Straight Outta 4chan: Exploring the Album Art of the White Supremacist “Moon Man” Music Project

While there has been research on the cultural products of white power groups, this project qualitatively examines one piece of the contemporary far right ecosystem—white power music album covers. More specifically, we examine 99 album covers featuring “Moon Man,” an imaginary character developed by anonymous music artists to better understand the symbols and ideas of this movement. The study finds that Moon Man was present on 84.8% of record covers, along with depictions of firearms, Nazi symbolism, and pro-Confederate images as well as anti-Semitic and anti-Black imagery and examples of political violence. The album art of the Moon Man project serves as a potent tool for intimidation, as it actively advocates for white supremacy and racially motivated violence. Further research is needed to evaluate the content and musical elements of the album's lyrics, analyze consumer engagement, and develop effective approaches to counteract the increasing incidents of hate crimes.