Here's One for the Album... What Do Nirvana, Beatles & Pink Floyd Have in Common?
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Written by Jaspreet Kaur Takhi
Here’s a question for you: What do Nirvana’s Nevermind, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon have in common? As well as being critically acclaimed, all three records have been voted for in various polls as having some of the most iconic album covers of all time. I have always believed that these forms of illustration have had their artistic merit downplayed in comparison with more prominent genres in the world of art. However, in the digital age, listeners tend to hunt for music on the screens of their latest gadgets rather than flicking through the racks in the shops and nowadays album covers are often reduced to a thumbnail print at best. This begs us to ask the pertinent question about whether it is time for this classic form of art itself to finally face the music, rather than fronting it?
This unique manifestation which sees the fusion of visual art and music used to have the potential to reveal how cool and creative the artist was even before you had played the record (or pressed ‘play’ on your iPod). However, unless you have been hanging out with Lord Lucan over the past ten years you will have noted that the digital revolution has well and truly arrived and the ongoing repercussions of it have taken their toll on the number of CDs and vinyls being purchased. Consequently the aesthetic budgets of record companies have also dwindled. It’s hard to fathom that at one time a tidy sum of £50,000 would be set aside for the artwork of an eminent band’s latest record. That figure has now plummeted to a meagre £5,000.
Arguably, the biggest casualties of this slump are the designers of theses covers, people such as Sir Peter Blake who designed the iconic Sgt. Pepper’s sleeve, who was regularly commissioned for his work, so the amount of work that came in could prove detrimental if scarce. Can anything be done to preserve this form of expression? The issue has not gone unnoticed by the music community and was brought to the forefront in 2007 by BRIT Award nominated band Hard-Fi. Their 2007 offering entitled Once upon a Time in the West bears the words No Cover Art, which was a far cry from their 2005 debut Stars of CCTV. Although they make a statement, the band’s message was not to encourage a revival of the genre but on the contrary to claim that the artwork is no longer worth neither the money nor the endeavour as it was once upon a time. They have even suggested that maybe the best way to move forward is to kill the sleeve altogether – and funnily enough, this idea has gone down like lead balloon amongst the designers.
Bill Smith, a veteran designer who has designed over 3,000 covers has hit back at Hard-Fi’s bold stance and maintains that there will always be scope for album artwork, be it in form of a large vinyl or a tiny thumbnail on an MP3 player. Social networking sites are a testament to this theory, as bands tend to post images on their Facebook and MySpace pages which prove that the power of imagery still packs a punch, whatever the size or scope. One record label has decided to embrace the technological boom and amalgamated lyrics with moving image to create digital album artwork, an idea pioneered by Warner Records who plan to take their proposals to Apple.
In my opinion, all is not lost, in fact much is gained! The bottom line is that although the vinyl has the advantage of size, the broad spectrum of digital media; television, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3 players just to name a few have the power to transmit so much more to so many different fan bases that some bands would not even know that they had. This is a lot more powerful than just a decorative piece of cardboard picked up from your local HMV. Instead of admitting defeat, designers should embrace this mass digitalisation as it is only going to get bigger. The significance of album artwork will always be prevalent, just not as much as it used to be. Apple is continuing to maintain this significance by providing downloadable cover artwork for all of their albums. So, has the music died for these album covers? Of course not, far from it, but if technology is feared rather than embraced, then the demise could come sooner rather than later.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
Arguably, the biggest casualties of this slump are the designers of theses covers, people such as Sir Peter Blake who designed the iconic Sgt. Pepper’s sleeve, who was regularly commissioned for his work, so the amount of work that came in could prove detrimental if scarce. Can anything be done to preserve this form of expression? The issue has not gone unnoticed by the music community and was brought to the forefront in 2007 by BRIT Award nominated band Hard-Fi. Their 2007 offering entitled Once upon a Time in the West bears the words No Cover Art, which was a far cry from their 2005 debut Stars of CCTV. Although they make a statement, the band’s message was not to encourage a revival of the genre but on the contrary to claim that the artwork is no longer worth neither the money nor the endeavour as it was once upon a time. They have even suggested that maybe the best way to move forward is to kill the sleeve altogether – and funnily enough, this idea has gone down like lead balloon amongst the designers.
