Does cover art matter?

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Will people of the furture care about such things as packaging? Has cover art ever had an impact in how you perceived a record?

A tired subject, perhaps, but I'm curious about what this crowd things.

― Mark, Monday, 9 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

half of my albums i get from the computer and throw them onto minidisc's so art dosent matter. back in 8th grade i bought cd's based on the reviews but cover art was a plus when spending 15$

― Kevin Enas, Monday, 9 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The Death of Vinyl pretty much settled the issue. Cassettes actually murdered cover art, and cds finished the job. For the admirable sake of the music, however, which is what really matters (cd booklets are obviously great, though). But what impact can a "Sergeant Pepper" cover have when it's barely 3 inches square? Oooh, Mr Dallessandro appears to look real nice in blue, but can I really tell? On that matter, few things can top a Roxy Music "2 pages spread"! As for the obvious answer, the fact that mp3s or some future format will gradually become massively popular indicates that records proper will be challenged by self-made ones, in which case artwork is pretty much left to each indivual. I personally dont bother. The temptation to print out the panther lady of "For Your Pleasure" remains, though...

― Simon, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'm always partial to hold the real thing in your hand, so I've always wanted the liner notes. There's just something scuzzy about having a whole rack full of TDK's on your wall...

― JM, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Whenever I've been cheap enough to burn a copy of a friends' cd, I've also made a colour photocopy of the cover. I love having the whole package, also with bands like Belle&Seb it's an integral part of the album, the booklets give you more context. I also think it's a bit scuzzy to have a bunch of downloads on cd. I only download things to listen them and then go and buy the real thing. I guess it's just psychological.

I also bought B(if)tek's 2020 because I love the cover art. I heard a few tracks, enough to interest me and when I saw the cover I wanted it because of the picture. I almost think I like the picture more than the album...

― Audrey, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

of course cover art matters! what a dumb question.

i can't believe there are people not into packaging

― gareth, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

'Press-It' software( and loadsa memory ) - make your own covers - there is no excuse for stax of TDKs - all the best covers I've seen in the past year have been homemade incorporating warped 'stolen' imagery, cut-up collage and a loving touch( just like the music ).

― Geordie 'King Scuzz' Racer, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

As long as its not horrifically bad, it usually doesn't much matter to me. Like song titles. I never know the titles of the songs either. Usually I'll check out where an album was recorded and by whom but that's about the extent of me ever opening up the insert. I dunno, it can be a turnoff too though. Like those ultra-slick ones that are put out by LA "alterna-metal" bands. When you're looking through the used CD bin, and you see that slick shiny cover, just keep on flippin'....

― Tim Baier, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Certainly can't hurt, cover art. But you get a thousand yard stare after a while from all the scrounging through used CD bins from all the crap. Frankly, if music good, hurrah! If music bad, boo. If music good but album art bad, music still good, etc. If music good and no cover art at all, music still good, etc. I'll live.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You need to stay away from used CD bins if you're ending up with Thousand Yard Stare, Ned.

― Somebody Has To Make The Obvious Joke, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Of course packaging makes a difference. You have to keep the things where you live. And I don't know about you, but I've got plenty of ugly CDs (and books too!) already - more nice-looking ones would do just fine.

― Josh, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Doesn't affect my view of a record fundamentally but, yes, there are several fonts / design styles which have become cultural cliches as a result of overuse on record covers (the Yes font is still an effective shorthand for "overblown mysticism", the Pistols' cut-up lettering used as a lazy signifier for "anarchy" well into the early 90s, etc.). Even something like Max Tundra's "Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be" uses the plainest and ugliest 70s font known to man, often seen on signs in Arndale centres, which may have influenced me to think of it in such terms. I probably think more in terms of fonts than of general design styles, actually.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Fonts: so, does cultural confidence anywhere run higher than that of metal and its subflows, in the ability of eg rivetted iron/fraktur/ thorny lightning strike fonts to announce We Are Orcs From Hell and Bow to None. Long Winter's Stare's logo is carved from Dolmens (if that's the plural). Thiou Shalt Suffer's is in iron-trellis Fraktur, I think. And (by the way) who started it all? Sabbath, I spose, with the War Pigs LP - but who then turned it into a general, communal style? Manowar? Saxon?

― mark s, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

it matters, it is part of the reason why siesta is my favourite label because to me exquisite packaging indicates more care taken to insure there are no shortcuts taken. i am not sure how siesta can afford to be so seemingly extravagant, are there really that many people buying the happy balloon record? i also like that they use digipaks, seems more like a complete utilization of the design space than a generic jewel case. now the new lucksmiths design is hideous but the music is beautiful, so maybe the idea of a poor cover does not detract but should it have had a nice cover maybe i might have been even more pleased.

― keith, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Another cultural cliche of typefacery: the font used on the cover of Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief", which rapidly became a kind of signifier for "has been around for centuries: is ancient, has never *not* been there" (especially when invoked by otherwise consciously "progressive" 70s types).

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

If you wonder about those not into packaging, remember Napster. People with 10,000 songs on their hard drive and no intention to buy records couldn't give a damn about how album covers & such. I'm interested in it myself, but I see it becoming a much more specialized, fringe thing. Nobody thinks about how music they hear on the radio is packaged, and I think the consumers of future will see music in these terms. It's more honest in some ways, putting the focus on the thing itself (the sounds) but I'll probably always be an old-schooler on this one.

I loved the packaging w/ the first GYBE album (the vinyl), those little trinkets that helped set the mood and make the record seem like it was found in an archeological dig. Also the Out In Worship vinyl that came with shreds of pasted on newspaper from Chicago's Chinatown as a cover, which only gets more beautiful as it yellows. And the self-titled album by Peace Orchestra, Peter Kruder's solo thing, which came with the band-aid on the jewel cover and the picture of the abrasion on the cover. That was sweet.

― Mark, Tuesday, 10 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

although slightly annoying cause you can't story it properly but the spiritualized packaging was pretty darn cool. hard to swallow the cd though.

― my fool name, Thursday, 12 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I agree with Mark that in the MP3 age packaging is of decreasing importance, which is why I find it unimaginable that any fonts from album covers in this era will become cultural cliches *in themselves* as the late 60s / 70s ones I mentioned did (and have remained, for many). I basically think that's a very good thing, but I still have an irrational sentimental side that regrets it.

― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 12 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

As a member of a band that recently spend nearly *three times* as much money on the artwork and packaging for our last CD as we did on recording the music in the first place (no, I'm not in Spiritualized, before you ask) clearly I find cover art and packaging very important.

Not just the cover art, but the whole package. If I open a CD, and there's nothing in there but a one-sided page in there, I feel cheated. If I get a lovingly laid-out booklet with lyrics and pictures and nonsense from the band, I am a happy girl indeed.

No, good cover art will not save a bad record, but a good package (all the aforementioned Spiritualized stuff, and also New Order, whose gorgeous artwork nearly bankrupted Factory, and the golden days of 4AD with V23) can make the difference between loving a band and being obsessed with them.

People may whinge that CD cases are ruining the art of covers, but the thing is that CDs are opening a whole NEW outlet for packaging in the form of the multi-media enhanced CD. OK, it's sometimes annoying when you can't play a CD without sticking it in your computer and having it take over your desktop, but just you watch. Multi-media CD presentations are going to be the gatefold-triple-album Cover Art of the 00's.

― kate the saint, Saturday, 14 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think good cover art can certainly have an effect on the way you perceive a record and the music. Well-selected artwork with a good design (hopefully chosen by the artist) can certainly enhance the overall effect. Case in point:

Jane's Addiction's Ritual de lo Habitual initially came out (in Canada, anyhow) in a basic white sleeve with lettering on it, and nothing else, because the artwork was considered obscene by someone at the record company. I listened to that album and listened to it but I couldn't quite get it. When they finally smarted up and reissued the album with the proper artwork, I finally got what the album was really about, and I started to love it. The back cover of the booklet, with the little containers of essential oils and such, with a little bottle of methadone slyly stuck into the picture spoke volumes. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else, but it changed my whole perception of the album.

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

nine years pass...

Computer of course makes me more likely to look twice at something. In the olden days I already knew what I wanted. My mind has changed, if you cared about your cover art, maybe that album is worth exploring.

You would think that it would matter more in the days of hard copy, it didn't to me. Cover art looks prettier on the internet than it does in the bins.

― Band Fag X (u s steel), Friday, 28 May 2010 13:40 (fourteen years ago) link

Whoever coined the rolling cover art/avatar thread got it with the notion of "avatar". Art seems important, but it has to make an impact at the 200x200 pixel resolution, then maybe more at higher res. Looking at the front page of Resident Advisor, or through the list or new electronic releases at eMusic, I'm struck by how I want to click on certain minimalist label-art jpgs more than others. It's two color typography, rendered too small to be readable, yet still is communicating something.

― bendy, Friday, 28 May 2010 14:29 (fourteen years ago) link

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