Regina Spektor is a Solo singer/ song writer and pianist. She specialises in Anti-folk, Alternative and Indie Rock. She comes from a Soviet and American heritage.
Her album Begin to Hope is her fourth album which was released in June 2006.
The CD case is a standard plastic Jewel case. The main focal point on the front cover is a black and white image of Regina Spektor it instantly grabs the audience’s attention and says this is me, this is my music. It allows them to make a connection with their artist. The black and white also adds a simplistic feel to the case and relates to her anti-folk music.
The only colour on this case is the little stars which sit above Regina, the symbol of childish innocence suggest to an audience that her music is fun and playful. It also adds a flirty quality to the case along with her ‘come hither look’ utilising the male gaze to draw in a wider audience.
The back of the case uses the same simplistic styling as the front of the case, to add continuity. It also goes against the folk genre which uses bright colours to add warmth and immerse the audience in to the music.
The CD itself is brown with the list of songs printed on it. The colour is not the most appealing; however it stands in contrast with the white background. The songs being listed on the CD is very practical, which is a theme throughout the entire CD design.
I like the use of a simplistic design and the use of neutral colours matches the genre of my song perfectly.

Imogen Heaps Digipak for her album Speak for Yourself shows an obscured image of the artist. The immediate anonymity of the character suggests to an audience that the music is the most important selling factor to the artist, and not her own image, unlike artists such as Madonna and Beyonce who use their visual images to create their ‘brands’. Performers sometimes use their identity to attract and connect with their audience. However Imogen has chosen to obscure her character to empathise with her genre of music which is described as electronic, indie-pop.
The format of the Digipak is a twofold paper CD jewel case with a pullout booklet on the inside which includes the song’s lyrics. The font is identical on the cover and printed on to the CD. However the font used on the booklet is more disjointed, by using a continual visual form the CD cover to the CD itself the artist is able to keep a constant identity with her audience, and also simply the audience no that the CD belongs to the case. Giving the audience a booklet creates the connection to the artist that may have been lost through her obscured identity. The art work shows the artist mindset, whilst the lyrics allow them to interact with the music. Also by the audience getting that little bit extra they feel as though they are not losing out, the absolute nature of the credit crunch means that everyone wants to receive their money’s worth and receiving something unexpected or different can cause them to believe that this has happened.
The artwork on the booklet also identifies with the genre of the music, the alternative and differential pictures allow a voyeur to draw their own opinions of the songs meanings, which adds individuality to the music.

This is just an example of Imogens music.

Folk music is the music of the people. "For hundreds of years people have made songs of stories and great ballads. Sometimes they've been adapted from published broadside ballads, but many just appeared and were shaped slowly. Equally, some folk tunes were adapted from popular dances, and others simply developed."
Folk music is described as a ballad or song which is not written down, they were passed down from one person to the next.
Bibliography:
www.musiclessonsonline.co.uk/FolkMusic.html
www.balladtree.com/folk101/002a_origins.html