The Velvet Underground Essays

  • Analysis of album art of the 20th Century

    1626 Words  | 4 Pages

    But let’s go back to pre internet times and look at CD covers of the late 60’s and 70’s – decades of the revolution of music and graphics, among other things. The two pieces of album art that are going to be looked at are The Velvet Underground’s first record The Velvet Undergound and Nico cover made by Andy Warhol in 1967 and Pink Floyd’s album Atom Heart Mother by art design group Hipgnosis in 1970. Nineteen sixties and seventies were the time of of psychedelia, music and images were either

  • Analysis Of The Big Banana By Andy Warhol

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

  • R.E.M.

    2702 Words  | 6 Pages

    The year is 1989. Ronald Reagan has just been succeeded as president of the United States by George H.W. Bush. There is a certain smell lingering in the air, a certain aura of change and tension. The Berlin Wall has been destroyed, and the Soviet Union’s communist grip is beginning to loosen. Television news stations report that Exxon Valdez has spilled millions of gallons of oil into the sea in Alaska, giving the water’s surface a slick shine. This is a potentially devastating disaster for the animals

  • Punk Rock Genre

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    was created and spread it amongst other New York bands and with the rebellious youth of London. The New York Dolls popularized the style among clubs with their eye makeup, stacked heels, and lyrics about the New York street life, much like the Velvet Underground but with a less serious attitude. With the New York Dolls making this genre known within the club scene, despite not being able to commercially acknowledged, they paved the way for other bands like the Ramones, Patti Smith Group and Television

  • Inconsequential Rock Sub-Genre: Glam Rock

    1858 Words  | 4 Pages

    Glam rock is usually viewed as an inconsequential rock sub-genre. It is often forgotten in the abundance of genres that originated in the 1970s, and it is often neglected completely as a major genre at all in America. Critics slammed the new genre, calling it hype-driven and plastic. One argument held that glam rock was typically seen as insignificant because it did not have a long life, nor did it capture the attention of the world. Glam rock was popular in the UK, but even there, it was short-lived

  • Explain How Rock Music Shaped The American Counterculture Of The 1960s And 1970s

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    How Rock music shaped the American counterculture and the anti-Vietnam movement of the 1960s and 1970s Introduction: Throughout my time reading and researching documents, I have discovered that the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s where largely influenced by music. The music that largely impacted this counterculture and anti-Vietnam movement was mainly rock music. The following primary sources are a way to almost “go back” to the 1960s and experience the emotion put into music about The Vietnam

  • Violent Femmes - Add it up

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    Violent Femmes - Add it up The disc player drones on as I recline peacefully on the pure white sands of my very own desert island. I am the only human being on this island. Ah, peace at last, but as the days turn into weeks and the weeks to months and the months to years I wonder; why have I not gone completely insane? Sentenced indefinitely to solitary confinement on my paradise prison. Yes, it has been a struggle to maintain my sanity, but I have one very special companion; the Violent Femmes

  • Themes in David Lynch's Film, Blue Velvet

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blue Velvet was first released in 1986 and became a huge contreversy internationally. It was deemed as pornography and was at the centre of a national firestorm, yet years later, the film is widley regarded to be an American classic, one of the greatest cinematic achievements. The themes in the film are rich and complex. Blue Velvet introduced several common elements of Lynch's work, including distorted characters, a polarized world, debilitating damage to the skull or brain and the dark underbelly

  • The History of Rock and Roll Music

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    range of musical styles that few musicians had attempted before 1966. Captain Beefheart and the Velvet Underground also created a different kind of rock music within rock music, a different paradigm within the new paradigm, one that will influence alternative musicians for decades. More than musical giants like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, humble musicians like Captain Beefheart, the Velvet Underground and the Red Crayola may be the true heroes of the 1960s. A black man named Chuck Berry started

  • Existentialism Essay

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    direction with the band’s music on the album Pet Sounds. The Velvet Underground had several songs with existential themes. One of the most prominent examples of this is the song, “Heroin”, off their album The Velvet Underground & Nico. The song has the themes of “existence precedes essence” (Sartre), freedom, dread, nothingness and alienation. The song starts out with the lyric, “I don’t know just where I’m going” (The Velvet Underground, “Heroin” 1) and then continues with the

  • Essay On Mary Blige

    2350 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mary J. Blige – The Magic of Share My World Every explorer names his island Formosa, beautiful. To him it is beautiful because, being first, he has access to it and can see it for what it is. But to no one else is it ever as beautiful- except the rare man who manages to recover it, who knows that it has to be recovered.  -Walker Percy, The Loss of the Creature An island. Hmmm, my island. My island on which I will do nothing but sit and admire the beauty and serenity of nature at work around

  • The Origination Of Punk Rock

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    nightclubs until the bands garnered enough support to receive a record contract. When the punk rock explosion occurred in the mid-seventies, a number of new, excitingly innovative bands burst upon the scene. Bands like the Ramones, The Clash, The Velvet Underground, The Virgin Fugs, Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and the punk band with the most success, The Sex Pistols. The thing that made punk rock so unlike anything the music industry had heard before was the notable lack

  • Song Analysis Of The Song 'Heroin' By Lou Reed

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Velvet Underground was a band from the New York area, active from 1964 to 1973. At the time when their albums came out they got very little recognition, but today they have found a larger audience and because of the touchy subject matter of some of their songs and the nihilistic themes throughout their discography they essentially paved the road for punk rock and alternative/indie music. When they were making music they were the polar opposite of what was happening on the west coast with the

  • Andy Warhol and his Obsession with Fame and Money

    1485 Words  | 3 Pages

    by the artist. Warhol's favorite printmaking technique was silkscreen. It came closest to his idea of proliferation of art. Apart from being an Art Producing Machine, the Factory served as a filmmaking studio. Warhol made over 300 experimental underground films - most rather bizarre and some rather pornographic. His first one was called Sleep and showed nothing else but a man sleeping over six hours. In July of 1968 the pop artist was shot two to three times into his chest by a woman named Valerie

  • Andy Warhol Case Study

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    Main body chapter 1: Andy Warhol’s work on his work. The subject of Andy Warhol work was mostly about the mass produce world in a modern day New York City. He would explore with other medium besides art such as celebrity, media and commercial advertisement. Warhol was really fond of the social status of Hollywood stars. The glamour and fame was what makes him inspired. He would collect magazine and newspaper tabloid just so he could stay updated with the latest trend. The big apple was the epicentre

  • Psychedelic Musicians in Rock and Roll

    2740 Words  | 6 Pages

    Psychedelic Musicians in Rock and Roll In 1967 the Beatles were in Abbey Road Studios putting the finishing touches on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. At one point Paul McCartney wandered down the corridor and heard what was then a new young band called Pink Floyd working on their hypnotic debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. He listened for a moment, then came rushing back. "Hey guys," he reputedly said, "There's a new band in there and they're gonna steal our thunder." With

  • Creative Writing: Heart Of Darkness

    2196 Words  | 5 Pages

    As the two stepped inside, the door creaked shut behind them with an unsettling "thunk" that echoed down into the stairway. At first they could barely see, the hall nothing more than a dark hollow before them with only the fat candles on the walls to light the way. They stood squinting into the blackness, smelling musty earth, cold and the damp, unable to take even one step forward. But in a few moments their eyes adjusted and they could faintly make out the line of the stairs heading almost straight

  • Discophobia, By Gillian Frank: An Analysis

    1621 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rock music has always been surrounded in controversy. Parents of young teens in the 1950’s were appalled at the blatant sexuality and race mixing associated with the genre, which led to backlash and criticism of how the genre was spoiling young minds. However, as the decades went on and rock music became a critical genre in the anthology of popular music, sexuality and rock were still very tightly knit. From the hair metal bands of the ‘80s to singer-songwriters like Elton John, rock and roll has

  • Rise Of The American Counterculture In The 1960 And 70s

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    There was a large rise in “underground newspapers,” which were focused on unpopular opinions along with other issues about counterculture. Rock music also began spreading into musicals, such as “Hair,” which was only the first of many to do so. Furthermore, theatrical works started normalizing

  • Rock Music in the GDR and the Eastern Bloc

    1926 Words  | 4 Pages

    Safonov claims: “It was [John] Lennon who murdered the Soviet Union” (LaFontana). Works cited: Dettmann, Lutz. Die Beatles in der DDR. Faktor, Jan. "Knockin’ im Untergrund." Jungle World, July 16, 2003. LaFontana, Dave. You say you want a Velvet Revolution? John Lennon and the Fall of the Soviet Union. Maase, Kaspar. Körper, Konsum Genuss – Jugendkultur und mentaler Wandel. Bpb 45 (2003). Ryback, Timothy. Rock around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford