Deadmau5 4x4=12 Album Cover Analysis

Deadmau5 4x4=12 - Album Cover Analysis

This album cover as plain as it is has a number of codes in it.

First off all are the colours used.  The dark black could be code for the dark night club and the scene of a night club.  It could also be code for the type of music and that it may be some kind of darker sinister style music.

As black is a formal colour, it could be an oxymoron as this type of music is not formal at all, the lyrics in some of the songs are informal and so is his whole style of music.

Black also is code for suction and sexualization; this is seen in women with wearing black dresses.  He could be denoting that there is some sexual element to his music.

When researching codes behind the colour black it said that it was "mysterious evoking a sense of potential and possibility"  This is interesting as his style of music is very creative, because the sounds are made on synthesizers so therefore in this album cover he could be using the colour black as code for that there is mystical sounds and possibility for a sound you have never heard before.

Another meaning behind the colour black I found out when researching it was that is was described as a "restful emptiness".  This could be code for the euphoric style and repetitive style of some of his music, that you may feel restful when listening to his music, but at the same time his music will will get you up and going but feel at piece in the madness.

The next colour used on the album cover is this luminosity from the green.  I also researched this colour and the meanings and codes in it and found out this:

Green is meant to be a "soothing, and relaxing mentally and physically" colour which therefore ties into the idea of the black being restful which means he has encoded the message that people will feel soothed an calm when listening to his music.

The luminosity from the green could be code the lights and style of clothes this type of audience would like to see and wear.  This is also adding an element of a fun side to his music which will appeal to this type of audience.

This luminous green will also appeal to the euphoric style of audience as people who may take pills look for this kind of music that when they "trip out" will look for a good place to go to really let loose and feel relaxed.

The green is reflected in the bottom of the album cover.  This I feel could be code for his music being reflected into us as an audience and that because we hear his music we are then influenced by his style and tastes and we change our views according to this as if he is in a way controlling us.

The album text is in a generic type style this goes along with his style of music being repetitive and always without fault because of the euphoric and electronic style.  It also is a bubbly sort of fun loving style which would appeal to this audience.

The text itself is anti-authoritative and rebellious to society as there are a number of grammatical errors.  He   does not use a capital letter for name, however I feel he may be doing this to show the focus is not on him as an artist nut the music.  He also uses the letter "5" as a letter "S".  And then the biggest and most obvious is the album name being a mathematical calculation and the answer is wrong, I feel this could be code his style of music and how he tries to break the conventions of music and break into new genres and sound that were never thought possible.

The face itself and the smiley face could be code for the "Acid House scene" and the "junkies" who take drugs while listening to this style of music and try and get a better high from "tripping out" in the middle of it.

The face is done in some sparkly looking dots.  This could be code for the face being a disco ball which shows the genre of music being a dance/trance/house style of music.

deadmau5 could use all this again and again in his album covers which he usually does to promote his ideas and views, therefore he would be using the "Cultivation Theory" which would be him constantly showing imagery and then us as the audience/listeners relating this to the real world.