Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Sampul album musik tentunya bukan hal yang asing atau sulit untuk
dijumpai. Saat kita mengunjungi toko musik, kita akan menemukan berbagai jenis
album musik. Tak jarang juga ketika kita melihat sebuah sampul album yang
bagus, kita akan tertarik untuk melihat. Apalagi jika jenis musik yang terkandung
di dalam album tersebut adalah jenis musik kesukaan kita, biasanya kita akan
tertarik untuk membeli. Sangat disayangkan, kadang-kadang kita sebagai
penggemar tidak tahu maksud yang terdapat dalam sampul album musik. Oleh
karena itu, di dalam tugas akhir ini saya hendak mengkaji sebuah sampul album
musik oleh The Used, di dalam album mereka yang kedua. Untuk para
penggemar musik rock alternative, The Used sudah tidak asing. Selain itu
sampul yang saya pilih cukup unik, yaitu dengan gambar hati yang meneteskan
darah dan tergantung di pohon.
Dalam mengkaji sampul album musik tersebut, saya menggunakan teori semiotik
(tanda bahasa) yang diformulasikan oleh Ferdinand de Saussure tentang sebuah
kata dan gambar yang dinamakan sebagai signifier dan signified. Teori dari
Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen tentang cara membaca sebuah gambar
dapat membantu kita dalam menganalisis sebuah gambar atau tulisan
berdasarkan posisi dan ukuran. Saya juga menggunakan pendekatan psikologi
Maranatha Christian University Setelah mengkaji sebuah sampul album musik, saya mendapati bahwa
suatu gambar di dalam sampul album musik tidak semuanya dipilih secara
sembarangan. Ada kalanya melalui sampul tersebut artis atau band ingin
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS………... i
ABSTRACT……… ii
CHAPTER ONE 1.1. Background of the Study……….. 1
1.2. Statement of the Problem………. 4
1.3. Purpose of the Story………... 4
1.4. Method of Research……….. 4
1.5. Organization of the Thesis……… 4
CHAPTER TWO……… 6
CHAPTER THREE:
Analysis of The Used’s In Love And Death ... 11
As a Linguistic Sign CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION……… 23
1 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
We use language every day to communicate with others. For some of us,
we are not aware of the importance of language in our daily life. Language has
meaning to us and it is really important for our communication. The explanations
below will prove how important language is. According to Oxford Advanced
Learner‟s Dictionary, the definitions of language are”1) system of communication
in speech and writing that is used by people of particular country, 2) a way of
expressing ideas and feelings using movements, symbols, and sound” (Hornby,
752). From the definition above we can conclude that language is the most
significant thing for us to communicate as we can deliver our feelings and
thoughts using language. Chandler supports this idea when he says “language
is…the most powerful communication system by far” (Chandler 9). As
communication grows, language can be represented through any media. The
media that I would like to analyze in this thesis is an album cover. An album
cover is included as the language used by the artists to convey their music or
their feelings.
2 Maranatha Christian University Generally, an album cover contains the band‟s or artist‟s name and the
title of the music album. Another important thing in an album cover is the picture.
The picture can have some important roles. First, it may be used by the artist to
show his/her identity. For example, the artist may use his/her portrait. Second, it
can show the identity of the music. When we see an album cover with girly stuff
and hearts, the first thing that comes to our mind may be that this album contains
love songs. An album cover can be used to determine what kind of music in it
because we usually connect the picture on the album cover and the music in it.
Third, an album cover sometimes is used by an artist to convey their feelings or
their message to the fans. For example, the album cover may use a bloody
picture or something dark, which shows us the gloomy feeling or broken heart, or
we might say the picture wants to tell us about the broken hearted feeling.
As I have observed in some music stores and websites, I find that rock
music, moreover rock alternative (the sub-genre of rock), has different kinds of
album covers if we compare them with other genres, for example, pop, R n‟ B, or
jazz. The latter usually use the artists‟ portraits on their album covers, for the
purpose that the fans will easily remember them. On the other hand, alternative
rock genre has its different style to make the fans remember them. Almost all the
alternative rock album covers use peculiar pictures. For example, on The Used‟s
second album, in a normal life, it will be strange to tie a heart on a tree. I believe
that by using a peculiar picture on an alternative rock album cover, the alternative
rock fans may remember the music and the band or the artist.
The peculiar picture on an alternative rock album cover obviously has a
meaning. The artist wants to present his/her ideas or feelings through it. He/she
wants to give us a message. Sometimes, the artist does not present the feelings
3 Maranatha Christian University As a result, the fans appreciate it only as a good artwork. They are not aware of
what the artist wants to convey. Seeing a phenomenon like this, I would like to
analyze the rock album covers by using semiotics. By doing the analysis, I hope
that the readers will understand the importance of an album cover as a media
used to convey the concept of the music or the message which the artist or the
band wants to send. I believe this can be beneficial to make people aware that an
album cover contains a message. I hope this can give an idea to readers that
everything in our daily life is a sign and can stand for something else when
analyzed semiotically.
In this thesis I am going to analyze The Used‟s second album cover. I
choose this band, The Used, for it is one of the most popular bands in alternative
rock genre. The Used‟s album cover that I choose to analyze is the cover of The
Used‟s best album (www.last.fm).
An album cover is considered a linguistic sign because it stands for the
message from the artist. An album cover is the „signifier‟ because it holds up the
artist or band‟s music aspirations. The title of the album, name of the band, and
pictures on the album cover can also be considered to be signs as “… signs take
the form of words, images …” (Chandler 2).
I would like to use the semiotics theory to analyze the rock album cover.
Semiotics is “...the study of sign…” (Chandler 1) and “…concerned with meaning
-making representation…” (Chandler 2) The semiotics applied is the structural
semiotics, which was first formulated by the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de
Saussure. Beside I also use Kress and van Leeuwen‟s Reading Images: The
Grammar of Visual Design as the supporting theory of my analysis.
4 Maranatha Christian University 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In this thesis I would like to analyse the following problems:
1. What are the linguistic signs represented in The Used‟s album cover?
2. What do the linguistic signs signify?
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
In this thesis I intend:
1. to show what linguistic signs are represented in The Used‟s album cover.
2. to show what the linguistic signs signify.
1.4 METHOD OF RESEARCH
I began the research by searching for the theories of semiotics in the
library. Next, I searched and selected some rock album covers. Then, I gained
some more information in the Internet to support my analysis. I analyzed the rock
album cover using semiotics theory. At last, I wrote my research report.
1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is the
Introduction, which contains the Background of the Study, Statement of the
Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the
Thesis. Chapter Two is the Theoretical Framework, which consists of the
5 Maranatha Christian University Chapter Three contains my analysis of the rock album covers. The conclusion
and my personal opinion will be included in Chapter Four. This thesis ends with
23 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
The last chapter of this paper contains the resume of the analysis and
some concluding points. Based on the analysis in the previous chapter, there are
two main concepts conveyed by the signifers in the album cover. First is the
concept of love and the second one is the concept of life. The two concepts are
related to create a message. Every signifier makes a great synergy to show both
of the concepts
As we can see in the album cover, there are visual and verbal signifiers.
The visual sign has two dominant signifiers, the picture of the heart and the
picture of the tree. From the picture of the heart, what we can get is the
interpretation of love. However, the concept of love that is portrayed in the cover
is not a happy love. This is signified by the picture of the heart which is not in a
good shape. Moreover, it drips blood in order to show that it is hurt, so that this
signifier signifies a depressing situation of being in love that is a broken heart
experience.
In addition, the picture of the heart can also signify the concept of life, as
a heart is a human being's vital organ. In addition, the picture shows that the
24 Maranatha Christian University the condition of someone's trying to end his own life. The concept of life is also
signified by the picture of the tree. In line with the concept of love, the concept of
life that is depicted in the picture is not a happy life. The suicidal heart, the
condition of the tree with withered and almost leafless branches show that the life
is not a life worth-living. Furthermore, it is a depressing life, as those who are
depressed often show suicidal wishes and even suicidal practices in their life.
Other visual signs that occur in the cover also convey the depressing
situation. There is a hole in the tree which signifies a trauma in the past. The
branches of the tree are moving downward. This also signifies a remembrance of
the past. Thus, I can say that these signifiers are related to the concept of life as
they deal with certain moments in life that a person cannot forget.
Another visual sign is the use of colours. There are three colours used in
the picture, namely red, white and black. These three colours are also related to
the concept of love and life. Red colour signifies love, white colour signifies the
loss of desires in life, while the black colour signifies death or the loss of life.
The verbal sign in this cover occur in the text 'The Used' and 'In Love and
Death'. 'The Used' here gives the identity of the album cover as the album of this
band. Thus, it can signify that the cover contains things that are related to the
band. Based on the interview done by MTV with the band, it is found out that the
songs in this album were inspired by the tragic experience of the band's vocalist
who lost his pregnant girlfriend. She died of doing overdose .
(http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1493746/20041115/used.jhtml) The phrase ‘in
love and death’ also supports the concept of love and life. The concept of love is
stated explicitly in the text, while the concept of life is stated by using a word
25 Maranatha Christian University information about the band. The phrase 'in love' shows the past life, which isthe
love that occurs between the vocalist and his pregnant girlfriend. The word 'death'
signifies their separation. The contradiction in 'in love and death' also strengthens
the tragic moment of love. Moreover, the thoughts of love - in this case a love
which is full of regrets - and death are the symptoms of depression.
Judging from the relation between the signifers and the signified in the
cover, I conclude that the cover depicts a love life which is sad and it leads to
depression. Thus I can say that the sign system in this cover leads us to one idea
that is the state of depression. Based on the sign system, I think the message
that the band wants to convey is a reminder that an unhappy love life can make a
person depressed because the past love-life memories cannot be easily
forgotten.
To find out about the symptoms of depression, the analysis of the cover
has to be related to the theories of psychology. Thus, it is clear that the study of
semiotics cannot stand on its own. It has to be interrelated with other subjects as
the study of signs is very wide. Signs can be about anything and can convey any
idea. This is also useful to make the interpretation of the signs have proper
grounds, namely theories from other fields of study.
For further researches, I may recommend other album covers of The
Used to be analyzed. If we pay attention to their album covers, they always use
abstract pictures. By using this kind of drawing patterns, the band may convey
something to us. In doing this research, the study of their background is also
necessary. Their hometown Utah may relate to the pattern, as Utah is an area
with its poverty and homelessness. This kind of area may influence the kind of
26 Maranatha Christian University band can will be very interesting and challenging as it reveal whether the band
always has the same representation or not. Moreover
, t
he next researches ofsemiotics can also be widened to the art design area, specifically to the graphic
theory.
27 Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Burns, R.C. Kinetic-House-Tree-Person Drawings (K-H-T-P) An
Interpretative Manual. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 1987.
Brown, D. Steven, and Robert W. Lent. Handbook of Counseling
Psychology.Second Edition. Canada: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1992.
Chandler, D. Semiotics: the Basics. London: Routledge, 2004.
Colin, D. Dictionary of Symbols, Myths and Legends. London: Hachette
Illustrated, 2000.
Cooper, J.C. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. London:
Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1978.
Corbett, J. An Intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching. Philippines:
Anvil Publishing. Inc, 2007.
Kress,G. and van Leeuwen,T. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual
Design. London: Routledge, 1996.
28 Maranatha Christian University Maramis, W.F. Ilmu Kedokteran Jiwa. Surabaya: Airlangga University Press,
1980.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
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Sarason., Irwin G and Barbara R. Abnormal Psychology. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall Inc, 1972.
Saussure, F. d. Course in General Linguistics. Trans. Wade Baskin.
New York: Philosophical Library, 1959.
Websites
artistdirect.com. 2009. The Used. 22 March 2009
<http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/used/1710136>.
mtv.com.2010. In Love and Death’s tragedy. 05 Juni 2010
