When Peter Gjerset, a UCLA alumnus, saw the cover for A Perfect Circle’s 2000 release “Mer de Noms,” he was instantly intrigued and walked to the counter to purchase the album. Upon opening the album, however, he noticed more gruesome images in the CD jacket ““ a direct reflection of the more serious tone of the album.
“It had dark ambience that I didn’t like because I didn’t understand it at the time,” Gjerset said.
Realizing that album art was the first impression that listeners have of a band, Gjerset carefully selected the MySpace images for the songs for his band, Horse Crash, which won the best duet entry for Spring Sing 2007.
“We would be trying to find a picture to visually embody the musical spirit of the song,” Gjerset said. “In the case of the single “˜Please Be,’ we tried to pick an image that went along with the emotion of that song, which we thought was kind of melancholy.”
Especially in an age of bloggers publicly digesting album art weeks or even months prior to an album’s release, the visual image the band projects can often predict the direction the group is going on its latest release.
“I think cover art is often indicative of a band’s state of mind: Bloc Party has gone from snowy landscape, to cityscape, to an intimate and fairly minimal scene,” said Mike Smith, creator of U.K. music blog “Nothing But Green Lights.”
“They can afford to be more adventurous: even if their adventure is found in minimalism. I don’t think cover art sways people one way or the other, but when I listen to an album, the cover art tells me at where the band is, artistically.”
Smith’s blog has a distinctive quality in that it pairs images with the mp3s he selects for his readers, continuing to fuel the idea of art representing music.
“I think artists now know that a wider number of images can be used than ever before, but web sites, magazines will continue to have a picture of the CD there ““ people still go into stores and want to have a vague idea of what the CD looks like,” Smith said.
Smith recently wrote an article for The Morning News, which dissected the reason why he believed TV on the Radio’s latest album “Dear Science,” was not as stellar as the band’s previous albums.
Part of the reason he cited was the lackluster album art selected, which was an unassuming blue background with the words “Dear Science” written in white.
“A friend may recommend an album, but just before you commit to buying it you look at the cover and try to decide. Cover-art is important,” Smith said. “TVOTR is, musically, so much better as opposed to the minimalism of their cover art. So, maybe quality breeds minimalism when it comes to trying to represent yourself, but TVOTR has probably gone too far in that direction.”
On the other hand, with CD sales on the decline and digital media increasing in popularity, Gjerset finds the importance of album art an antiquated idea.
“Ten years ago you would have to actually buy physical music and would go to the store,” Gjerset said. “Nowadays you sometimes get art with the music. Music is becoming less connected with the art.”
Drew Burns, a third-year art history student, disagrees with this comment. When choosing the album art for his band, Translate the Name, the lead guitarist and backup vocalist took careful consideration of the image the band was trying to embody.
“If someone goes on your MySpace page, and it shows a naked chick on your album cover, people will perceive stereotypes about what your music is about: probably sex or drugs,” Burns said. “If you have surprising, interesting album covers, people would be more likely to listen. Every little thing counts in original music; so many bands doing the same thing.”
Translate the Name went so far as to hire a graphic artist who specializes in designing bands’ MySpace pages and album art to design the cover art for their latest demo.
“You so rarely say, “˜Oh wow! Look at that cover art!’ and are disappointed ““ making me think my thoughts about cover art are influenced by how good the album is,'” Smith said. “Cover art isn’t something you’d have to get perfect, but a band’s image can be more easily manipulated, changed through their web presence through images.”