Case Study- How does Sia use techniques in her album art to appeal to her target audience?

Sia is an Australian singer from Adelaide who began her singing career the 90s singing Jazz in bars. She later moved to London in 1997 after releasing her debut studio album, OnlySee. In 2000 she signed a music sub-label where she released another studio album, Healing Is Difficult. After many record label changes she took a hiatus from singing to wrtie songs for artists such as 'Diamonds' and 'Wild Ones'. She collaborated with Rihanna, Flo Ride and David Guetta where she reached mainstream and becoming a huge force within the music industry. Since then she has released countless hit songs such as 'Chandelier', 'Cheap Thrills' and 'The Greatest'.


Colour
Sia's album "Some People have Real Problems'" uses a simple colour scheme. The colours don't match very well or go together well and has a childish feel to it. This is perfect as the songs on the track have an element of childhood. For example, "Academia" has childish elements such as the semantic field of education with a mix of adult themes. For example the lyric "the mean of our heights is divided by knifes, which' is timesed by the daggers and the root of all our fights" mixes childish, improper past tense verbs, "timesed" and dark, dangerous weapons such as "knifes" and "daggers". This creates a brand for Sia as her songs often mix a form of innocence and purity with the dark and very real elements of adult life. Her songs often criticise society and it has been a strong theme from her earlier albums to her recent songs (such as "The Greatest's" relevance to the Orlando shootings). The colour of her album did not change drastically in her next album "We Are Born". The colours are childish and the variety of pipe cleaner colours in her hair screams childish innocence against a pink background. This drastically changes in her recent albums "This is  Acting" and "1000 Forms of Fear". The recent albums were released post- "Titanium"-success and it is reflected by the removal of her own face on her albums and replacing it with a simple monochrome colour scheme". This monochrome scheme creates a sense of seriousness and it is very effective as her songs are powerful and contain so much emotion.

Composition
The composition of the albums are fairly simple. On the "We Are Born" cover the side profile shot allows for Sia's eye to be on a line of the third. This creates balance and the frame appears coherent with no confusion on the audience's part. The side profile shot also allows for the pipe cleaners to be shown. The pipe cleaners are symbolic of childhood which links to her songs on the album as well as her make-up. On both of the "This Is Acting" covers the use of the profile shot allows for the eyes to look directly into camera. This intensifies the shot and reflects the serious nature of her songs. The eyes are on a third of the camera and creates balance without detracting from the message. By not using her own face in her recent albums Sia tries to shift the focus to her music rather than her as a person. In "1000 Forms of Fear" Sia's iconic bobbed white wig is shown with a blurry filter applied where it is in front of a black background. The black background causes the white wig to stand out and be prominent in the foreground, drawing attention to just the wig. The wig links to Sia's brand as she is known for the wig which covers her eyes. The covering of her eyes is symbolic as eyes are a way of showing identity. This influenced my album covers as I tried to cover the eyes of the characters on my covers.

Visual Styles
Sia's albums don't necessarily draw huge inspiration from many styles however on the original "This Is Acting" cover there is a use of surrealism in the distortion of the face. It is symbolic of inner torment and inner toil as a lot of Sia's songs are to do with self acceptance. The effect of this inner turmoil is shown by the album as it is shown on the character's face.
Sia's albums are also somewhat abstract. For example, "We Are Born" uses an abstract style as there is little coherence on the cover and yet it is an effective cover. This appeals to her audience because Sia is a quirky artist known for her different outlook towards her music. Therefore her audience will see the album and recognise her work due to the consistency over her ancillary products.