For my Pecha Kucha presentation, I chose the cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989 album:

As I was looking for an object to analyze for my Pecha Kucha project, I happened to be listening to Pandora as a Taylor Swift song came on as did the album cover image. As I was looking at the photo I realized there are a lot of aspects that have to do with Taylor Swift’s identity and persona that would be interesting to analyze and since identity is a main theme in our class, I chose to analyze this cover for my project.

a) For this image, the creator/author is Taylor Swift herself.

b) The author’s purpose is to attract an audience to buy her album. I also think that the purpose of her album cover is to demonstrate the message of her music and also her identity as a whole. I think it is very effective. This CD cover is very different from her other ones and thus is interesting and the audience would want to buy the album to listen to the difference (this is especially true because it is her first documented pop album).

c) The intended audience is mostly young adult females, yet there are many different types of people who like Taylor Swift and would buy her album. I think the assumption of the audience is that they already know who Taylor Swift is. Because this image does not say her name or even have her whole face, the assumption must be that people already know who “T.S” is and that this is her album.

d) The context of this cover is that it is Taylor Swift’s fifth album and it was released in October of 2014 through Big Machine Records. While this album was released in 2014, it has significance and relates to the year 1989 (the year of Taylor Swift’s birth)

e) To me, the tone of this image is mysterious. Half of her face is cut off, including her eyes which is a defining feature on people’s faces as well as is mostly blank except for her initials and birth year. Without knowing who the album was for, it would be hard to figure out who the artist is.

f) I think the genre of this album, just by looking at it, is unknown. I think this is done purposely since this is her first documented pop album and thus her history as a pop artist is unknown and mysterious and thus translates to her album cover.

g) One strategy used on her album cover is the fact that it is a polaroid. I think that it relates to the fact that it is titled “1989.” In present day, polaroids are rare, but in 1989 polaroids were popular and thus helps connect her with her title. Another strategy used is the mysterious aspect. By not having her full name, or even her full face makes it mysterious and thus will attract more curiosity and attention.

h) I think this cover image appeals to both pathos and ethos. I think it appeals to pathos because of the mysterious aspect. The more mysterious, the more curiosity it will generate and thus more albums will be sold. I think it appeals to ethos because of the fact that Taylor Swift is already famous and known. She is recognized world wide and thus, people will trust her album especially with her signature hand writing on the front.

Overall, I think the cover of this album has a lot to do with representing Taylor Swift’s personality and will be interesting to further analyze and discuss. I believe the fact that this image presents a certain identity to the population also relates to the fact that we put images of ourselves on social media for the public to look at and thus we also give out a certain “identity” over social media.