Essay Draft 1

I did an initial draft for the first section of my essay ahead of a tutorial with my supervisor in order to get some feedback on whether my approach to the writing is correct. 

Graphic design is undoubtedly of great importance in not only the consumption, but the enjoyment of music. It can serve as a visual interface and a point of instant contact for listeners; a means to visually decipher and accompany something entirely auditory - ‘I’ve never believed you can listen to music devoid of visual reference’ - (Shaughnessy. A, 2008). This essay aims to examine graphic design’s significance in music, and the variety of platforms it has performed this on. 

The most fundamental association between design and music is the album cover - ‘An album cover is the initial moment of the record. It’s the doorway into the music’ - (Blake. P, 2008). Alex Steinweiss created the very first album cover in 1939, a photograph of the moveable type sign outside the Imperial Theatre in New York. He had convinced the owner of the theatre to allow him to change the letters to the name and artist of the album - Smash Song Hits by Rodgers & Hart. Before Steinweiss had the idea to put graphic imagery on record sleeves, they had been been packaged in dull paper and cardboard. His employers, Columbia Records, were initially reluctant to invest in this idea, however the benefits were soon clear when they did - ‘when record sales increased by almost nine-hundred percent the idea was obviously heralded as an indisputable success.’ - (Kennedy. P, 2016). Soon, attention to the design and production of record packaging couldn’t be ignored - ‘Records, which had typically been sold at the back of appliance stores, had become desirable objects that could capture the imagination (and wallets) of music lovers everywhere.’ - (Kennedy. P, 2016). 

The album cover of any piece of music will inherently alter, to at least some degree, the listeners perception of the music. And while some cover art is not incredibly well thought out and conceptual, and instead just fills out the necessity to display the title and artists name, it at least gives a face to the music. Abbey Road by The Beatles was to originally be titled ‘Everest’, with plans to photograph the band on Mt. Everest for the cover image of the album. When the band couldn’t be bothered to go to all that hassle, they simply re-named the album Abbey Road, the road the recording studio was on, and stepped 20 metres outside to take the cover photo. Nevertheless, Abbey Road’s album cover is one of the most iconic images in popular music, and no matter what that image had been, it would have served as a face to the album.

The importance and function of the album cover has been widely considered; (Ilavksy. I, 2008) believes plain and simply - ‘the purpose of the cover art is to establish a context for the sounds contained within’, whilst (Wozencroft. J, 2008) divulges more detail on the matter, believing the album cover should not just simply ‘establish a context’ for the music, it should assist the narrative of the album somewhat - ‘you need some kind of holistic, reconciling agent alongside the music, some editorial aspect that functions as a gentle storytelling device alongside the invisible force of the music’. On the other hand, (English. L, 2008) believes that music can be ‘powerfully’ experienced devoid of visual senses, and that the album cover is mainly important when this lack of external stimuli is not achievable - ‘I think that some sound can be very powerful with the visual senses turned off - I can speak personally about a number of concerts I have experienced in pitch-black settings. That said, for a CD … listening to it is mediated by the environment of the home or street (not a concert hall), so it’s a very different proposition, and hopefully the art completes that setting’. What seems clear is that cover art, at its most effective and functional, can really heighten the experience of listening to an album by offering visual insight into the style, concepts and themes of the album. However this not a necessity, more so a luxury. At the very least, an album cover should serve as a means to visually identify and distinguish an album - Although even then, album covers are not necessities, they are still just luxuries. If Steinweiss had not created the first album cover, and instead music was still consumed to this day bereft of visual collaboration, one could argue that this would theoretically have no effect on the music, purely on the way it has been consumed and the visual allure that entices people to consume music. However the reality of this hypothetical scenario is that the whole landscape of popular music would be entirely different if the album cover had never been conceived - without that visual allure music just wouldn’t have gained the same traction. 

So how exactly can album covers and packaging convince consumers to buy/listen to albums? How can a singular image successfully capture consumers attention? The following few case studies explore this question and show examples of different ways this can be achieved.