Pop Digipak Analysis- Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday

 

On the digipak cover for her album Pink Friday, Minaj has used a dramatic image of herself. This fits the conventions of a pop album- Minaj's brand is her extravagant image. She is wearing all pink, including a wig. This reflects the album's title and her 'Barbie persona'. The way her arms are bent behind her accentuates her breasts. Her legs have been edited to look much longer, and the massive heels lengthen them further. They also look unnaturally shiny- almost like plastic. These features make her look rather like a Barbie doll. While the image is very pink, the shoes she wears actually make her look quite powerful, especially due to the huge, pointed heels. The text used is rather sleek, with the silver standing out against the copious amounts of pink. However the work "Pink" is exaggerated by being of contrasting size, colour and font- the latter of which looks very similar to the Barbie logo.

 

By using another image of herself on the back cover, Minaj shows how much image is important to her brand. Her appearance is the same as the cover; the consistency makes the digipak flow and fit together. Minaj's makeup is very dramatic, with bright pink lipstick and huge false eyelashes. These again make her look more like a doll than an actual woman. The chains on her dress and bracelets reflect body armour, suggesting she is a fighter. Furthermore we can clearly see that her shoes are a boot/heel hybrid, highlighting that she is both feminine and strong. Her costume clearly aims to show that Minaj is as strong as a man, but as glamorous as a woman. Minaj's foot points to the tracklist, encouraging the viewer to read it.

 

 

Yet another image of Minaj is used on the disk. With the wig (which may be the same pink wig from the other photographs, but in fact looks blonde in this image), wide eyes, long eyelashes and pink lips she looks even more like a Barbie doll than usual. In fact, the whole way the image is put together is very reminiscent of an image of Barbie. The colours fit the overall digipak colour scheme, and the text matches that of the front cover.

 

Rather than opening like a booklet, Minaj's is more like a poster. This could encourage her fans, or 'Barbs' to display it on their wall. The tracks are on the right, while multiple images of Minaj are on the right. The images show off Minaj's infamous figure, and in one her legs are again dramatically stretched. In the top right and middle left images, Minaj looks stiff like a doll. Again the focus on images of herself is very conventional of pop digipaks.

Minaj's 'thanks' section is very long, showing that she is very grateful for her success. Furthermore the language used is very informal, creating intimacy with the reader and suggesting that she is very down to earth. Her target audience is probably likely to speak/write like this too, so it makes her relatable.