SC: Plan B Album Cover: The Defamation of Strickland Banks

Product Analysis

Album cover: Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks

I have chosen this album cover to analyse as to highlight just how powerful album covers can be when presenting the theme and character of an artist. This contrasts with the previous album cover of Plan B (which I have analysed previously) greatly and represents the change in the style and theme of the artist himself.
This album from Plan B is completely different from his first album, the style of music and singing has evolved from rap/hip-hop to soul and blues, this change of theme is represented through the difference between the album covers. “Strickland Banks” is a character devised by Plan B and this album tells the story of his life, this is important as it allows us to presume that the character on the front is Strickland Banks and not Plan B, however, I believe that Plan B uses the album cover to represent both himself and “Strickland Banks”.
The first impression we get when looking at this cover is that Strickland Banks is putting on a show, similar to Eminem album cover, but it also presents the idea of a flashback to the past, unlike that of Eminem. It gives us an introduction to the story of Strickland Banks before we’ve heard any songs on the album; the mise-en-scene hinting at the type of character he is.
Through the mise-en-scene, the cover gives the impression of a 50’s style stage show with Plan B as the star. The title shown on a 50’s style cinema board and the formal grey suit certainly give this impression. This 50’s theme is also used to represent the type of music itself, soul and blue being first heard in, and often associated with, the 50’s. Apart from these two features though there is little mise-en-scene to work with, however, the darkness surrounding the character represents something in itself. Firstly it creates a lot of enigma in the image, as the viewer we do not know what surrounds him; this enigma prevents us from knowing to much about the character on the front of the cover, it also suggests that the character himself is rather secretive.
This album cover is used by Plan B to create a new identity for himself, and for him to move away from the collective identity of the British grime culture that people often, stereotypically, associate him with.