The connection between a designer and music used to be relatively simple, but now that music has become a primarily digital-first experience, and music’s visual side has moved from record sleeves to tiny icons in our playlists, where does that leave room for design in music in popular culture?
If you look back in time, music and image were completely separate. previous to 1939, records were packaged in a plain white paper sleeve, which was used purely to protect the vinyl. These paper sleeves didn't have any to no design on them, usually just the music title or producers name. This all changed when Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as its first art director. At the young age of 23, he suggested to his bosses that instead of the basic
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Notable artworks being George Gershwin, “Rhapsody in Blue.” He estimates he designed about 2500 albums.
This fresh approach to packaging gave columbia's artists a competitive advantage in the marketplace and compelled other record companies to follow suite. By the late 40s, all the major labels featured their own colourful paper covers using either replicating of classic art or original designs. Album covers became famous for being not only a marketing tool but an expression of artistic intent.
After this event the cover became an important part of the culture of music and album art has also been linked to postwar cultural expression (Borgerson, Janet (2017).
Later down the line in the 1960s, graphic design became the norm for huge artist album covers. Popular culture was filled with images on albums and the first that come to mind being The Beatles With ‘The Beatles’, Bob Dylan's The Times They Are a-Changin' and the Rolling Stones' debut album each contained a cover photograph designed to further the musical artist's public
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LADdesign is a Los Angeles based design and branding studio dedicated to crafting visual communications that elevate the cultural experience through engaging creative. Azerrad says designers need to help engender transitional thinking: design can help the music industry, and the music industry can help designers. But for him, the importance of the matter seems to be in helping people engage with music in a way that can change their lives. Something tactile may have been lost, but music today still moves us and frames the world and our cultural experiences. “The way we’re engaging with music now is very passive,” he says. “Streaming allows you to listen to any song any time, but we may be listening to it more as background music. The deeper, more life-marking changes happen in a more narrow spectrum. You still have hardcore fans, your Taylor Swift freaks or whatever, but music is now what you listen to while you’re driving or working
Warhol, Andy, and Pat Hackett. POPism: the Warhol '60s. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. Print.
Ferguson focuses on the importance of creativity and how much we can build off of each others ideas. Remixing is using tools already invented to build new products, it opens a door to an on going process of new inventions and ideas. Ferguson shows the importance and the huge effect remixing has on our music industry and even technology on today’s market. Remixing gives
If one were to look back into the world’s history, one would find that an important and consistent element is the world of music. Music has presented itself in various forms throughout its spread and through our identification of its magical realm, people have been fortunate enough to come across a means of relation. Whether it is blues and reggae or rap and pop rock, there is music out there for everyone. Music can serve as a stabilizer for some, a relaxant to others, and to many a form of inspiration.
“The cover is a book’s first communication to the reader, a graphic representation not simply of its content, but of its point in history.” Ned Drew
A number of other genres, throughout the decade, maintained a significant following. One genre that was slow to start was Hip-Hop, while it emerged in the 1970’s it didn’t become significant until the late 1980’s. Although Classical music began to lose impetus, it gave way to a new generation of composers through invention and theoretical development. The decade was also distinguished for its assistance to electronic music, which rose in reco...
There is nothing better than music. With countless songs, artists, and genres of music in this world, there cannot be just the sound of music or singing. People want visuals to their favorite sounds as well. They love the music videos, album covers, posters, and magazines. Music Icons magazine pays tribute to very influential and popular bands of all time essentially. On the cover of this particular edition, “Pink Floyd” printed across the top in large, black letters with the subheadings: “The Story Behind Every Album” in red letters and “50 Year Salute to Rock’s Most Mysterious Band” below that in black letters. At the very top of the cover, the band’s most popular album’s covers are at the top in chronological order of when they were released. There is a white brick pattern background and along the bottom are the band’s four main members in black and white. This edition was printed in 2015 in the United Kingdom and the articles inside are not credited to one particular writer. The cover seems simple but it is still effective. Music Icons effectively reaches their target audience of Pink Floyd fanatics, along with people who might have heard of the band, but do not know anything about them through pathos, logos, and slight lack of
First, I would like to explain why I believe that cover songs are now a good thing. “Behind Blue Eyes” covered by Limp Bizkit is a song that I would have never heard had it not been covered. The Who originally recorded this song in 1971. Limp Bizkit is an alternative band that many younger people have great interest in. Many people my age are not as interested in what is now called “Classic Rock” as they are in alternative music. Therefore, this song would have never been heard if it wasn’t for Limp Bizkit. Another good example of a song that has been covered is “Simple Man” by Shinedown. This song was originally recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1973. This is another example of a song that younger generations would not have heard if it wasn’t covered by Shinedown. However, a person may ask “Is it fair for the original artist if one of their songs is covered?” I believe the answer to this question is yes. Many artists that have covered songs have also had their songs covered. This causes a never-ending loop of music that seeks different genres of music and also people of different ages.
During the 1980’s Graphic Designer, Paula Scher helped design and define the decade of color, music, and fun. Scher began her graphic design work by creating designs for the inside of children’s books. Later on, the artist received a larger gig working for record labels such as CBS and Atlantic Records. After she began her work as an album cover artist, Scher’s artwork became known for its exaggerated use of typography and its unique style. Early in her work, Paula built her credibility with her design of the Boston album artwork from 1976. From there Scher continued to shape the decades of the late seventy’s and the early eighty’s by designing albums for Cheap Trick, The Blue Oyster Cult, The Rolling Stones and more. After some time, Paula resigned form the record industry and began her own design company with her friend Terry Koppel. The two designers called the company Koppel & Scher and ran the business for seven years until the recession, which eventually caused them to go their separate ways. By 1991 Paula received an irresistible job offer to work for Pentagram as a graphic de...
During the 1960s, new types of music surfaced all over the United States, inspiring and attracting designers and artists to create covers and merchandise for the most popular bands. Wes Wilson, a well-known designer of the 1960’s that was most popularly known for composing posters for Bill Graham of The Fillmore
Music Business Music Business Exam Number One Question 1 - What is The music publishing industry at a glance would seem to be those who print sheet music, method books, lead sheets, and all of the texts or notated music that musicians (and those aspiring to be musicians) use. Years ago, this was what most music publishers did, but as the industry has evolved, the process has become much more complex. Music is not just ink and paper, intellectual material and property to the individual who writes it. Therefore, the song does not become "a song" when it is written down. This is not an easy concept to grasp because the song itself has no physical makeup.
In the 1950's, society's prudish view on art was drastically altered. If not for this era, art (literature, music, and fashion) would not be as exceptional as it is today. Prior to the beat generation, the conformists of America censored everything; freedom of expression was unheard of. The Beat Generation, blooming in the 1950's, inspired a group of people whose unparalleled creativity shaped the worlds definition of art today. It sparked an interest in people and encouraged uniqueness and the idea of being open to new experiences. The Beat Generation stimulated the minds of Americans, inspiring people to think beyond the nation's conformity. This cultural phenomena pushed people to their limits and outside their comfort zones to create literary and musical masterpieces that would later change the world by expanding the boundaries of free speech.
Argabright, R (Winter, 2005). Connecting with music. General Music Today, 18(2)5. Retrieved May 15, 2005, from EBSCO research database.
That is not to say that The Beatles were not artists. They were incredible musicians. However, what was even more incredible was how perfectly timed The Beatles’ outbreak was. Musical novelty and technology were mutually reinforcing pushes that were suspended by the demographics of the baby boomers – The Beatles themselves included. The Beatles conquered American media, but America swallowed the lives out of four men who were not known past the socially created image of a “Beatle.”
The author of "Music and the Internet" Steve Jones is himself a musician and understands and identifies incredibly with music and the internet. The article itself is written with ironic and courageous words to emulate the direct distribution of the beginnings of popular music compared to the way music was issued to the public. He describes the sheet music that was sold to people and they had to most of the times performed it within the househo...
Andy Warhol was hand design "The Big Banana" for the cover of the album 《the velvet underground & nico》, almost be the velvet underground logo."the big banana" just so simple, but to create the visual effect of memorable.Expressed a more unconventional theme, at that time,"transvestism"、"same-sex love"still was a taboo subject, fully embodies the spirit of "free".The banana itself is, of course, the handiwork of Andy Warhol, who crafted the image and slapped it on the cover of his pet band's first record in 1967. Warhol served as the manager and patron saint of the now iconic art rock band that surprisingly sold just 30,000 albums in its first five years.The sexually-charged effect was difficult for manufacturers to pull off (the time it took to perfect the peel was part of the reason behind the album's delayed release), but MGM deemed it warranted, since Warhol's stamp of approval was bound to go far in the 1960s. Alas, the record was hardly a commercial success. It was only in the decades after VU's breakup that the band became a cult favorite, transforming their vintage peel-off s...