An analysis of the digipak for This Corrosion by The Sisters Of Mercy.

1. This Corrosion – The Sisters Of
Mercy.
Digipak Analysis.
Sarah Byard.

2. Colours

3. Lots of black. The Sisters Of Mercy are a
‘gothic rock’ band, and a convention of
this genre is to have a lot of black.
The text is all white, which makes it stand out
against the black background.

4. The only bit of colour is the orange on the cover.
The orange highlights the ‘stormy’ image. It also looks like
fire, and everyone loves fire. It could symbolise that,
although this single is a mellower one, they still have their
‘fire’..

5. Fonts

6. Quite a The band
formal font. wants to be
taken
Quite a Gothic, seriously, so
churchy/grave they use a
font. serious font.

7. This makes it
look like notes
the songwriter
left there.
Quite a
handwriting-y This makes the
font. band seem
more human,
so people
would be more
likely to buy
their music.

8. Position
and
size
Of
Text

9. The text is at the bottom of
the album, almost like a
caption to the picture.
Because the line-up of
SOM changed so often,
they’d need to make sure
the name was quite big,
because their audience
may not recognise the
people. It also makes sure
people know who’s in the
line up on this single.

10. Looks like a poem.
This style makes
it look like the
songwriter left it
there and, as
already stated,
makes the band
seem more
human.

11. Images

12. Patricia Morrison
was brought into the
band for aesthetic
There are reasons; she
two images contributed basically
of the band. nothing musical. It
Images of makes sense for her
the band is a to be on the digipak
convention because, although
of digipaks. she is useless
music-wise, she is
the “pin-up gothic
girl” – it suits SOM’s
target audience.

13. Black shirt Big black hair.
They’re
wearing
typical ‘gothic’
or ‘alternative’
clothing to Black corset
appeal to their
fanbase.
Leather jacket.

14. The background is a stormy sky.
This single has been described as a ‘step away from
guitar-driven rock and towards atmospheric
keyboards’, so the storm is a fitting background, as
storms are atmospheric.

15. Institution Information

16. ‘Merciful Release’ – Andrew
Eldritch’s own label – gets more
space on the digipak than the other
institutions.
This is because it is Andrew Eldritch’s
band, so he would want his record
label to have more of a mention, even
though other institutions were
involved.

17. GOODBYE.