Exclusive was the second studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown. The album was released on November 6, 2007. It sold 295,000 units within a week of release & was very successful in music markets, entering the top twenty of many charts worldwide. Exclusive was re-released on June 3, 2008 as an expanded double-disc deluxe edition; a DVD counterpart was also released, featuring behind the scenes footage and music videos from his tour. The album has earned double platinum certification in the United States from the Recording Industry Association of America; worldwide sales stand at three million copies sold. The genre of the album is R&B, Pop & Hip-Hop.
The CD cover conforms to the conventions of a R&B/Hip-Hop style in many ways. There is a gold colour scheme which connotates wealth & money as gold is an expensive looking colour & makes Chris Brown come across as rich & classy. The album name also adds to this as Exclusive is another word for classy, so it has been made clear what type of image Chris Brown would like to come across. The fact that he is wearing a suit adds to this image as he looks powerful from the way he is standing, aswell as wealthy & famous. However, as you can see his tattoos on his hands this then brings it back to a Hip-Hop style as Hip-Hop artists stereotypically have a lot of tattoos so Chris Brown conforms to this stereotype. The cover also has the artists name written in the left corner in large letters, it takes up most of the left corner so when you look at the cover your eyes are instantly drawn to his name. It is clear what the album is called & what the artists name is, as well as having a photo of the artist that fans would recognise.
Th lettering of the writing on the cover also conform to these conventions. It is very large & gold which matches the gold background. Having the font also in gold automatically makes the artist look rich & powerful & it also makes it look quite classy. Typically, Hip-Hop covers may have the stereotype of graffiti style lettering attached to them but this cover completely moves away from this stereotype. This may be because it wants to have a wider audience, not just people who like Hip-Hop music. This is a useful technique as you judge a CD cover instantly by the look of it, by having a broader style it can target a wider audience.
The main image on the cover is of Chris Brown. CD covers typically have a large image of the artist on the cover so fans instantly know the artist. The photographer has purposely made the artist look powerful by making him stand up tall & look uninterested with the camera. He looks famous & cool by the way he is carrying his suit jacket over his shoulder & looking away. The background of the cover is on top of a building which has been edited to look gold to match the font. You can also see other buildings in the background to show how high up he is. Being on top of a building makes the artist look slightly mysterious &, yet again, powerful as he does empower the cover. As Chris Brown has many female teenage fans, it is known that he is very popular due to his good looks, so he plays to this by having such a large image of himself on the cover which would encourage these fans to buy the album.
The stars image has changed with this album, as before he would be more known for wearing baggy tops, trainers & flat caps. But he has tried to rebrand himself by looking more mature & grown up by wearing a suit which makes him look very chic. Although not obviously, he has played to his good looks as he knows many girls find him attractive so by making sure there is a clear image of himself on the front cover, his girl fans will like this.
Typically, Hip-Hop stars have been known for portraying guns, money & cars which is very 'gangsta. Although Chris Browns music contains Hip-Hop he has moved away from this 'gangsta' image, & not followed the usual stereotype for 'black' music. Although some of his songs may involve some of these Hip-Hop stereotypes, it is not clear on his CD cover which allows for a larger audience to be targeted when selling this CD. Chris Brown represents himself well in this cover & it is done very cleverly with colour schemes connotating wealth & his stance representing power.
I think there are many different people that will buy this CD. There will be teenage girls who will buy this CD due to Chris Browns sex appeal & good looks who enjoy his more pop/R&B style music such as With You, Take You Down & Lottery. There will also be males that will buy it who may be more interested in his Hip-Hop style music such as Wall to Wall. I think both white & black teens would buy this as it is not targeted to either race or gender. As Chris Brown is a well known, popular artist & is featured in the charts very often, this will also encourage people to buy it.
Here is the track list of the album -
- Throwed
- Kiss Kiss
- Take You Down
- With You
- Picture Perfect
- Hold Up
- You
- Damage
- Wall to Wall
- Help Me
- I Wanna Be
- Gimme Whatcha Got
- I'll Call Ya
- Lottery
- Nice
- Down
This is the back cover of the CD. As you can see the barcode has been shown on the back aswell as having the album & artists name down the spine, this is for practical reasons for when it is on the shelf. The style & colour scheme aswell as fonts has been kept the same on the back to show consistency . It shows the track names including featuring artists as well as each track number. It also gives the production name & management team of Chris Brown, so all the information is shown in smaller font at the bottom. There is another picture of Chris Brown on the back which is a more casual image than the one shown on the front. This also shows that there could be different sides to Chris Brown, just like he has different styles of music on the album. The way he is posed & is holding his head in his heads makes him come across as more vulnerable, opposite to how he looked on the front where he looked very strong & powerful.
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