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October 06, 2006
When Album Covers Attack!
The increasing sales of digital music may have an unintended consequence - the end of album art. I know that at least two-thirds of Merry Swankster partners fondly adhere to the official CD release for both artifact and as a physical representation of one’s music collection. The value, accessibility, and portability of music digitization has been a wonderful thing, but there is something to be said about flipping through a CD (or album) collection and reminiscing with memories tied to particular records that cannot be duplicated with the quick scrolling of an iPod.
The Apple people understand the emptiness that naysayers of digital music have towards the medium and are clearly striving for that visceral feeling that comes only with rich visuals that album art provides. The latest iTunes version (7.0) has a nifty feature that allows browsing by album cover which actually gives more of a jukebox feel than a scan through a CD tower, but its close and better than bland text on a screen. (That is of course until the iPod brain implant version gets released.)
Why am I saying all this? Because I support the “full package” of a CD release. Artists take time in planning the cover art, lyrics layout and thank yous to their family and producer. Also, because without them we would never enjoy this video which is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Tell me that different episodes of your life did not flash through your mind upon seeing the classic covers used in the video and I’ll call you a liar, or you’ll call me a big music geek. (From: Motionographer via: Stereogum)
Posted by Merry Swankster at October 6, 2006 01:27 PM
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