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Although in terms of buying, I find myself more influenced by artwork for classical music. Sometimes it’s a dull (or awful) picture of the conductor or soloist (or both) or something abstract or a painting that somehow reflects the music or era or subject. Some labels have their standard designs, notably Naxos which I find does make their stuff seem less appealing with all the white space although it’s much more attractive now than it used to be. Similar for BIS (which as I may have mentioned before) is my favourite classical label. Their older releases had horrible thick black borders enclosing a small picture or painting. Plus with awful large white text. Fortunately they have changed and now feature much more attractive artwork mixing the usual pictures of the artist or other appealing artwork.
I agree, for classical I think there's more room to be influenced by the artwork since classical music doesn't always have a specific image to start from unlike pop albums, or soundtracks.
You might enjoy this video essay I made on the subject: https://youtu.be/cceF-cJdDB0
I've bought my fair share of classical albums based on the artwork alone.
Exactly, especially 20th century classical music where they sometimes tie it to modern art that somehow reflects the style of the work. Thanks for the link, I shall check it out! I've certainly been persuaded to buy one album over another based on artwork, even though it's probably a ridiculous reason! Although very few that I have been disappointed as a result...
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I agree, for classical I think there's more room to be influenced by the artwork since classical music doesn't always have a specific image to start from unlike pop albums, or soundtracks.
Nothing can turn me off to a classical album more than a cover photo of a dour-looking artist wearing a tuxedo.
Agreed! There seems to be a specific period, maybe the 70s, where they were especially terrible. My favourite set of Brahms' symphonies is James Levine at the Chicago Symphony, but the picture of him on the front is deeply unappealing... I'm not trying to cast aspersions on his appearance, but the photos don't exactly flatter.
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Oops DP... although I can replace the DP with saying that those Rite of Spring covers are great. Does pretty well for artwork. Although I don't own either of those amongst the 11 versions I have!
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I'm not saying I only bought and continue to enjoy this album because of the cover.
But I'm not NOT saying that.
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I enjoy not just music, but also other arts, including painting and photography, so naturally I enjoy good album art. For my ALAC files, I have replaced some of the "correct" covers with covers from the FSM "custom cover art" thread series, because some of the fan made covers are just too good not to use.
I don't enjoy music more because of better cover art, but good cover art certainly used to make me notice a new album back in the days of when I still strolled through records stores. (Which is currently somewhat curbed because of Corona.)
I enjoy when labels are creative and put some effort into their covers. There are many classical recordings with excellent and creative covers, and even more that are just plain dull and uninspired. I mean, how many pictures do you need with Viktoria Mullova holding a violin or Nikolaus Harnoncourt brooding over something? I still enjoy these recordings -- Nikolaus Harnoncourt/Gidon Kremer have made one of the finest recordings of Beethoven's violin concerto -- but some of the covers are boring. :-)
I enjoy striking album art in the way I enjoy good book covers... it does not make the contents better or worse, but maybe you pick it up more.
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I think there is a difference between cover art for pop music and for soundtracks.
For both cover art is a sales pitch. But for pop music it is the only way to visualize the concept of the music.
For soundtracks the film is the visualization, and it used to be the film poster which was the cover art for the score.
In both cases I can enjoy the music without having to enjoy the cover art. That does not make the music better or worse.
But it does influence me to buy something, definitely.
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In both cases I can enjoy the music without having to enjoy the cover art. That does not make the music better or worse.
That sounds like me. It was nice to have attractive cover art, but I really wanted the music even if the art was unattractive.
Yes, great cover art is nice and I enjoy it, but it is not tied to my listening experience of the music. Sometimes I just replace the cover art on my files with something that I find more suitable.
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Totally not off-the-wall. The artwork is part of the connection to the music, just as the motion pictures are. For me I sort of have the opposite problem from the OP: thanks to media players, I don't connect art with an album at all until it starts playing. It's just a text line. This is part of the reason I still listen to CDs as a ritual. Even the color scheme and font style (and occasional art) on the CD spine tells me what I'm picking out, just like with all physical media. Winamp and my personal (portable) media player don't do that.
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Totally not off-the-wall. The artwork is part of the connection to the music, just as the motion pictures are. For me I sort of have the opposite problem from the OP: thanks to media players, I don't connect art with an album at all until it starts playing. It's just a text line. This is part of the reason I still listen to CDs as a ritual. Even the color scheme and font style (and occasional art) on the CD spine tells me what I'm picking out, just like with all physical media. Winamp and my personal (portable) media player don't do that.
Mine show the album art; on the go, I just use my smartphone to listen to music, and album art is shown.
I am actually surprised that Winamp doesn't show album art?
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