Documentary Script

Introduction To Specialism
 “Since the 1940’s, artists have released album art to go along
with all their music- with some of these ending up being the
most famous pieces of artwork of all time.”
 “But with the main source of music now being digital
streams, are album covers becoming outdated.
 In this short documentary, I'm going to be looking at album
art through the decades, how its evolved and if it is time up
for album covers”
(30s)

Brief history of specialism

 “In the very early days of vinyl packaging, records would
typically be sold in boring paper or cardboard sleeves with
the name of the producer or retailer on the front.”
 Up to the late 1930’s, all records generally looked the same
and, visually, there wasn’t anything that hooked the
consumer. However, it wasn’t until 1939 where...
 “Alex Steinweiss, an employee at Columbia Records, came
up with a genius idea- adding a design to the front of LP
sleeves”
 “After his revelation, he took a photographer down to New
York’s West 45th Street and took a picture of the famous
Imperial Theatre and its distinctive marquee”
 “Steinweiss and the photographer asked the owner to
change the signage of the marquee to ‘smash song hits by
Rodgers & Hart’ and agreed that what they captured was
perfect for an LP cover”
 “And the image currently on screen would go on to be the
world’s first album cover”.
 “Despite being reluctant about his idea, Columbia did
eventually invest in it and record sales increased by almost
900%. Steinweiss’ idea was hailed as genius.”
 “It didn’t stop there for Steinweiss as his work dominated
the music world throughout the 40’s. Records had a
 complete change of image; they went from something sold at
the back of shops to desirable objects. Steinweiss’ work
featured on a range of genres from jazz to classical to pop;
and his art had the same positive impact on all the covers it
was featured on.”
 “In his book, Steinweiss said,” I love music so much so, to
my mind, this was no way to package beautiful music, I want
people to look at the artwork and hear the music.”
 “After this album covers took off artists began to include
symbolism and psychedelia in their album covers making
them better and better ever since...”
(2 min)

How Technology has improved album covers

 “Despite the general opinion that digital streaming has had a
negative effect on album art. There are definitely points
where technology has improved album covers.”
 “For example, in the late 1930’s when having art on LP
sleeves first became a thing, the art on each sleeve was done
by hand; one by one.”
 “But then moving into the 40’s, black and white
photographs started to be used on covers. And by the time of
the early 50’s more and more colour was being used on the
covers along with fancy fonts and complimentary artwork.”
 However, when the 60’s came along the world of album
covers blew up and this decade in particular is known as one
of the most experimental of all time.
 With massive artists like the Beatles, the rolling stones, the
who and others all releasing incredibly experimental
artwork all with the theme of psychedelia.
 “But in the early 70’s a massive change happened when the
world was first introduced to computer imaging and by the
80’s nearly every album cover had some element of this in
it”
 “This grew even bigger when in February of 1990, adobe
released photoshop point one and it has kept on growing
ever since”
(1 min 30s)

Key people in the industry

 “Throughout the decades, there have been many artists that
have created iconic pieces of art to go along with an album.”
 “The biggest name probably being the famous artist: Andy
Warhol. Hes mainly known for making album covers for the
rolling stones, Velvet Underground, John Lennon and many
more.”
 “Some other massive names in the industry include Storm
Thorgerson who is known for making one of the best album
covers of all time for Pink Floyd with their album (dark side
of the moon). Hes also known for making album art for
Wings, T-rex and Led Zepplin. Another name is Peter Blake
who, like Thorgerson, created one of the best album covers
of all time: Sargent pepper's lonely hearts club band by the
Beatles.”
 “And finally, Ed Thrasher who is known for his bold uses of
psycadelia and colour in his artwork for covers like the Jimi
Hendrix experience, whilst creating album art for other
artists like Neil Young, Van Morrison and The Beach Boys.”
(1 min)

Key Techniques used for album covers

 “In this industry, so many artists have their own unique way
of creating album artwork. But one technique, I would like
to highlight is the use of psychedelia in album art.”
 “Most commonly used in the 1960’s, this featured on a
bunch of album covers with one of the most famous
examples of this being Revolver by the Beatles.”
 “The artist, Klaus Voormann, wanted to do something
different to the generic photographic style so he created this
illustrated swirling drawing of the band whilst still combing
it with photography by adding clusters of black and white
pictures of the Beatles around the cover.”
 “Another technique I want to look at is the use of colour and
distortion.”
  “Colour can either be used to make the album cover stand
out from the rest or going the other way, colour could be
used in a very conservative way to make something stand
out within the album cover itself”
 “Distortion, whilst being a more modern technique, has been
used throughout the decades with artists using it to reflect
the type of album their art is on. Some noticeable examples
being unknown pleasures by Joy division and, more
recently, the weekend, using colour distortion, on the deluxe
addition of after hours.”
(1 min 30s)

My own attempt at mastering a technique

 “For this part of the documentary, I will be attempting three
colour techniques that have been used in popular album
covers...”
 “Number one is the deluxe version of after-hours created by
the Tammi Brothers. This album cover features a dark red
version of the original split down the middle with one side
being heavily saturated. Here is my remake...”
 “Number two is whole lotta red created by Jung Chung. This
album cover features a black and white picture of carti with
a white outline and, inspired by the 1970’s punk-rock
magazine slash, this cover has large, red, blood-type writing
at the top. Here is my remake... ”
 “And number three is Menlove Avenue created by Andy
Warhol. John Lennon had always admired Warhol, so he got
Warhol to create illustrations of himself: this was done only
months before Lennons’s death. The cover itself features a
colourful portrait of Lennon. His face is red with some blue
highlights in his hair and a plain black background. Here is
my remake...”

Interviews with people discussing the skill

 “To help me conclude if album art is outdated, I wanted to
get a second opinion, so I asked Michael Bush: a lecturer at
Bournemouth and Poole College. Part of what Michael
 teaches is advertising and marketing, so I started off by
asking him, how does a strong album cover influence how
well an album performs?”
 “I then gave him a choice of five iconic album covers and
asked him which was his favourite and why”
 “I also wanted to know what about album covers appeal to
him”
 “To add to this, I wanted to know how he thought album
covers have changed over time”
 “After picking – out of the selected 5 album covers I gave
Mike, I wanted to know his favourite cover of all time.”
 “And finally, I asked Mike if album covers are dead and
outdated.”

Conclusion To Specialism
 “In conclusion, I think that, despite now being consumed in
a different way, album covers, and album art is still very
much a popular concept that still grasps an interest by the
consumers.”
 “And with the evolution of technology and software like AI,
I think that is an exciting time for album art too see how far
it can go... the sky’s the limit.