By Bryson Sheriff
Whenever you think of listening to music, you do not typically recognize it as a visual activity. Obviously, the entire composition of any song from any genre of music is a sound rather than anything you can see, taste, smell, or touch. You could see someone creating or playing music, but you can never actually see music. Despite this form of art being produced entirely from sound, public rhetoric is just as prevalent in this industry as it is in any other.
Whether you realize it or not, something made you start listening to the genres, artists, and songs, that you love. Often times you may have dove into an unfamiliar type of music because of a recommendation from a friend, or something you saw on Twitter. Nonetheless, everybody makes their own choices, and something drove you to spend your valuable time listening to a certain artist or genre, and that same thing guided you to discover your next beloved song or album. Again, there are many factors that influence people to enjoy the music that they do, however, I believe that often this something, or a big part of it, is the public rhetoric of music.
Specifically, album covers and titles, and how artists use these visual aspects of the music industry to draw in listeners and persuade people to give their music a chance. For my first series of four blogs, I want to focus on this subject. I will break down album covers, their backstories, and explain how this visual rhetoric has more of an influence on our choices of music than we realize.
The first album cover I am going to be discussing is that of J. Cole's third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive. This simple cover is truly one of the most fittingly representative I've seen in terms of it relating to the album's title, meaning, and the themes presented throughout. J. Cole is one of the biggest rappers in the world. And while often stereotypical objects such as chains or sports cars decorate the art of many hip-hop projects, this cover depicts Cole wearing a comparatively normal pair of jeans and Nikes. Although Cole is one of the biggest music stars in the world, this photo brings him down from the figurative mountain of fame and paints him as just a regular person, that the majority of people like myself can relate to. The tranquil shades of the trees and sky behind him, as well as the visual of him merely sitting on the rooftop of a home, further these ideas of humbleness.
These assumptions from the first glance at this cover are only proved correct when you further investigate the album's content and meaning of its title. In this interview from NPR, Cole explains that the title 2014 Forest Hills Drive "is the address of a house that I lived in... in Fayetteville, North Carolina — from age maybe 11 to 18," which is the same house he is shown sitting upon on the album's cover. Adjacent with its title, the collection of songs was released in late 2014, and they share the experiences Cole faced on his journey to the top of the rap genre that started in the previous decade. In his freshman and sophomore albums, many of the songs had flows and themes of what was "hot" at the time, in an attempt for Cole to make a name for himself and claim a permanent spot in the music industry.
Now that he had already done that, 2014 Forest Hills Drive is more about realization and reflection. Here, Cole uses his own unique style to tell stories of past experiences that everyday people can relate to, not just A-list, trending celebrities. So in my opinion, this album cover perfectly captures these themes, utilizing public rhetoric to visualize the more humble, relatable subject matters J. Cole explores on this album.
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