Guest post from Gemma Matchett, music lover and Halfcut intern
I grew up in a music family. My parents, uncles, aunties, all of them influenced my siblings, cousins and I greatly in the way of our musical upbringing. A very common thing in Australia it would seem. The coolest thing, I think, is that I could ask nearly any one of them a year an album was released and what the cover looked like, and they would recite it like it was their timetables. Mostly due to the fact that they would haul ass down to their local record store and buy the LP the day it was released, have it play on repeat and read the cover and inserts front to back over and over.
Being a Gen Y baby, that really isn’t a reality for me. Can I go ahead and say for any of us Gen Ys? We don’t really have that because of the shift in music consumption. If I want to hear a new album, I’ll jump online and order it if it isn’t available on Spotify, like I’m sure a lot of people do. I know the basics of the heavy metal formation and timeline, but couldn’t regurgitate the date of every album I love dearly. I could, however, tell you the covers of most if not all. Is this because I like art? Because I’m invested in how an album comes together not just the final product? Perhaps it’s that I like to build up my vinyl collection, and for a moment take in the details and colors like my parents used to. Or is it, that album art is still very relevant to the experience, even with the rise of digital tracks and subscription services? I certainly hope so.
In search for the answers to the mystery of cover art, I came across a great article with the same questions for CBC Music, which highlighted the opinions of industry veterans. After reading publications on the topic, I found myself nodding my head agreeing confidently on some points and with fear on others. Mostly, there was one point which really stuck out—covers are what clothe albums. In the digital world, while that might not be physically true, it will always help create the binding agent from your ears to your mind. You can close your eyes and at the very least have a color scheme to help visualize what you’re hearing.
And that is exactly what makes one look at the album art, even if it is on a little square somewhere on your ‘now playing’ screen. Suddenly this music has a visual element to it away from your own imagination and perception the moment you lay eyes on it. Sometimes it enhances it, sometimes it challenges it. This isn’t a new concept. Either way, even though album art has a smaller budget nowadays and is quite commonly not outsourced, the fact that it creates this extra layer to your experience with the music is unchanged. A lot of things are coming and going as the technological revolution continues, but I don’t believe that something like that could ever be irrelevant, no matter the means of consumption. So that must be why we can recite album covers while hearing the tunes in our heads—we’re supposed to.
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