Curtis Mayfield was an American soul/funk singer in the mid-late ‘60’s. He is well-known for his politically conscience style of music and this digipak is a prime example of this. The title of the album is called ‘There’s no place like America today’ which is slightly ironic. The digipak consists of a billboard in America stating that America was the best place anyone could live in with a land of opportunities for everyone. The billboard picture has a perfect white family with fancy clothes, a car and they are all happy. However in reality, standing right in front of this billboard, we see a queue of black people with solemn expressions, tatty clothes and holding loads of items as if they are homeless. This is basically stating that America were hypocrites, because they claimed to be this wonderful place but in actual fact the only people who were experiencing America in this light were the upper-class white people, so Mayfield was basically stating that racism still existed although it was made out like it wasn’t and there was still a hierarchy of race in society, in which white people where above black people.
The billboard is printed in a lot of colour whereas the black people queuing up in reality, also the buildings in the background are all dull looking. Colour draws attention and therefore the emphasis is put on the billboard, this highlights to the audience even more what Mayfield is trying to represent and it also connotes a clearer contrast and division between white and black people. The fact that the white people are in colour shows that white people have happier lives in America as colour usually shows joy and the fact that the black people look cramped and are dull looking represents that that is how they live, in cramped conditions due to the small houses they can afford and their dull lives as they are not happy.
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