Thread October 20, 2012 editorial: comments

Dear Fellow Audiofanziners!

How important is album art in the age of mp3 files?   Some of us can still remember in the age of vinyl records the liberty graphic designers had with a 12 X 12 inch space to create the perfect visual compliment to the music.  Then, with the CD we lost lots of visual art work space but got creative with little booklets inserted that we can inspect as we listened to the music.  It was a total art experience to immerse oneself in the music, lyrics and graphic visuals at the same time.  Even as music videos broke out on the scene it did not take away from the relevance of the physical, two dimensional artwork.

Today when we download an album, often a cover artwork file is included, but how many of us actually take a deeper look at it?  We see the thumbnail version on our mp3 player or computer and that is enough.   Music artwork real estate has significantly decreased over the years.  We can all remember iconic album art that is inseparable from the great music such as Pink Floyd’ s “The Wall” or Led Zeppelin’s genius of “Led Zeppelin IV”.  What would these albums be without such visual cues?  The artwork provided the backdrop to the music, like a set on a theater play.  In the absence of such a set today, we are left to create our own personalized experience of music.  Some like it, preferring to be unguided and uninfluenced in their interpretation of the music.  I can make an analogy to modern theater with no set, just actors acting and reciting their lines.  The raw content becomes important, not the environment.

Still, personally for me, when I buy an album, I buy a work of art, and what I like to see is how the artist intended the work to be portrayed, his vision and intention for the space surrounding the music he originally created. 

Chater-La