please answer honestly. There are no right or wrong answers.

How often do you listen to music? o Multiple times a day (6) o Once a day (5) o 4-6 times a week (4) o 2-3 times a week (3) o Once a week (2) o 1-3 times a month (1) o I don't listen to music. (0)

How many hours during a typical day do you listen to music? Slide the bar below. 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24

Hours

Which method(s) do you use most often to listen to music? Select all that apply. o Digital streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, Music, etc.) (1) o CD (2) o Vinyl (3) o Digital downloads (buying digital music) (4) o Online radio (Pandora, iHeart Radio, etc.) (5) o FM / Satellite Radio (6) o Video streaming (Youtube, , etc.) (7) o Other (8) ______

Which genre(s) of music do you listen to the most? o Pop (1) o Rock / Alternative (2) o Indie / Folk (3) o Hip-Hop / R&B (4) o Country (5) o Other: (6) ______

What kind of activities do you typically do while listening to music?

How often do you notice the album artwork when purchasing or listening to music? o Every time (5) o Most of the time (4) o Half of the time (3) o Some of the time (2) o Rarely (1) o Never (0)

What is your age in years?

Which gender do you identify as? o Female (1) o Male (0) o Other: (-1) ______

Are you a native English speaker? (English is your first language) o Yes (1) o No (2)

In your own words, what was this study about?

We were interested in understanding how album artwork impacts music choices. If you prefer to have your data excluded as the purpose of the study was not previously disclosed, you may withdraw your information by checking the box below. Withdrawing your information will not impact your compensation for participation. o I wish to withdraw my information.

APPENDIX F Study 2 Open Response Category Coding

Category Category Definition Thought Category Examples Artist Familiar Is familiar with the album artist; names “Toby Keith” “2 Chainz is a pop/rap "artist" if you want to call the actual album artist (not a similar him that.” artists) “The name on the cover” Album Title Names the album title “"God First" leads me to lean towards the country genre” “after reading the title, country would be my guess” Genre Familiarity States or implies they are familiar with “I always listen these styles ” the genre “I listen to it the most” Font Mentions the text font, the printable or “The gradient colors of the words…” displayable text characters in a specific “Vibrant colors and the dripping text make it seem more recent style and size and modern type of music.” “the large back title in retro” Colors Mentions color as a construct or “The gradient colors of the words…” discusses specific color hues, “The album cover is dark and most rock albums have dark saturation, and/or brightness covers.” “also the brown colors.” “calm colors and an artsy feel” “I think the color and playfulness makes it seem like it may be related to ” “Vibrant colors and the dripping text make it seem more recent and modern type of music.” Symbolic images Inclusion of image or object within the “There's paraphernalia on the bus” “…and the art on the tour album art leads to perceived bus” association with a specific genre “R&B albums tend to have more jazz background with , which allowed me to make my selection.” “The musician with a leads me towards R&B as well.” “the generic woman on the front” “ice cream cone makes me think of summer time ” “image” “the street vibes are kind of hip-hop-ish” “type of outfit” Album Art Familiar States or implies they know or familiar “I think I’ve seen it before” with the album cover art Aesthetic Perceives that album art conveys a “The whole aesthetic looks very alternative and artsy.” mood, energy, vibe or aesthetic; “calm colors and an artsy feel” can be positive or negatively valanced “the contrast between real and cartoon effect” “Vibrant colors and the dripping text make it seem more recent and modern type of music.” “use of graphic design” “feminine style” “it’s weird/ugly” “has a positive and inoffensive sort of vibe” “very attractive” “a lot going on and it kind of screams at you” “image is unsettling” Emotion Mentions a specific emotion: happy, “It seems like an angry cover.” “looks like a happy cover” sad, angry, surprise, fear, disgust; or “album cover has no emotion” lack of emotion Similar to Other Stating that choice is based on being “The album cover is dark and most rock albums have dark Known Album Art familiar with other album art covers covers.” “This reminds me of an album cover that Mumford and Sons has I think.” Similar to Other Stating that choice is based on being “Seems like a kanye album.” Know Artist familiar with other music artist “This reminds me of an album cover that Mumford and Sons has I think.” “Looks like a album FOR SURE” Similar to Other Stating that choice is based on being “At first I thought it was jazz, but it isn't” Known Genre familiar with other genre “It looks like vintage rock style” Meaning Trying to derive a higher meaning “It kind of a metaphor.” from album art; art is communicating a message

APPENDIX G

Study 2 95% Confidence Interval Plots of Color, Symbols, and Aesthetics Mentions by Genre

A. Color

B. Symbols

C. Aesthetic

D. Artist Familiarity

E. Genre Familiarity

F. Font

G. Emotion

H. Similarity to Other Known Art

I. Similarity to Other Known Artist

J. Similarity to Other Known Genre

K. Meaning

L. Album Title

M. Album Art

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