Digipak Analysis: Eminem – Curtain Call ‘The Hits’

By Matthew Simpson

Digipak Analysis: Background

• Curtain Call: The Hits was Eminem’s first greatest hits album released by Eminem & Shady Records.

• It was released on December 6, 2005, under Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment.

• The album certified double-platinum in the US, triple-platinum in Australia and the UK, and quadruple-platinum in New Zealand.

• It reached number 1 on several charts including the album charts in both the UK and US.

• The album had first-week sales of nearly 441,000 and with close to 324,000 in the second week.

• It stayed at number 1 in the charts for 2 weeks before slipping down to number 4 in the third week.

• As of November 2013, is had sold 3,782,000 copies in the United States alone.

• The album was released nine years after the rerelease of Eminem’s debut studio album, Infinite.

Digipak Analysis: Front Cover

• On the front cover of the digipak we can see a man, predictably Eminem, standing in front of a curtain. This fits in well with the name of the album, Curtain Call.

• The name of the album 'Curtain Call' and the artist's name 'Eminem' is placed in the middle of the cover taking up roughly a third of the space. This is effective as it grabs the audience's attention, meaning it is one of the first things they notice on the cover.

• The track list is also listed on the front cover in order to allow the audience to notice any familiar songs at first glance.

• 'Eminem' and 'Curtain Call' are in different colours on the front cover, enabling the audience to easily distinguish between the two, making them both stand out more.

Digipak Analysis: Back Cover

• The back cover shows a lower reverse angle of the front cover. Here we can see the shoes and lower legs of a man standing on a stage with roses on the floor. This could mean the end of a shower which suits the name of the album 'Curtain Call' very well.

• We can also see the track list of the album on the back cover. This gives the audience a clearer and more detailed look at all of the tracks on the album. The back cover is also similar to the front cover in the way that the track list also takes up roughly a third of the cover.

• The back cover also sticks to the chosen colour scheme of the album, white and green. This links in with the roses on the floor which also have green on them.

• Roses can be seen on the back cover of the digipak, roses link in with the rap genre as rap is often written about emotions that happen in a persons life, such as love.

Digipak Analysis: Inside

• The inside cover of the digipak also fits the chosen colour scheme with the green and white text. This keeps the digipak looking professional.

• There is also an image of Eminem pointing a gun, this fits in with the rap genre very well because rap is also often written about strong feelings and emotions, as well as violence. This image is a very strong image and it does its job of grabbing the audiences attention very well as it is one of the first things that they see once they open up the case.

Digipak Analysis: Disc

• The disc has a black and white image of the floor that the character on the front and back cover was standing on. This includes roses and shadows which symbolizes mystery, the character has an unknown identity which grabs the audiences attention in the way that they would want to find out who the character is.

• The text 'Curtain Call' is also written on the disc in green to follow the chosen colour scheme of the digipak, with the exception of 'Eminem' which is this time printed in an orange colour.

• The colour of the 'Eminem' text stands out very well as the background is in black and white, this makes the audience focus more on the name of the artist. The focus for the whole digipak has been to make the name of both the album and the artist stand out the most to the human eye in order to make it more noticeable and potentially sell more copies.