Album Cover

An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-rpm records, single and sets of LPs, sets of 45 rpm records (either in several connected sleeves or a box), or the front-facing panel of a cassette J-card or CD package, and, increasingly, the primary image accompanying a digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks.

In the case of all types of tangible records, it also serves as part of the protective sleeve.

Early history

Around 1910, 78-rpm records replaced the phonograph cylinder as the medium for recorded sound. The 78-rpm records were issued in both 10- and 12-inch diameter sizes and were usually sold separately, in brown paper or cardboard sleeves that were sometimes plain and sometimes printed to show the producer or the retailer's name. These were invariably made out of acid paper, limiting conservability. Generally the sleeves had a circular cutout allowing the record label to be seen. Records could be laid on a shelf horizontally or stood upright on an edge, but because of their fragility, many broke in storage.

German record company Odeon pioneered the "album" in 1909 when it released the ''Nutcracker Suite'' by Tchaikovsky on four double-sided discs in a specially designed package. (It is not indicated what the specially designed package was.) The practice of issuing albums does not seem to have been taken up by other record companies for many years.

Beginning in the 1920s, bound collections of empty sleeves with a plain paperboard or leather cover were sold as "record albums" (similar to a photograph album) that customers could use to store their records. (The name "record album" was printed on some covers.) These empty albums were sold in both 10- and 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than the records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, and suspending the fragile records above the shelf, protecting them.

Starting in the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78-rpm records by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled collections. These albums of several 78-rpm records could include a collection of popular songs related by either performer or style, or extended-length classical music, including complete symphonies.

In 1938, Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as its first art director. He is credited with inventing the concept of album covers and cover art, replacing the plain covers used before. After his initial efforts at Columbia, other record companies followed his lead. By the late 1940s, record albums for all the major companies featured their own colorful paper covers in both 10- and 12-inch sizes. Some featured reproductions of classic art while others utilized original designs.

When the 10- and 12-inch long-playing records (LPs) came along in 1948, and box sets of 45-rpm records soon followed (see gramophone record), the name "album" was used for the new format of collections, and the creation of artistic original album covers continued.

Formats

From the 1950s through to the 1980s, the 12" LP record and the 45 rpm record became the major formats for the distribution of popular music. The LP format remains in use for occasional new releases, though other formats have largely supplanted it. The size of the typical cardboard LP sleeve cover is square.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the compact disc (CD) was the most common form of physically-distributed music products. Packaging formats vary, including the jewel case (which since 1982 has been the most popular form of CD packaging), and the cardboard and plastic combination commonly known as a Digipak (which has been a popular alternative form of packaging in recent years, but remains supplanted by the jewel case due to higher manufacturing costs and lower durability). Typically the album cover component of these packages is approximately square.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, CDs were often sold as jewel cases enclosed within cardboard longboxes measuring by , which provided more space for album artwork than the jewel cases they contained, but were seen as harmful to the environment since the cardboard box was typically discarded by the buyer soon after purchase. Major record labels in the United States stopped distributing CDs in longboxes as of April 1, 1993.

Design

Album covers are one of the various ways in which first impressions affect an audience's perception of a given musician or band, or other content of the album. Album covers' design cover may also add to how an audience forms an opinion of them and their music. There are various ways in which an album cover is visualized. Some examples include artists choosing to put a photo of themselves, which is one of the factors that add to the observation of the band, the musician, and the music.

The album cover eventually became an important part of the culture of music. Under the influence of designers like Bob Cato, who at various stages in his long music career was vice president of creative services at both Columbia Records and United Artists, album covers became renowned for being a marketing tool and an expression of artistic intent. Album art has also been discussed as an important postwar cultural expression.

During the early 1960s, the Beatles' '' With the Beatles'', Bob Dylan's '' The Times They Are a-Changin''' and the Rolling Stones' self-titled debut album each contained a cover photograph designed to further the musical artist's public image. Author Peter Doggett also highlights the cover of Otis Redding's '' Otis Blue'', containing a photo of a young white woman, as a design that "played a dual role: she represented the transcendent power of the music, and obscured the race of its creator." The standard portrait-based LP cover was further challenged over 1965–66 by Dylan's '' Bringing It All Back Home'', through the inclusion of symbolic artefacts around the singer; the artificially stretched faces of the Beatles shown on their '' Rubber Soul'' album; and the darkened hues applied to the Rolling Stones on '' Aftermath''.

Gatefold covers (a folded double cover) and inserts, often with lyric sheets, made the album cover a desirable work in its own right. Notable examples are the Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', which had cut-out inserts, printed lyrics, and a gatefold sleeve, even though it was a single album; the Rolling Stones' '' Exile on Main Street'', which had a gatefold and a series of 12 perforated postcards as inserts (taken by photographer Norman Seeff); and Pink Floyd's '' The Dark Side of the Moon'', which had a gatefold, lyrics, no title on the sleeve, and poster and sticker inserts. The Band's 1970 release '' Stage Fright'', which included a photograph by Seeff as a poster insert, is an early example of LP artwork quickly becoming a collector's item. The move to the small (less than 1/4 the size of a record) CD format lost that impact, although attempts have been made to create a more desirable packaging for the CD format, for example the reissue of ''Sgt. Pepper'', which had a cardboard box and booklet, or the use of oversized packaging.

The importance of design was such that some cover artists specialised or gained fame through their work. Such people include the design team Hipgnosis, through their work on Pink Floyd albums and others; Roger Dean, famous for his Yes and Greenslade covers; Cal Schenkel, for Captain Beefheart's '' Trout Mask Replica'' and Frank Zappa's '' We're Only in It for the Money''.

The talents of many photographers and illustrators from both inside and outside of the music industry have been used to produce a vast array of memorable LP/CD covers. Photographer Mick Rock produced some of the most iconographic album covers of the 1970s, including Queen's '' Queen II'' (recreated for their classic music video Bohemian Rhapsody), Syd Barrett's '' The Madcap Laughs'', and Lou Reed's '' Transformer''. From 1972 to 1975, photographer Norman Seeff was creative director at United Artists and in addition to his many cover photographs ( The Band, Kiss's '' Hotter than Hell'', Joni Mitchell's ''Hejira'', etc.), he art directed dozens of album covers including '' Exile on Main Street'', many of which received Grammy nominations. In addition to the examples mentioned previously, a number of world-renowned graphic artists and illustrators such as Robert Crumb ( Big Brother & the Holding Company), Shepard Fairey ( Johnny Cash), Howard Finster ( R.E.M., Talking Heads), Frank Frazetta ( Molly Hatchet