Digipak Analysis: Guns N' Roses - "Appetite For Destruction"

The digipack uses a black background, a dark colour that bears sinister connotations that is heavily related with rock music. It is a simple album cover featuring only the logo of the band, which has been used religeously since it was first used to promote the band. The fact that the band have chosen to use one image on the front of their album connotes that they are taking a minimalist approach to making music and remain focused exclusively on their craft. The logo itself (at the time of it's release) was branded as offensive, as it decorated the christian cross with skulls (some of which smoking cigarettes) which meant that the album - which was released in 1987 - had to be issued with a parental advisory sticker. The dark background in conjunction with the outrageous emblem paved the way for a number of other bands within the field of metal/hard rock (although Guns N' Roses themselves were probably influenced by punk bands who were rebellious and produced offensive album covers - for example The Sex Pistols' debut album "Never Mind the B*******"). Therein, offensive/controversial album covers have become a commonality among bands in the rock genre, bands that thrive on the notion of revolting, being rebellious and advocating an anti-establishment type attitude. Each of the skulls used embody a different member of the band: the skull situated at the bottom of the cross boasts lead guitarist Slash's trademark top hat, messy hair and a cigarette, whilst the hat worn by the skull stationed directly in the middle of the cross is typical of the band's lead singer Axl Rose - this denotes that the band are a brand, they have an identity and they are promoting their product by personalising it, making it recognisable to the fans who are able to empathize. In the same font typography, the album name is placed horizontally along the spine of the digipak to ensure it can be easily located on a CD rack. In terms of the dimensions/confines on the front of the album, the logo is centralized and takes up a massive proportion of the front panel, with no other decorations surrounding it. Essentially, this has been employed to ensure that the logo/name of the band sticks in the consumers mind and means the band are more marketable as a brand/product if they have a recognisable identity. The orange tint at the top of the logo allows the typography (the band's name) to be displayed clearly, as it contrasts perfectly against the jet black background. The logo in itself is a binary opposition: the christian cross symbolizes atonement, god's love and Jesus' victory despite death, however, due to the controversial adorning of the cross it now appears ostensible and somewhat negative, manifesting ideas that have nothing to do with christian religeon/culture - which therefore qualifies it as a binary opposition.

This digipak uses semiotics: the attire that adorns the skulls are quite clearly a trademark of Guns N' Roses' look e.g. the tophat is one of the main indices of Slash and is in fact in itself iconic, which is what makes this digipak so intriguing.