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.
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