Black and white and red all over

Date published: May 20, 2005

A funny thing occurred to me last night as I was looking at my most recent CD purchases (Garbage's Bleed Like Me and U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb). The cover for both consisted of a black and white photo with some sort of red element on the cover as well.

A quick glance at the CD that I purchased before those two (Green Day's American Idiot) yielded a similar cover.

I just thought it was a funny coincidence.

But then I got to thinking about it even more. Two of them reference explosives (U2's atomic bomb, Green Day's grenade), two of them feature blood (Green Day's bloody hand, Garbage's "bleed" title), and all of them have a "broken down" theme to them (U2's "under construction" type lines plus their "dismantle" title, Garbage's red tape and staples, and Green Day's reductive and rough line art).

Could these similarities be a reflection on the sorry state of the US in the eyes of some popular musical artists?

Nah, I'd say it was just a funny coincidence.