The music industry took took a kick to the balls during the 2000s due to illegal downloading and the answer to this was legal downloading, people can now buy albums at a much cheeper price in digital format from places like itunes and amazon and this is quickly taking the place of the compact disk. The problem with this is you have no physical object to handle. When you buy and album you would flick through the booklet during its first play, looking at lyrics and artwork, and although some songs let you view the lyrics and album art on your ipod it just is not the same.
Even though this takes away the joy of album art its still nessesary to have it, its needed so you can browse albums online just as you would in a record shop, it works the exact same way. (as seen in the screenshot below)
The album art will never die out, even though they are seen at an average of one square inch it will always be needed so in answer to the essay question yes its still relevent today.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Conclution
In conclusion to my essay, yes the album cover is still relevant today although it may not be as relevant as it was 30 years ago.
The album art doesn't only just serve the purpose of making somebody feel good about buying a compact disk that probably only cost a few pence each to manufacture but the artwork is the backbone to its entire advertising and merchandising campaign. The artwork will bring the fans to the tour, the place were musicians today make most of there money and the fans will wear the artwork to the tour on various pieces of clothing like some musical cult.
Artwork also makes albums stand out among others in gigantic record stores and can also give you an insignt to what kind of musical experience your going to get. They say with food that the first bite is taken with the eyes and its the same when buying an album, often the album art is your first contact you have with the artist or band.
Although mp3 downloads are becoming more popular by the day and shops like hmv are downsizing the album art is still relevant and will be until the compact disk disappears off the earth completely and i don't think that will happen any time soon as people like to own cds. Even if it happens the album art will never disappear as it will still be needed to promote bands and even for the displays on website and mp3 players.
Album art is still relevant today and always will be.
The album art doesn't only just serve the purpose of making somebody feel good about buying a compact disk that probably only cost a few pence each to manufacture but the artwork is the backbone to its entire advertising and merchandising campaign. The artwork will bring the fans to the tour, the place were musicians today make most of there money and the fans will wear the artwork to the tour on various pieces of clothing like some musical cult.
Artwork also makes albums stand out among others in gigantic record stores and can also give you an insignt to what kind of musical experience your going to get. They say with food that the first bite is taken with the eyes and its the same when buying an album, often the album art is your first contact you have with the artist or band.
Although mp3 downloads are becoming more popular by the day and shops like hmv are downsizing the album art is still relevant and will be until the compact disk disappears off the earth completely and i don't think that will happen any time soon as people like to own cds. Even if it happens the album art will never disappear as it will still be needed to promote bands and even for the displays on website and mp3 players.
Album art is still relevant today and always will be.
The main reason for album art in my opinion
Imagine buying an album at the usual 10 to 15 pounds that you usually would pay and it coming in a plain plastic or cardboard sleeve with a blank disk with nothing more than a title crudely printed. I and anybody else would feel extremely ripped off and would not ever want to pay anything close to 10 pounds. This is the most important thing about album art and nice packaging it makes you feel as if your getting more than you actually are and it plays a trick on your subconscious tricking you into thinking its money well spent.
Alot of bands even today will release a normal version of the album and then either very shortly after or at the same time a special addition with fancy packaging at a much larger price with as little as 2 extra bonus tracks. Even though you get so little extra, i myself have being guilty of double album buying because of nice packaging and the promise of an extra few track or extra booklet full of art.
The last time i committed this crime was with an album called blood drunk. There on the hmv shelf was the normal version at 12 pounds and the special addition at at 20 pounds. With the promise of a dvd and a fancy embossed cardboard sleeve that the album fits into i went with the special addition only to find that the dvd contained the same content as the cd only in surround sound.
My point is that the art on the album is basically a sales man and makes album art today and until cds completely die out very very relevant and shows that the job graphic designers and artists do on the album art is almost as important as the band writing good music for its release.
Alot of bands even today will release a normal version of the album and then either very shortly after or at the same time a special addition with fancy packaging at a much larger price with as little as 2 extra bonus tracks. Even though you get so little extra, i myself have being guilty of double album buying because of nice packaging and the promise of an extra few track or extra booklet full of art.
The last time i committed this crime was with an album called blood drunk. There on the hmv shelf was the normal version at 12 pounds and the special addition at at 20 pounds. With the promise of a dvd and a fancy embossed cardboard sleeve that the album fits into i went with the special addition only to find that the dvd contained the same content as the cd only in surround sound.
My point is that the art on the album is basically a sales man and makes album art today and until cds completely die out very very relevant and shows that the job graphic designers and artists do on the album art is almost as important as the band writing good music for its release.
From vinals to compact disks
By the mid nineties most albums were released on compact disk instead of vinyl records this reduced the size of the artwork to about a quarter of size it was before but this did not reduce the relevance of the album cover. I am going to look at the example i looked at last to start with On a story tellers night.
In 2005 On a story tellers night was re-released for a special 20th anniversary addition and the artwork was just as important as ever, fans would of being deeply upset if the album had being re-released without the classic tavern scene. The artwork was changed slightly by a boarder and a banner with the title but apart from that it remains the same as the art work is just as important as the classic tracks from the album that made it famous.
(wiki refference) A good example of a transfere from vinyl to cd is the Beatles album Sergent peppers lonely heart club, the album art is one of the most influential of all time designed by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth and one of if not thee most expensive of all time costing £2, 868, the equivalent of £38, 823 today. The album features a collage of famous actors, actresses writers and musicains. The original was a gatefold sleeve that had the bigger than jesus band on a yellow background. They actually wanted to give away pieces of merchandise with the album such as badges pencils ect but they had to settle with cardboard cutouts. The transfere to cd was done in a nice carboard box equally as well thought out as the original gatefold and this will give the fans who already own the album another reason to buy other than cd quality.
In 2005 On a story tellers night was re-released for a special 20th anniversary addition and the artwork was just as important as ever, fans would of being deeply upset if the album had being re-released without the classic tavern scene. The artwork was changed slightly by a boarder and a banner with the title but apart from that it remains the same as the art work is just as important as the classic tracks from the album that made it famous.
(wiki refference) A good example of a transfere from vinyl to cd is the Beatles album Sergent peppers lonely heart club, the album art is one of the most influential of all time designed by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth and one of if not thee most expensive of all time costing £2, 868, the equivalent of £38, 823 today. The album features a collage of famous actors, actresses writers and musicains. The original was a gatefold sleeve that had the bigger than jesus band on a yellow background. They actually wanted to give away pieces of merchandise with the album such as badges pencils ect but they had to settle with cardboard cutouts. The transfere to cd was done in a nice carboard box equally as well thought out as the original gatefold and this will give the fans who already own the album another reason to buy other than cd quality.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Part one Vinal covers
Before the invention of the album cover albums were sold in brown blank paper sleeves with a hole to see the record, obviously this looked very boring. (wiki reference) The first art director of Columbia records Alex Strienweiss is credited for inventing the concept for the album cover in 1938, replacing the boring plain covers used before. During the 40s this caught on and other record companies followed in Columbia records footsteps.
The album cover quickly became an important part of the culture of music and albums stopped being something you just listened to, they became collectors items featuring gate fold double spreads full of beautifully crafted art. People didn't just buy albums for the music anymore and they would look forward to getting home and browsing through the gatefold sleeves just as much as they looked forward to listening to the record if not more.
One of the best examples of all time is pink floyds the wall, The artwork wasn't only outstanding beautiful and controversial it played an import part in all aspects of the band. The artwork helped tell the story that the songs were telling and the strange interpretation of things such as nazi like goose stepping hammers and a judge which is basicly a talking arse on legs had an emotional impact as big as if not bigger than the music.
Being attractive is not the only purpose of album art, the designs are always used to create promotional campaigns. (dave hays reference) As Dave Hays wrote in his article why album work still matters "A bands artwork acts as its anhcor for an entire campaign. And its not just the traditional square art work we all know and love" Dave hays is absolutely right, this is the first augment that album artwork is still relevant and very much an essential part of the culture today. The album art isn't just used on a square box its used to create everything you could possibly think of, Posters, the Magazine ads that show tour dates, merchandise which can range from anything and everything like tshirts, hats and the usual over priced items you see at gigs on merchandise stands.
As i have found out from a book i own called the art of classic rock (which is unfortunately too big to scan by far) Pink floyd had many many separate piece of promotion all with variations on gerard scarffes incredible characters he had created. The album was also turned into a film and Gerard Scarffes animations were used for 15 minutes(the best 15 minutes in my opinion) the images gerard scarffe creates are beautiful but also quite disturbing. I can remember getting my hands of the gate fold vinal as a young kid as i was attracted to anything with art work on and i remember being quite mesmerized and freaked out at the same time. It was shortly after this i learnt to play the songs hey you and is there anybody out there? on the piano. So this shows that somebody could be attracted to the artwork before the music and then get into the band afterwards, within design its survival of the fittest, a good album cover puts you ahead of all the others in record shops.
An album cover can (but only sometimes) also represent what your going to get on the album your about to buy, for example a band that i got into when i was very young was a band called magnum who released an album in 1985 called a story tellers night. The album cover designed by the artist Rodney Mathews shows a scene in a medievil tavern with dwarves or elves sat around a table being told a story from the head of the table. Magnums song lyrics like the album covers are very Tolkien like and the songs are basicily like storys told in medievil fantasy so the album cover represents what your going to get when your put this album in record player. I strongley agree with this technique as album covers can oftern be misleading and i myself have got my hands on albums hoping for some cheesey seventies/eighties classic rock and finding myself being very dissapointed.
Could you imagine the iconic 1977 sex pistols album Nevermind the bollocks without the controversial album art? The album art let loose as much controversy as the songs did even breaking a couple of laws. This shows what the album was, a massive fuck you to everyone and everything and thats exactly what you got from anarcy in the uk and god save the queen.
The album cover quickly became an important part of the culture of music and albums stopped being something you just listened to, they became collectors items featuring gate fold double spreads full of beautifully crafted art. People didn't just buy albums for the music anymore and they would look forward to getting home and browsing through the gatefold sleeves just as much as they looked forward to listening to the record if not more.
One of the best examples of all time is pink floyds the wall, The artwork wasn't only outstanding beautiful and controversial it played an import part in all aspects of the band. The artwork helped tell the story that the songs were telling and the strange interpretation of things such as nazi like goose stepping hammers and a judge which is basicly a talking arse on legs had an emotional impact as big as if not bigger than the music.
Being attractive is not the only purpose of album art, the designs are always used to create promotional campaigns. (dave hays reference) As Dave Hays wrote in his article why album work still matters "A bands artwork acts as its anhcor for an entire campaign. And its not just the traditional square art work we all know and love" Dave hays is absolutely right, this is the first augment that album artwork is still relevant and very much an essential part of the culture today. The album art isn't just used on a square box its used to create everything you could possibly think of, Posters, the Magazine ads that show tour dates, merchandise which can range from anything and everything like tshirts, hats and the usual over priced items you see at gigs on merchandise stands.
As i have found out from a book i own called the art of classic rock (which is unfortunately too big to scan by far) Pink floyd had many many separate piece of promotion all with variations on gerard scarffes incredible characters he had created. The album was also turned into a film and Gerard Scarffes animations were used for 15 minutes(the best 15 minutes in my opinion) the images gerard scarffe creates are beautiful but also quite disturbing. I can remember getting my hands of the gate fold vinal as a young kid as i was attracted to anything with art work on and i remember being quite mesmerized and freaked out at the same time. It was shortly after this i learnt to play the songs hey you and is there anybody out there? on the piano. So this shows that somebody could be attracted to the artwork before the music and then get into the band afterwards, within design its survival of the fittest, a good album cover puts you ahead of all the others in record shops.
An album cover can (but only sometimes) also represent what your going to get on the album your about to buy, for example a band that i got into when i was very young was a band called magnum who released an album in 1985 called a story tellers night. The album cover designed by the artist Rodney Mathews shows a scene in a medievil tavern with dwarves or elves sat around a table being told a story from the head of the table. Magnums song lyrics like the album covers are very Tolkien like and the songs are basicily like storys told in medievil fantasy so the album cover represents what your going to get when your put this album in record player. I strongley agree with this technique as album covers can oftern be misleading and i myself have got my hands on albums hoping for some cheesey seventies/eighties classic rock and finding myself being very dissapointed.
Could you imagine the iconic 1977 sex pistols album Nevermind the bollocks without the controversial album art? The album art let loose as much controversy as the songs did even breaking a couple of laws. This shows what the album was, a massive fuck you to everyone and everything and thats exactly what you got from anarcy in the uk and god save the queen.
introduction
Why is album art work important and is album art still as important today?
Album art work. For some its as important as the music others don't give it a second thought other than to tell the albums apart while browsing through the masses of cds in shops. A great album cover can make your album stand out from many in todays superstores, whether its from an amazing piece of art or pure shock value.
But is album art as relevent today as it were in the 70s and 80s with the world going digital, huge spreads from classic vinal records such as pink floyds the wall are a thing of the past now mp3 downloads are faster, cheaper and easier to get hold of. So why do we still need album art work when on average its shown at around a square inch on somebodies ipod?
I will analyse album packaging from the 1960s to the preasent day and come up with a conclution to whether or not album art is relevent today and why it was so important in the past 50 years.
60s
Album art work. For some its as important as the music others don't give it a second thought other than to tell the albums apart while browsing through the masses of cds in shops. A great album cover can make your album stand out from many in todays superstores, whether its from an amazing piece of art or pure shock value.
But is album art as relevent today as it were in the 70s and 80s with the world going digital, huge spreads from classic vinal records such as pink floyds the wall are a thing of the past now mp3 downloads are faster, cheaper and easier to get hold of. So why do we still need album art work when on average its shown at around a square inch on somebodies ipod?
I will analyse album packaging from the 1960s to the preasent day and come up with a conclution to whether or not album art is relevent today and why it was so important in the past 50 years.
60s
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