Artists Only
Speaking of David Byrne (we saw him at the AiH show), the former Talking Head has a nice essay on his blog about "Packaging And Music"...
There are those who mourn the vanishing of the nice big cardboard packages that vinyl came in. The format allowed fairly large images, credits, and photos. The usual assumption is that much of this imagery, like music videos, is a reflection of, and extension of, the music creator’s sensibility. As if the packaging and the videos were usually under the direct control of the author. This is absurd...Byrne looks at albums from James Brown, the Kinks, Snoop Dogg, and Animal Collective in his prediction that the future of graphic design as it relates to music isn't so dire after all. Read the rest here here. Is he right? Is he wrong? I know you graphic designers have an opinion.
Posted at 2:21 PM
sure not every artist had control over covers, but a lot of classic cover art was most certainly an extension of the music and done with the artist involved. velvet underground? rolling stones? u2, etc.
Score = 0
I think Byrne's right that we tend to assume an authorship with album imagery, even though we've trained ourselves to be skeptical of the visuals in almost all other forms of media. And the idea that multimedia has been liberated by digital downloads is a great one, in theory. I'm just worried that if you include too much secondary materials the music becomes backgrounded (we're visually biased, right?) -- but McSweeney's seems to do pretty well by overloading you with extra content, maybe some artists will follow suit. It could be an exciting time for music, I think.
Score = 0
myspace immediately comes to mind as an answer to byrne's questions about what's next. music, videos, images... and all, more or less, created by the author/musician.
Score = 0
I vividly remember the kneejerk environmentalists all screeching CONSTANTLY during the days when cardboard packaging of CDs was on the way out. Remember back then, after vinyl went away, record stores converted to CD, and the outer packaging used to be cardboard-coated-with-shrinkwrap. The CD would live inside this 12" flat rectangular shape, usually on the bottom third or so. I'd bet money that Byrne was one of the shriekers at the time -- wish I could find out for sure.
Score = 0
speaking of wayne coyne (flaming lips). he is a respected painter and has done the art for most of their releases.
Score = 0
In the pop/country world, I'll agree with Mr. Byrne. But one need only to look at ANY Pink Floyd cover and know that they had everything to do with those covers.
Score = 0
The part about liner notes reminded me of Marvelous 3's "Ready Sex Go" which had all the credits and production notes listed in an extra audio track at the end of the CD. It's the only example I know of. Has any other band done this?
Score = 0
Creative control?? Hah! I have three words for you: "Smell the Glove."
Score = 0
"... that could be the future of recorded music — that the recordings are the 'loss leaders' for everything else."
All I can say is... ICK! An interesting idea, but I sure hope not. My sense is that this may be true for much of the pop culture world, but there will always be some artist to whom it's still the music that matters - for them and the fans and by extension the record company.
It's a brave new world... my head is spinning with all this and I was born into the post-vinyl era.
Score = 0
As a graphic designer, I can't believe Coco has braces.
Score = 0
David Byrne writes that Neville Brody was the designer for 4AD, but it was actually Vaugn Oliver at v23. Neville Brody did design CDs though, as well as art direct The Face magazine in the 80s...
The 4AD graphics may not have seemed like they were done for any specific band, but the bands on that label (for the most part) had a vibe that I believe was well reflceted in their packaging and posters. Plus, they were just cool covers--nice and mysterious. My favorite covers have always been those that are evoctaive without giving too much away about the actual band--letting the music "speak" for itself...
Doesn't Mr. Byrne have a lot to do with his own CD covers?!
Score = 0
David Byrne writes that Neville Brody was the designer for 4AD, but it was actually Vaugn Oliver at v23. Neville Brody did design CDs though, as well as art direct The Face magazine in the 80s...
The 4AD graphics may not have seemed like they were done for any specific band, but the bands on that label (for the most part) had a vibe that I believe was well reflceted in their packaging and posters. Plus, they were just cool covers--nice and mysterious. My favorite covers have always been those that are evocative without giving away too much about the actual band--letting the music "speak" for itself...
Doesn't Mr. Byrne have a lot to do with his own CD covers?!
Score = 0
I thought Tina Weymouth painted the cover for "Little Creatures."
BTW - this discussion reminds me of the late, great Phil Hartman, who created a lot of 70's album covers and a CSN logo as a graphic designer.
Score = 0
I don't entirely lament the demise of conventional cover art. Some of my favorite albums have covers that are absolutely atrocious, in some cases curated by the band. See Pitchfork's Worst Record Covers of All Time for further proof.
Score = 0
Personally I'm not the kind of person who wants, "slideshows, photos, videos, bios, credits, lyrics, merch..." to come in a download form to go along with my mp3s. I don't want to have the extra hassle of having to print out the artwork if I want to have a complete set. I don't want to have to sit looking at a screen to hear the next thing, or sit watching a video whilst my music is playing. I don't like the way the industry is headed with the whole digital stuff, it sucks. Having an mp3 player these days is the "cool" thing, but really its just another investment to make you follow the way the industry is now trying to go and along the way taking your money (in my opinion anyway, especially with the ridiculous iPod). If only people could see that you're getting ripped off with mp3s, that they're not the way of the future, I would be happy.
Score = 0
mp3s compromise audio integrity. A cassette walkman will give you far superior sound as opposed to an ipOd. Listening to 128 kbps mp3s? You're listening to shite. The industry is leading you down a consumptive pathway paved with the "latest thing".
Score = 0
"Is he right? Is he wrong? I know you graphic designers have an opinion."
Well, sorta and sorta. I'm a Graphic Designer (and I do CD artwork for tiny labels). Byrne is right that the artist rarely has control over the image being related to the music - but that doesn't take anything away from the relationship the consumer has with both the music and the image. In our feeble consumer mind, they work together to create something more than just the sounds we hear.
Music is all about fantasy - and imagery is and always will be connected to that fantasy. When we listen to The Doobie Brothers we don't want to think about Michael McDonald doing his laundry. We want rock n' roll. When we listen to Talking Heads' old records, we want to imagine the old days of CBGBs, and try to make mental connections between their oddball artistic record cover and the meaning of the music. We don't want to picture a 50-year old David Byrne surfing Amazon for new CDs. Whether he created the iconic images on those record sleeves doesn't matter.
Byrne also misses the point that many bands do have control of their artwork - especially nowadays and especially on indie labels. Like I said, I do artwork for bands - my bands, my friends' bands and perfect strangers' bands - and on all these records, you got an idea of what it was all about if you would only buy that CD and listen. I think this is more the norm today.
But he is right that we are moving away from relating images to music. I miss that. Maybe it's a crutch to help make prejudiced decisions, but I like to know what a band I'm listening to looks like. It helps me to know if I should take them at their word or not. If they look like a studio-manufactured cross between Franz Ferdinand and The Backstreet Boys, I have an immediate reference point. Maybe that's wrong - but it saves me a lot of time.
Score = 0
Neville Brody was an album sleeve designer before he started at The Face, mostly for Fetish Records and acts like 23 Skidoo and Cabaret Voltaire. That's probably what Byrne was thinking of.
Score = 0
the cover for little creatures was done by the great folk artist, rev. howard finster. he also did the cover for r.e.m.'s reckoning.
Score = 0
Thaaaat's what it was. Thanks, brian, I had forgotten.
(And I was misremembering -- it was Christie Brinkley who painted the album art for the Billy Joel album "River of Dreams.")
Thanks for your response, Billy K. I agree with everything you said.
Score = 0
As much as I admire him, I can't help but feel like Mr. Byrne is just getting old and falling out of the loop. He not once mentioned Flash or interactive web content.
Score = 0