Beatles Semiotic Analysis

5/19/2018 Beatles Semiotic Analysis

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Julia Giancola

CMS 200: Research Methods in

Communication

Professor Ebben

April 19, 2012


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Have you ever looked at an album coverfrom one of your favorite bands andtried to find meaning in it?

As human beings, we are obsessed withfinding meaning in what we see, hear,

and do. In the media and social world, signs are

all around us, including on album covers& sleeves.

I chose to analyze Beatles album coversin particular because they are plentiful in

signs and meanings. The Beatles were one of the biggest and

most influential bands of the 20thCentury, and it will be interesting to seehow the messages on their album coversplayed a part in their marketing and

overall appeal.


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Before the creation of music videos, album

covers were one of the few ways to representmusic in a visual way.

In addition, covers also provide a form of bothadvertising and marketing.

In a way, album covers tend to follow thesame conventions of other forms of mediasuch as news headlines that seek to attractand retain the consumers attention, which inturn entices them to keep reading andhopefully make a purchase of the medium.

Have you ever been caught by a visual on thecover and were curious enough to buy thealbum?

The Beatles were definitely pioneers of usingalbum cover designs to their advantage andwere one of the first popular bands to utilizethe intentional placement and arrangement ofmessages (in the forms of words and images)on their album covers.


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What meanings are

represented in thealbum covers?

How are thesemeanings constructedthrough images,

words, visualarrangements, etc.

What might theintent of thiscommunication beand how did it affecttheir overall appealover the course oftheir career?


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In a previous analysis conducted by Meghan, McGuire,

researched was focused on whether the Beatles album

covers were visual examples of Mikhail Bakhtin's

monoglossia, heteroglossia ,and polyglossia. This is a rather

complex concept much different than my motive of

research, therefore, my findings will greatly differ from

hers.

To show the distinction between Beatles covers (specifically

With the Beatles, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,

and The Beatles White Album) compared to other album

covers of the time, MacGuire looked at the album covers of

the top six top selling albums from 1964, 1967, and 1968

(the years in which the three Beatles albums analyzed were

released) with the following variables in mind:

The type of graphic featured (photograph vs. illustration)

The use of color vs. black and white (if photograph was

used)

Facial expressions of musical artist (if photograph was used)

Placement and dominance of artists' name on cover

Placement and dominance of album title on cover


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What I would like to know is the intent of

the messages (constructed through words,images, visual arrangements, etc.) that arerepresented in the Beatles album covers.How did this affect their overall appealthroughout their career?

Unlike McGuire, I will not be putting muchemphasis on albums from other artists for

my research and there will be moreemphasis placed on the Beatles messagesand career alone.

One possible fallacy of McGuires researchis that despite the use of the variables(listed on the previous slide), there was nolabeling of allied concepts in her research.

Also, many messages are open tointerpretation as we all interpret signsdifferently. Even the Beatles themselveshad different takes on their album covers,as you will discover later on.


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Given the review of literature, I expect to find

the following:

That the intent of communication be thatthey were a band looking to push theenvelope in every way possible down totheir album covers

That the Beatles album cover design styleevolved over time (experimentation ofdifferent concepts) in conjunction with theculture, their tastes, and status as band

That the evolution of their album coverswas dependent of the amount of controland enthusiasm they had over its creation

That the Beatles mystique (myths orscandals surrounding the band, adding totheir hype) purposely influenced many oftheir album cover choices aesthetically(words, images, visual arrangements, etc.)


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Study Design/Method(s) I felt that a semiotic analysis would be

the best method of inquiry to go aboutthis project because semiotics is the

study of signs.

A semiotic analysis can be a very handy

form of research because it enables us

to understand how it is that people find

meaning in the things that they do. For

this assignment, I decided to focus on a

diverse array of their most popular

album covers to analyze from the

beginning of their career up to the end.

I was able to apply the method byanalyzing each cover (looking for allied

concepts), creating a chart to display

the findings, and then interpreting the

results. Please note that not all albums

shared the same allied concepts,

explaining absence from some slides.


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Study Design/Method(s)Because the Beatles put out a plentiful amount of albums during their run, it would be difficult to

analyze all of them. I decided to pick 6 of the most significant over a 5 year span with

explanations in the list below:

With the Beatles (1963) as it was the first Beatles album released in the U.S., making it the

first time many stateside fans were exposed to the band

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) because it was considered to be the Beatles

first concept album, and ultimately ended up as one of their most successful albums

Magical Mystery Tour (1967) because it was released just after Sgt. Peppers and was

produced without the guidance of longtime manager Brian Epstein. It was also (along with

the movie of the same name) considered to be the Beatles only failure as it wasnt

received very well critically and commercially at the time of release.

The Beatles White Album (1968) because it is a great example of the Beatles post-

psychedelic period and the depiction of one extreme to another

Abbey Road (1969) because it was their last recorded album (despite Let It Be being the lastreleased) and a great example of how hype around a certain album can influence its success

Let It Be (1969) as it was The Beatles last released album and will be interesting to compare

against the results of all the other albums to look for any consistent patterns, along with how

they evolved over time. There was also unrest in the band at this point, and they broke up

not long after the release of this album.


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With the Beatles1963

The following are some basic notes/observations I noticed, many of which were

compiled in a chart on the next slide (I will include a list for each album analyzed):

Photograph

Black and white No band name depicted on cover

Title at the top in white strip above the photograph

Horizontal layout

John Lennon in is presented at the front, Ringo Starr in bottom right-hand corner

There is a shadowing over right half of their faces, the left half is illuminated

Shadowed silhouette of faces reminiscent of first quarter moon

Johns face, in comparison, is more illuminated than the others

None of them are smiling, happy, and/or performing


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Allied Concepts With the Beatles

Metaphor The shadowed silhouettes of their faces look like the firstquarter moon phase, possibly representing that they are a

new and young group.

Paradigmatic Analysis Oppositions to traditional album covers (black and white, halfsilhouettes, and no smiling faces) could have been purposely

used to possibly generate a sense of mystery and appeal to the

new group.

Icons The fact that John is presented at the front and that his face ismore illuminated that the others represents that he is the frontman of the group.

Codes The photograph is in a horizontal layout, associating theidentity of the group as a whole, and how other than the fact

that John is slightly more illuminated, for the most part the

group seems to conform and blend in (all wearing the same

color suit).


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Sgt. Peppers


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Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band1967

Photograph

In color

Band located directly front and center

They are all dressed in different brightly colored suits

They are all holding brass instruments

They stand in a crowd of notable figures

Directly to the left of the band are wax figures of their earlier personas all dressed in the same kind andcolor suit

The Beatles have rid themselves of their original mop-topped and clean-cut image

Early wax figure of Ringo looks glum upon looking down at the flower bed, while John consoles him by

placing his hand on Ringosshoulder

Some notable figures are pictured in color, others in black and white

Loaded with intertextuality (the notable figures, Welcome the Rolling Stones inscribed on the Shirley

Temple doll, etc.)

Various props of significance are included such as a television set and a garden gnome among objects

The band name is boldly written in a red flower arrangement

Their drum, positioned in front of the band, includes the album name

None of them are smiling

No one band member is visually represented as the leader of the group, unlike previous their albums


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Allied Concepts Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Metaphor The flower bed arrangement along with the grieving waxRingo/consoling John seems to represent the death of the

early Beatles era and the birth of the new one.

Icons The flower bed resembles a funeral flower arrangement.

Indexes Directly to the left of the band are wax figures of their earlierpersonas (in , which may represent how they have changed and

grown as a band both literally and artistically- no longer

conforming).

Intertextuality The Sgt. Pepper album cover is loaded with intertextualityeverywhere with portraits of a diverse array of notable figures.

Codes No one band member is visually represented as the leader ofthe group, unlike previous their albums demonstrating a sense

of equality within the band.


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Paul McCartney regarding the Sgt. Peppers album cover (252)


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Magical Mystery Tour


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Magical Mystery Tour AnalysisMagical Mystery Tour1967

Photograph

In color

Side 1 track titles depicted at very top, side 2 at very bottom

Band name positioned center directly above the band instars

Band members are positioned in the center, dressed asvarious animals

John is front and center as the walrus, Paul the hippo,

George the bunny, and Ringo the chicken Name of the album in bold rainbow type positioned directly

below the band members and center aligned

Facial expressions unclear due to masks

Clearly a psychedelic album


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Magical Mystery Tour Analysis

Allied Concepts Magical Mystery TourIcons The fact that John is presented at the front once again

represents that he is the front man of the group.

Indexes The psychedelic culture of this time period caused many artistsof this time, including the Beatles, to experiment with bold

colors and avant-garde imagery.

Symbols The walrus, a symbol of death, is a character that has popped upmany times in Beatles songs both during Magical Mystery Tour

and after (which will coincide with the Paul is dead rumors

and hype later on).

Intertextuality There is intertextuality in this album cover because it refers totheir movie of the same name (this album is a soundtrack) and

Johns walrus was a reference to Lewis Carrolls poem The

Walrus and the Carpenter.

Codes The different animal marks and costumes further represent theBeatles notion of individuality and nonconformity.


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White Album Analysis

The Beatles (AKA The White Album)1968

White square No depiction of the band

The words "The Beatles" in embossed,

right-aligned type Band name = title

Very minimalist/simplistic design


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White Album AnalysisAllied Concepts The Beatles (White Album)

Paradigmatic Analysis The album design went against the conventions of what typicalalbum covers of 1968 should look like could represent a release

from the Beatles mistique and breaking away from the

standard once again in a completely unorthodox way. They

wished to leave behind their identity of the group known as

the Beatles.

Indexes With the commercial failure of Magical Mystery Tour, it ispossible that the Beatles wanted to drift away from the

psychedelic image and start with a clean slate.

SymbolsWhite can symbolize many things such as purity, fresh starts,

cleanliness, neutrality, and mental clarity.

Codes The possible motive behind the design of the White Albumcould be that the culture at this point was departing from

psychedelics and the Beatles no longer felt the need to use

garish colors and fancy displays.


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Abbey Road


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Abbey Road1969

Photograph

In color

No band name pictured on front

No album title pictured on front

Pictures all four Beatles walking in a crosswalk outside of Abbey Road Studios (PaulMcCartney lives next door)

All four Beatles are wearing neutral colors

John is pictured out front wearing white, Ringo wearing black, Paul wearing gray,

and George wearing blue

John, Ringo, and Paul are wearing suits and George is the only one wearing bluejeans

Paul is barefoot

There is one onlooker spotted in the distance

None of the Beatles are smiling

Paul is the only Beatle with a cigarette in his hand


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Allied Concepts Abbey Road

Metaphor From the angles of many conspiracy theorists, this albumcover is symbolic of a funeral procession (allegedly Pauls) in

relation to their outfits with John representing God or a

God with the others following him, Ringo representing an

undertaker, Paul representing the deceased, and George

representing the grave digger.

Icons Once again, John is placed at the very front wearing apristine white suit (in contrast to the other Beatles wearing

darker colors), once again giving the viewer the association

that he is the leader. His white suit could also be a play on

his controversial The Beatles are more popular than Jesus

statement.

Indexes Although it was unintentional, Pauls barefeet arerepresentative of how the deceased are buried in the UK.

People took note of this, and this only added more fuel to

the Paul is dead rumors.

Codes Unlike previous album covers, the Beatles are not standingand are instead in motion following one behind the other in

step with the exception of Paul. Considering that it was Paul

who picked the photograph that wound up being the cover

and was also the one who decided against wearing shoes,

this could be an intentional gag for Paul to stand out againstJohn who is always portrayed as the leader.


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Paul McCartney on his own death rumors, 1970 (342)

John Lennon on the Paul McCartney death rumors generated from Pauls portrayal on the album covers, 1969 (342)


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Let It Be


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Photograph matted on black background

Title centered above photograph

4 squares depicting all four Beatles

John and Paul have microphones and Ringo and Georgedo not

John, Ringo, and George are looking to the left andPaul is looking straight

John, Ringo, and George all have white backgrounds inthere portraits and Paul has a brown one

Band name not present

George is the only Beatle smiling


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Allied Concepts Let It Be

Icons Out of the four Beatles, where originally it was John who wasthe leader of the group, Paul is now the one that stands out

against the others by looking straight while all others are facing

left. At this point, band members werent getting along or

working together, and Lennon took a back seat.

Indexes The album is very simplistic and is probably one of their leastvisual appealing, most likely due to the band not caring at this

point with what anything looked like. It was no longer a group

effort.

Symbols An unintentional symbol could be that both Lennon andMcCartney are pictured with microphones, being the two most

outspoken/best remembered members of the group, the

symbolism is rather coincidental.

Codes The four equalized squares return to the notion of equalitywithin the band, however, at this stage in their career (around

the time of their break up), things were anything but.


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Allied

Concepts/cases

With the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Magical

Mystery Tour

The White

Album

Abbey Road Let It Be

Metaphor

(3)

x x x

Paradigmatic

Analysis

(2)

x x

Icons

(5)

x x x x x

Indexes

(5)

x x x x x

Symbols

(3)

x x x

Intertextuality

(2)

x x

Codes

(6)

x x x x x x


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In my analysis, I was able to tally the five most prominent

allied concepts used by the Beatles to be icons, indexes, and

codes.

Indexesmake sense considering a lot of the Beatles albumcover choices reflected in conjunction to culture, their

tastes, and status as band (which was one of the

expectations in my hypothesis) which are representative of

the cause/effect relationship.

The discovery of a plentiful amount icons somewhat

surprised me as I was anticipating finding a lot more

individual cases of symbols and metaphors. It goes to show

that the Beatles did have a way of being literal and

representative (especially when it came to associating band

members as leaders).

Codes are also a very important concept to the Beatles as

they often represent a reason and/or motive correlating to

both the icons and indexes together such as why the

placement of certain band members would be plausible for

a particular case.

Despite not being the most plentiful number, but when

combined together its easy to see why symbols &

metaphors were also used amongst the Beatles. They got a

kick out of leaving everything open to interpretation. The

Beatles enjoyed putting a lot of gags in both their music and

their album covers (especially John who always played on

theories about the band and people who looked too muchinto their material).

Ringo Starr on the Sgt. Peppers

album cover (252)


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What does this all mean? Heres what was discovered:

The Beatles were a band looking to push the envelope aesthetically. There is no doubt that the Beatles

went completely against the conventions of what traditional album covers should look like. The Beatles album cover design style didevolve over time (experimentation of different concepts,

going from one extreme to another, etc.) with intent correlating with:

1. The culture- from the 1960s transition into hippies and psychedelics and then a departure from the

two

2. Their tastes- psychedelics vs. non-psychedelics)

3. Status as band- when they were going strong or lost as a group/ready to break up

That the evolution of their album covers was dependent on the amount of control/enthusiasm they

had over its creation (compare the enthusiasm as Sgt. Peppers where they were very much involved

in approving the design as a group with Let It Be where they no longer really cared).

The Beatles mystique did purposely influence many of their music and album cover choices

aesthetically (words, images, visual arrangements, etc.), especially if John was involved, however,

some choices were unintentional and open for interpretation which is a possible fallacy in this

analysis.

I would ultimately say that my hypothesis and expectations were confirmed.

Because not much other research has been done on this topic, it is difficult to compare my research to

past findings as others such as McGuire had much different hypotheses. She did however make a

strong mention of the Beatles intent of breaking the mold when it came to their album covers, she did

look at the album covers in a much similar way (making observations as she went) regarding her

findings, and she did come to a similar conclusion regarding how the culture, tastes, and status as a

band influenced the moves that were made design-wise in the production of their album covers.


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Aside from a lot of the Beatles material being open to

interpretation (especially pertaining to the Beatles myth),

other fallacies include that fact that some concepts may fall

under more than one allied concept and that there may be

additional allied concepts that have gone unnoticed when

analyzing the album. I also did not examine everyBeatles

album released.

There is no doubt that the aesthetic appeal of the Beatles

album covers contributed (along with their music and

personalities) to their legendary status. First impressions are everything, and album covers are no

exception. The Beatles albums always stuck out at the record

store, and for a good reason.

It would be interesting to further research to see additional

correlations and new opportunities for study in this area such

as doing a study amongst Beatles fans asking them which

album cover was most appealing to them and why. Which onewasnt? How has technology changed the appeal/usefulness of

album art? Is it even relevant anymore? There are so many

interesting research routes you can take.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever wanted to try a new

band because the album cover appealed to you? Have you ever

tried to analyze album or CD covers? If so, what were your

experiences like?


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1. Berger, Arthur Asa. Media & Communication Research Methods: AnIntroduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. ThousandOaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2000. Print.

2. The Beatles Anthology. First ed. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle , LLC,2000. 204-342. Print.

3. The Beatles.Abbey Road. Apple, 1969.

4. The Beatles. The Beatles. Capitol, 1968.5. The Beatles. Let It Be. Apple, 1969.

6. The Beatles. Magical Mystery Tour. Parlophone, 1967.

7. The Beatles. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Capitol, 1967.

8. The Beatles. With the Beatles. Parlophone, 1963.

9. MacGuire, Meghan S. "Covering Music: Tracing the Semiotics ofBeatles'Album Covers Through the Cultural Circuit." Thesis. BowlingGreen University, 2005. Web. 22 Apr. 2012..


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The end.

Thanks for reading!

Documents

Beatles Semiotic Analysis