1/2/2024 0 Comments Vinyl record artKanye West’s 2007 'Graduation' album features Murakami’s psychedelic, cartoon-inspired design on the cover, while Travis Scott and Kid Cudi’s 2020 album 'The Scotts' features the X-eyed characters associated with contemporary street artist KAWS. The genre of Hip-Hop has been particularly important in recent decades in championing the collaboration between music genres as well as the art and fashion that represent their culture. As history has shown, utilizing the symbols of specific artists allows the album another layer of meaning and puts the collaboration between musicians and artists at the forefront. Furthermore, the collaborative album 'We Love You…So Love Us' also uses an iconic symbol, Banksy’s 'Love is in the Air (Flower Thrower),' while the 1983 album 'I Cry for You' by Bobby “O” uses a recognizable Roy Lichtenstein image for its cover art. Similar to the Richard Prince cover, contemproary rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers used a famous symbol by artist Damien Hirst for their 2011 'I’m With You cover,' an image of a pill with the album’s title written on it and a fly perched atop. The collaboration with this wide range of artists was a huge element in the popularity of Sonic Youth. For thier 2004 'Sonic Nurse' album, the band recruited artist Richard Prince, using a design from Prince’s famous Nurse series. The juxtaposition of cheery comic book style with dark dialogue allowed this cover to gain everlasting notoriety that would become widely parodied. Their 1988 'Daydream Nation' cover utilized a modified version of painter Gerhard Richter’s 'Two Candles' work, while the band's 1990 album 'Goo' used a completely different style a black and white comic book illustration by Raymon Pettibon, which was based on a newspaper image of key witnesses in the 1966 Moors Murders trial. The alternative rock band Sonic Youth, who released 15 albums between 19, wisely utilized a series of artists and styles to create album covers that would be endlessly recreated as posters, t-shirts, and other collectible merchandise, allowing their band to live on for decades. Basquiat’s design would become a crucial element in the marketing of the album as well as the solidification of the punk genre. The resulting image was a black and white cartoon image of a man with a crown of thorns floating above his head, and the band’s name scribbled in three places across the cover. In 1981, punk band The Offs commissioned then-unknown artist and friend Jean-Michel Basquiat for their album First Record. Each vinyl consisted of colored images superimposed atop one another, so that when packaged together the images obscured one another. The resulting album was composed of three clear vinyls with vacu-sealed packaging. David Byrne scouted artist Robert Raushenberg who based the album's cover art off of his own 1967 sculptural work, titled Revolver. One of the decade’s most celebrated experimental bands, the Talking Heads required a new approach to cover design for their fifth studio album, 'Speaking in Tongues'. The 1980s brought a new wave of creativity to album designs. Many of these artists would go on to develop the imagery associated with rock and roll, and their designs would solidify the intersections of art, music, and fashion that, in turn, spurred subcultures worldwide. Post-World War II, an edgy modernism was introduced on album covers, and it became fashionable for musicians of the 1960s to invite old art school friends to design their cover art. Eventually photography and typography also took on major roles in the marketing of records. In the following years, record companies would begin utilizing talented artists for cover designs, and effectively kickstarting the careers of many including Andy Warhol, Roger Dean, and Burt Goldblatt. The records housed inside spent most of 1945 on the Billboard Best Selling Popular Record Albums chart, demonstrating the large-scale reach and influence that cover designs would become. The first massively influential record art came about with Nat King Cole’s 'The King Cole Trio' album, which featured images of a double bass, guitar, and keyboard under a gold crown amidst a bold red background.
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