The band featured in the album that I have chosen for analysis are Linkin Park, and the album entitled Hybrid Theory. Hybrid Theory is Linkin Park’s first album released on October 24, 2000, and became wildly popular with its mixture of rap and metal, which would become the band’s trademark. The record was released on the Warner Bros. label, and to date has sold over 24 million copies worldwide, including 10 million in the United States alone.
The title of the band is written in large, bold block letters to signify the hard-core nature of the band’s music, and the album name is written in smaller, yet still bold letter and encapsulated in square brackets. The album’s title is, while unknown to many at the time, the original band name of Linkin Park, until they decided to change it, however the title Hybrid Theory has more connotations than just that, as it also represents the band’s fusion of the rap and metal genre’s, as well as the mix of hard and soft musical elements that the band demonstrate on the album. This view is reinforced by the main image on the album cover, depicting a soldier with white dragonfly wings, highlighting his grace and strength at the same time, and this too represents the fusion of hard and soft musical elements prevalent in the album as well as for the band’s music in general. Additionally, the album, while admittedly hard to see, also displays scrambled lyrics from songs off the album. From all of these hints scattered throughout the artwork it is clear that the album’s genre is rock orientated, and the connotations most likely point towards a metal album.
The artwork and cover in general is clearly designed to appeal to those interested in the rock and metal genre’s, as well as younger audiences, typically ranging from the ages 14-24, due to its hard-core look and connotations as a result of this. I personally think that the album cover is extremely impressive and effectively conveys the message of the band and their music through the imagery of the winged soldier as well as the title, Hybrid Theory, effectively describing their music as a hybrid of melodic soft music and heavy metal and rock music, and the artwork is certainly intriguing, as is the album name, and I would be inclined to purchase the CD if I were to have no prior knowledge about it.
