Eminem Poster Analysis

Eminem- Recovery    Poster 1

The Following Poster is from Eminem’s album “Recovery” The first denotation observed by the demographic is the establishing shot of the long road ahead of the artist who is pictured through a long shot by himself in the bottom left of the screen. This ideology can be connoted in numerous ways by the audience however the idea of the artist walking by himself illustrates to the demographic that artist feels alone. The road he is walking on also seems to be never ending, on a connotative level this idea denotes to the audience that artist situated on the screen maybe facing numerous problems in his life alone, problems in which he feels like he is never going to get over. One of the Codes and conventions of the hip hop genre is artists speaking about genuine issues they have experienced in their life. Eminem has conformed these codes and conventions through his use of the image as he is denoting to the audience that he just wants to be alone in his music. The thought of him facing this alone could link to the use and gratifications theory of personal identity as his listeners could sympathise with him. This main image could also be him giving a message to his fans, telling them that he is lonely and only has them to tell his problems to hence the new album. The long shot of the blurry signs in back ground of the poster also give the same representations to the target audience. The idea of the signs being blurry may indicate that the artists thinking is very disorientated and that he doesn’t have a clear idea of what the future may hold for him also compared to the trees surrounding him Eminem looks significantly smaller, This denotation connotes to the audience that the artist feels a lot smaller than the problems he is facing and could also mean he feels he is unable to face his problems other than musically.

The second significant part of the poster is the big, bold heading located on the top right of the image. Firstly the Artists name is in a big and bold font and is the colour black. This is the only black writing on the whole of the poster. The idea having the artists name linked with such a dark colour could be a connotation of the artist’s inner feelings while writing this album. The colour black connotes darkness and emptiness; in this case this could mean that the artist has been left feeling empty and worthless. The dark colour represents the colour of his soul. The name of the album is placed under the name artists although they have synergistic fonts this text is in white with a red cross used instead of the O. The red cross and the title “recovery” denote to the audience that this album may in fact be about the artists recovery from a bad phase in his life. The red hospital cross has been used to symbolize the artists growth from bad to good state, just like a patient in a hospital who is getting better from illness. This thought synergises with the bright blue sky at the top of the screen. The sky’s denotation is blue and clear, this connotes that the artist is on his way to bigger and better things, the long shot denoting the darkness in the sky also connotes that the artist is over the world times and this album is a reflection of that.

 

Through the long shot of the character the target demographic are able to make their own interpretation of the character and the relevance that has to the hip hop genre. The character in the film is seen wearing old, tattered and lower quality clothing allowing the audience to denote he is of a low social class. This conforms the serotype that artist of the hip hop and rap genres are gangsters or lower class. However many of the artists associated with this genre are normally denoted as being rich and of a higher social class.  so this advert also subverts the typical serotypes as Eminem clearly is not at that social level.