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 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, Popular 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 albums 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 album cover 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 Spotify or Apple Music (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 music industry. 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 cover art. 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