What effect do album aesthetics have on listening?
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Topic: What effect do album aesthetics have on listening?
Posted By: topofsm
Subject: What effect do album aesthetics have on listening?
Date Posted: 09 Aug 2011 at 10:17pm
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This is mainly a person to person question, because I feel it's definitely subjective. I always try to listen to music free of bias. That is, without any preconceptions about how the music will sound. That being said, I think the album art inherently grasps onto what I'm listening to in my mind and influences how it sounds. For example, take these two Isis albums:   Whenever I listen to Panopticon, I can't help by thinking of a very moody atmosphere, with lots of dark clouds and mists, and plenty of blues. Likewise, whenever I listen to In the Absence of Truth, I feel awash in an abstract atmosphere of reds, oranges, and tinges of yellow. I can't help but think of the former as much, much more darker of an album, with the latter being mostly just atmospheric and haunting, even though looking at it more objectively they're both pretty dark albums. I have to question whether this affects how I interpret the quality of the albums, because to be honest, I wonder if I'd think of things differently if neither albums had any visuals associated with them. I feel this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if care has been taken to present it correctly. After all, album art should be a reflection of the music inside. So there really shouldn't be a problem if the art is on the right album, as it should definitely serve its purpose thoroughly. What do y'all think? Do album aesthetics (covers, booklets included, and even band photos at the time) affect how you visualize or interpret? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Do you have anything interesting to say? ------------- Lost respect for these archives when I saw Creed added, among other bands. Not going to be foruming here anymore. You can keep my reviews if you want. |
Replies:
Posted By: Triceratopsoil
Date Posted: 09 Aug 2011 at 10:27pm
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I haven't really thought about it. Aesthetics of the art definitely affect whether or not I buy something. That's an interesting point about Panopticon, and I see what you mean. |
Posted By: NorseGangsta
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 1:30am
| Yeah, album art is certainly important. I was listening to a track from Agalloch's Marrow of the Spirit earlier and that album art perfectly exemplifies and complements what is felt through the music. And look at Devin Townsend's Deconstruction, all of the album art helps to visualize the album as a great chaotic metal machine centered all around HevyDevy himself. |
Posted By: Pekka
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 1:50am
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The colour scheme of an album cover very very often has an effect on how I perceive the pieces of music inside. For example Metallica have their blue album (Lightning) red album (Puppets), white album (Justice and to lesser extent Magnetic) and black album (guess which?). I don't think I enjoy anything more than I would if it had a different cover, but it always gives the songs a nice graphic frame. ------------- http://iamthreepeople.bandcamp.com" rel="nofollow">  <- Click on this!
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Posted By: UMUR
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 2:28am
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A cover artwork that reflects the music inside is very important IMO. Many times you only have to look at the cover artwork to know what music style the artist plays, so it also signals to the buyer what it is they are purchasing. ------------- http://www.lyngby-boldklub.dk/" rel="nofollow - Forever TRUE - Forever BLUE! https://rateyourmusic.com/~UMUR" rel="nofollow - UMUR on RYM |
Posted By: Time Signature
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 3:15am
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Yes, cover artwork is extremely important and contributes to the overall experience of an album. The colours, the shapes, the perspectives - all those details - do have an influence on how I perceive the music itself. Actually, in this day and age of digital releases, I think that the experience of listening to music lacks something, and that may well be the visual aspect (fortunately, it is still there, to some extent, in the option of including artwork on your iPod) as well as the tactile experience of leafing through the booklet and touching the disc and all that. While I am not a vinyl collector, I really miss the vinyl format when it comes to the cover art, because it allowed for so many details. I mean the only way to really appreciate the cover art of, say, "Somewhere in Time" and "Powerslave" is in vinyl cover sleeve format. ------------- 
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Posted By: UMUR
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 3:40am
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Yeah those Maiden albums are mindblowing in the vinyl sleeve format. I spend hours as a young teen looking at those covers while listening to the albums. ------------- http://www.lyngby-boldklub.dk/" rel="nofollow - Forever TRUE - Forever BLUE! https://rateyourmusic.com/~UMUR" rel="nofollow - UMUR on RYM |
Posted By: Wilytank
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 6:27am
Look at this: This is The Grimmrobe Demos by Sunn O))). It really stands for every single piece of music that Sunn O))) has made. The core feeling makes me feel like I'm a different dimension that's the same as the one we're in now except that the clouds are overcast and gray (not raining), the grass and most other vegetation is dead, all man-made structures are abandoned and in disrepair, and there isn't another human being to be seen. I've tried re-interpreting this feeling with other albums they did:  The Black One makes me feel like I'm in a dark, abandoned building that has been buried underground. I stumble around in the darkness trying to find a way out until I finally run out of oxygen at "Bathory Erzebet". ------------- 
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Posted By: Prog Geo
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 8:43am
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We need bands like this in order to remind us that life sucks hard. Hate life (it's also a song of Life neglected. Happy days made a cover of that).
------------- Inexistence is the true normality. |
Posted By: adg211288
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 10:35am
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I like it when the cover art fits the theme and style of the album, it somehow manages to make the package feel 'more complete' if you know what I mean. Of course it doesn't bother me if the art doesn't fit so long as the music is good, but I consider good art as a great bonus to buying the physical album. ------------- Earn Money Online (NOT a scam): https://premium.gg2u.org?referrer=adg211288" rel="nofollow - GG2U https://adamsfilmcorner.quora.com/" rel="nofollow - Adam's Film Corner on Quora |
Posted By: Triceratopsoil
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 11:32am
I was going to mention Marrow of the Spirit myself  |
NorseGangsta wrote:Posted By: pfr_77
Date Posted: 10 Aug 2011 at 12:58pm
| Album art is key. |
Posted By: Xaxaar
Date Posted: 12 Aug 2011 at 9:01pm
Definitely think it does. 99% if I adore the album, I will also adore the art it comes with. Sure, there are exceptions (for example: Deconstruction), but for the most part I think it's true. To keep the Devin Townsend comparison going, I definitely think the Terria album art enhances the experience considerably.
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Posted By: MAVIIIVAM
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2011 at 1:14am
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Well . . . Heres something that kind of pisses me off, I'm sure it would have "come to me" after I owned the album and would have said, "Wait a minute!" . . . http://www.metalsucks.net/2011/08/08/dream-theater-used-clip-art-for-their-album-cover/" rel="nofollow - http://www.metalsucks.net/2011/08/08/dream-theater-used-clip-art-for-their-album-cover/ I wrote a comment under the column. Needless to say how important album art is to me, having done 5 now and all the great memories of when I 1st saw many a cover from fave bands. One of many great memories is Rush's "Moving Pictures". To the tone that was set by the (Hugh Syme) Cover Graphics and the inside Sleeve pics of the band in "motion". It was their darkest album and it was reflected on the cover. This is 1 of many  .But Hugh! Where did you go wrong with DT  (but hey, everyone makes mistakes).By the way, checkout this old thread at PrOgulus.com: http://progulus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=98&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0" rel="nofollow - http://progulus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=98&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 ------------- "If you're happy to be an Ant in the Sand Box, you're welcome to it!" -Forbidden For Progressive Metal and Prog Rock, come visit, request songs and explore at PrOgulus.com |
Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2011 at 4:58pm
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^I've always felt that Dream Theater has mostly had very generic looking cover art, even in their classic era! I never liked the Dramatic Turn of Events Anyway. That being said, I feel DT's latest coming out is a good example for this thread too. I'm already thinking of it as light and bright and airy, even thought I haven't heard it yet! ------------- Lost respect for these archives when I saw Creed added, among other bands. Not going to be foruming here anymore. You can keep my reviews if you want. |
Posted By: Stooge
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2011 at 6:53pm
When I read the part about them using clip art, I thought for sure it was referring to Black Clouds and Silver Linings.  ------------- https://armchairmaestro.com/" rel="nofollow - My Music Blog |
Posted By: cannon
Date Posted: 15 Aug 2011 at 10:36am
I'd have to say very little. LP covers, no question incitied my imagination but with the small and sometimes, depending on the cover art of the CD, barely recognisable artwork jammed in the jewel case is all but uninfluential. Album covers actually had a huge impact on me in my teens, not only as an creative thinking tool but also as a lure to purchase albums with not knowing what music was contained on the vinyl. That thinking changed when I was 18 as I purchased At War With Satan by Venom. Gawd awful, pun intended. The next weekened I tried to exchange it at the stereo/record shop, but to no avail. I got caught red-handed lying as I told the clerk that it skipped as he played it on the store turntable. It didn't skip of course. So I gave it to my buddy. He always did have bad taste in music.Fast forward some 25 years later, ironically a few months ago on another site an 18 year old suggested to me that I listen to some Venom to really understand what thrash was about. Well, I went along the young man being the nice guy that I am and dialed in to youtube and plugged in Venom in the search function and clicked on a couple vids/songs from At War With Satan. Yeppers, it sounded just as awful as it did 25 years ago.This also applies to watching concert footage for me as well. I watched the Never Say Die video by Sabbath when it came out on video tape, I'm guessing about 25 years ago on Beta as that time we had a Beta machine. It totally detracted my imagination from what I had previously invisioned Sabbath to be in concert. Ozzy was overwieght and didn't look into it. Iommi was a statue. Bill Ward looked green. Geezer was the only one that had any energy. Til this day that video is etched in my memory when I think of Sabbath live. Since then I've hardly watched any concert footage as I prefer to look at pictures and let my mind place me at the concert. |
Posted By: The Truth
Date Posted: 15 Aug 2011 at 12:06pm
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At the OP:
I tend to listen to music like that but honestly, I shouldn't. Oftentimes the feel I get looking at an album cover varies greatly from the feel I get listening to an album. It just works like that. Now when both are in sync with each other, it's kind of cool but that rarely happens. ------------- http://bit.ly/vNlKf3" rel="nofollow">  
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Posted By: Wilytank
Date Posted: 15 Aug 2011 at 7:13pm
That's bound to happen. For instance, the music here isn't as awesome as the artwork (but it could have been).  -------------
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Posted By: MAVIIIVAM
Date Posted: 15 Aug 2011 at 7:53pm
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^^ I wouldnt bother with Winds of Plague because that "Font" is being overused . This type of Metal should have a new genre, "Generic Death Metal"  .
. . . but, You would have thought that if you went to SEE a Sabbath show wouldn't you?  Being at a show is TOTALLY different than watching it on Video, unless youre really into a Band. In my experience of being at a Concert is the crowd, their reaction, the Band feeding off of it and just "seeing" them play the Instruments/Songs. Many are just "Guys playing" and I dont mind that at all. If the "Show" is really good (i.e. Lights, Stage, Stage Presence, etc.), then its icing on the cake. I like to "see" bands play and all the aural sensations I get from it, though I wont judge a bands musicianship "Live", some are awful (not many I can think of - I've been a bit disappointed with Paradise Lost and Sentenced Live on video), but I prefer to judge them in the Studio. Sabbath have always played the way you describe though, Dio was energetic as well-with them, when Ian Gillan sang with them, it was the 1st time I saw someone "Headbang" and at the time was strange for some reason (I was 19 I think), but a bit scary too  (Never got to go to a show though ).Tony Martin was as dramatic as Dio as well (The "Cross Purposes" Video). I'll have to write more about why for me, Album Art and Music go hand in hand, and the bands I discovered with TERRIBLE cover art -that turned out to be really awesome with their music  .------------- "If you're happy to be an Ant in the Sand Box, you're welcome to it!" -Forbidden For Progressive Metal and Prog Rock, come visit, request songs and explore at PrOgulus.com |
Posted By: Wilytank
Date Posted: 16 Aug 2011 at 6:46am
Actually, I've listened to their third album The Great Stone War and I think it's a major improvement. It's a very interesting brand of symphonic deathcore. -------------
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Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: 21 Aug 2011 at 6:17am
| It doesn't matter to me whether the album art "reflects" the music or not. But I do need a strong image (or images) with lots of character, to help me successfully assign the aural experience to a visual experience. That's important if you listen to a lot of music, it helps you remember better how "that album" was. |
Posted By: Phonebook Eater
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2011 at 6:57pm
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I love listening to an album and having the artwork clearly in your head as you listen. The artwork is part of an album, it is part of it's visual side, and completes the music itself. I always keep the artwork in mind somehow when listening to something, and I'll continue doing so. ------------- 
My Album Reviews: http://audiopline.wordpress.com/ Movie Reviewing blog: http://moviepline.wordpress.com/ |
Posted By: Kingcrimsonprog
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2011 at 4:11pm
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I find it all has a huge effect on my impressions, music videos, photo shoots in magazines, interviews, lyrical presentation in the booklet and most of all, cover art. It has a massive effect on my prejudices, preconceptions etc if I listen to it after having seen or read anything about it, and can change my initial reaction if I see/hear/read things like that afterward. I thought Master Of Puppets was a completely different record before I saw the photos inside the booklet. -------------  My Blog: http://kingcrimsonprog.wordpress.com/ |