For my research on an album cover, poster and the song i have chosen Kanye west the graduation, this album was his third album of his music career involving most of his well known songs like for e.g. stronger, champion, homecoming, flashing lights and touch the sky, along with all of the other songs on the album.

The song i will be focusing on and analysing is "homecoming" which i think relates to the album name 'graduation' the most for the fact its from his school experiences and university when he comes home and how he got into the music business.

Analysis on the album cover and poster

The album cover is a purple night sky background with a bunch of animals dressed in gowns and there graduation hats are being thrown up in the air, the animals are cats and rabbits and there out side which is supposed to symbolise a university.

The picture is almost surreal of how it is like a moon which has a face and a weird shooting beam as its mouth and this is where the teddy bear (kanye west) is being fired out of with his 'swag' on the colours that are used are extremely bright to catch the consumers eyes to attract to it.

The way how he is being fired out in the sky is showing him like finishing university and that he's done his 'learning' of life and he is now out to live his music career. it the poster which is in the album is the same as the front cover of the album. The reasons for why he chose to have such a surreal futuristic theme was that he wanted to show other than he lyrical side to his career but also his imaginative side of design so he linked in with a surreal artist called Takashi Murakami which over there in japan is known as 'Warhol of japan' Murakami said what inspired about working with kanye and why he chose to do such a piece of art "The cover is based on kanye's theme of student life, a place to have dreams and fun, his music is like sandpaper you need to use it aggressively to get a good final product"

The back of the album cover is just the same picture but from the other side and showing the back of the teddy bear being launched up into the sky.

Some of the songs also that Mr west uses in this album reflect the cover and poster for example 'touch the sky' as on the cover he is reaching for the sky as he gets launched up in the sky by the surreal moon almost, and the song that i will look at called 'homecoming' which is enthusing coming home so back from his gradation at university and all he studied for is all paying off.

The inside pictures on the album is one of the teddy (kanye west) in his graduation clothes and hat looking mean and angry and also the picture it self is more darker than the other's with the surreal mushroom glaring at him with soppy eyes, this would enthuses some of the songs on his album as well like 'stronger' saying hes got to be stronger, another would be 'you cant tell me nothing' this song was a strong meaningful song about people trying to guide him in life and he guided himself and it worked. The other side of the picture is the whole group of students but as animals as you can see the giraffe and a goose, which looks like kanye is telling them something and there is a few strokes of rain in the top left corner and and to the right its more light saying that it the good side with the university building surrounding all of graduates.

Analysis of the song 'homecoming'

The song homecoming starts off with a good mood sound to it with it being a good thing about him coming home, this is meant in several ways in the song the first bit is when he talks about his 'girl' who he met from a young age of 3 he has pushed him this far and encourages him to go further telling him to keep bringing it home meaning the songs and the money.

The second part to the song after the chorus is about how he left her to do what he wanted and she just talks about the bad times, then he gets passionate about the songs and tells his 'girls' name. The last part to the song is just bits of the chorus and how he ends the song 'maybe we can start again' saying about his homecoming hes a new man. This relates to the album cover and poster by how the fact he has left and now has got so much in life like his riches and fame so his decision that he made to go for his 'dream' was the correct thing to do.

The video its self is in black and white in a chi city in Chicago and talks about lake Michigan as he raps on like a moving float going through the streets on chi city with mirrors all around him and he keeps going back like rewinding in the song just him walking round 'chi city' with Chris Martin singing the chorus and then he also gets green screened as well. with fire works in lake Michigan and he keeps just raping around 'chi city'