a look back at the album covers of the 2000s

Looking back at the 90s and the 00s, one thing i can distinctly remember from most of the releases from around that time is albums, specifically their covers, pre-dating the era of streaming, the competition was being fought onto the shelves of stores and record shops for an artists album to stand out, and this is where design came in, having a memorable and striking design assigned to your album cover could do wonders, it would direct the eyes of browsing shoppers onto the album, which in the process would prompt them to think of your album and with some luck even go ahead and purchase it, and on a bigger scale, album covers have gone and influenced more than one may think.

But with the decades passing, things have changed, with the era of streaming upon us starting with as early as the beginning of the 2010s, the demand for physical copies of music has had a significant dip and so the industry also picked up on this, therefore less effort would go into the album cover side when it came to marketing, with funds and effort now being redirected towards social media marketing and other new found methods of getting the product out.

I have handpicked 3 album covers which stood out and inspired me through their design or message conveyed:

• Graduation - Kanye West (2007)

With it's vibrant colours and time appropriate design which I believe takes its inspiration from the popular 'frutiger aero' design movement widely popular during the 2000s, this album cover has become an iconic piece of media and has become widely recognised even by members of the public who have no interest regarding Kanyes music. I believe this was due to its design which broke the conventional expectations of what an album cover should look like; there is no text or even a picture of the artist illustrated anywhere within the cover itself.

Image sourced from https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/kanye-west/graduation/

• Fallen - Evanescence (2003)

  
  

  Perhaps one of the 'founding fathers' of 2000s emo and punk subgeneres, the 'Fallen' album covers pictures Amy Lee, one of the lead signers of the band 'Evanescence' onto the cover, the photograph used has been altered with a blue and black mix of colurs and overexposure, achieving what would come to be a design approach of cultural significance among a number of emo/metal/punk bands thru the reminder of the decade, its 'grunge' look combined with the overexposure times the design massively and makes it a dead giveaway this is a piece of media from the 2000s which nowdays will evoke feelings of nostalgia, but back then with emo subcultures and fashion trends being on the rise at impressive speeds, this stood out to audiences with its time appropriate design.

Image sourced from https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/evanescence/fallen/

• American Idiot - Green Day (2004)

Another staple of punk culture is Green Days 'American Idiot' with their simplistic approach to covers in an era of maximalism, with minimalism not due to appear as a trend for another decade or so, on the surface the simplicity of the album cover may seem boring, but deep down the use of black, white and red exclusively really ties everything in together, the heart shaped grenade, bleeding onto the white palm for contrast accompanied by the album name and the artist name being differentiate by using white for one and red for the other, while this may seem like a 'lazy' approach to an album cover, it's done with logic and has become an easily recognisable album cover due to this (as well as the contents of the album, of course).

Image sourced from https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/green-day/american-idiot/

So, in conclusion, does the album art on the album play a role in its popularity? Maybe. Does it boost recognition for the band and album? Absolutely.

As (Le, 2020) puts it, "[...] album art has three main roles: advertisement, accompaniment, and emerging product." which feeds into the suggestion that album covers are not only for visual entertainment, but can play a role in how the audience perceives an album and can be experience altering on how they approach the album in question. It also supports the suggestion I had made prior that an album cover can influence the styles and even the path a subculture may go down onto.

Despite the era of physical album sales being (for the most part) a thing of the past, and with the album cover now usually squeezed in a 10x10 corner in the corner of whatever music player or streaming service one may use, they are still being made as they have been cemented into the definition of pop culture.

References

Le, V. (2020). Visual Metaphors on Album Covers: An Analysis into Graphic Design's Effectiveness at Conveying Music Genres. : Oregon State University.