IFPI Digital Music Report 2013. Engine of a digital world.

CASE STUDY: Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell

Heres a short case Study I contructed during the summer about Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. 

CASE STUDY: Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell

These two designers who founded Hipgnosis in 1968 have played a huge role in revolutionising album cover design. The two worked together between the years 1968 to 1982, having met at the age of 17 at a convention in Cambridge which also included members of Pink Floyd. When Thorgerson went to London to study film in 1966 at the Royal College of Art, Powell joined him and was hired by the BBC as a scenic artist. Thorgerson suggested to Powell that he should join the RCA’s Photographic School. Powell was taught by John Hedgecoe for 6 months before the college discovered Powell was being taught for free. Powell himself said that he received ‘…the finest education in photography – nobody asked where I’d come from…’(Mark Sinclair (2012). The Odd Couple. Creative Review. 34, pp.20) He was soon after asked to leave when the college discovered he was not officially enrolled.

Powell and Thorgerson then began working with infrared film and began to produce book covers for a friends publishing house. It was these book covers that lead to the interests of Pink Floyd, who later asked them to design the cover of their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. That album cover was created in the RCA darkroom and Powell says that he learnt a lot from Storm throughout the process and by they end was confident with a camera. Soon after, they created Hipgnosis. The name was taken from graffiti on a door frame they found near their apartment. Soon after the design of A Saucerful of Secrets, Pink Floyd’s manager, Bryan Morrison, asked if the pair would be interested in designing album sleeves for other bands such as The Dirty Pretty Things and T-Rex. This led to Storm leaving art college in 1968; the pair borrowed money from their parents and set up business in Demark Street. As Powell said ‘…suddenly bands were falling over themselves to get us to work for them, mostly related to the work we were doing for Pink Floyd’ (Mark Sinclair (2012). The Odd Couple. Creative Review. 34, pp.20).

Which brings us to the main point, what was it about the work of Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell that attracted such a large audience? What was it about these album covers that was so influential to both art and the music world?

Pink Floyd – A Saucerful of Secrets  (1969)

If we set sail on this discussion by first taking a look at Powell and Thorgerson’s first ever cover for Pink Floyd’s second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. This cover was created in the RCA darkroom and in a result we can ‘see a swirling photo collage of planets and marbling effects’ (Mark Sinclair (2012). The Odd Couple. Creative Review. 34, pp.20). This cover is radically different to what the pair would soon go on to produce but perfectly connected with the psychedelic scene that was booming in London. Hipgnosis’ influences came mainly from the art and film worlds: Bunuel, Fellini and Godard on the film side, and Duchamp, Man Ray and Magritte from the world of fine art. These influences are more obvious in later work.

Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)

With the instructions to make something plain, Storm went ahead and was inspired by Andy Warhol’s Cow Paper. He promptly went out into the country and took a photo of a cow in a field; in doing this is managed to create the strangest cover Pink Floyd would ever have during their career. It was this wired difference that made the album shine out when being put against more conventional covers of this time. As Storm says during an interview in 1998 ‘ I didn't have anything, really, to do with the start of Atom Heart Mother, and when I asked them what it was about, they said they didn't know themselves. It's a conglomeration of pieces that weren't related, or didn't seem to be at the time. The picture isn't related either; in fact, it was an attempt to do a picture that was unrelated, consciously unrelated…” Gary Graff (2013). Designer Storm Thorgerson Reflects on Pink Floyd and 30 Years of Landmark Album Art [online]. Available from: <http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-designer-storm-thorgerson-reflects-pink-floyd-and-30-years-landmark-album-art?page=0,2>. [Accessed 16/07/13]

This is a great example of how the album cover ended up coming out, the fact not even the band could communicate a meaning to the music examples quite a lot.

Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon 1973

Perhaps one of the most talked about album covers of all time, The Dark Side of the Moon was released in 1973. Pink Floyd were known for their use of psychedelic light shows in their stage work and it was this that Storm and Aubrey wanted to communicate on this particular sleeve. The design showed a prism refratving white light into a spectrum, as Jason Draper says ‘…simple physics and something record buyers might relate to from school.’ (Jason Draper (ed). (2008). A Brief History of Album Covers. London: Flame Tree Publishing.

) Roger walters changed the design to continue through the inner sleeve, changing back to white light on the back, which could represent the continuos rythem of the music. The album cover was so famous that ‘..it became and instant icon, suggesting Pink Floyd when ever you saw it’ (Barry Miles, Gary Scott, Johnny Morgan (eds). (2008). The Greatest Album Covers of All Time. Glasgow: Collins) The pyramid was also important to the creation of the design, the triangle face of the prism is the symbol of ambition, and it is claimed that Roger Walters wanted a sleeve that reflected madness of ambition.

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here 1975

Wish You Were Here was made in 1975 and Thorgerson and Powell were working so closely with the band that they even chose the title of the album and helped the band with its packaging. The cover image of a man in flames represented the fear of being burnt upon meeting someone new. It probably also referred to the music business and according to Miles Scott & Morgan ‘…and possible to the fact that the band was still ‘missing’ founder Syd Barret, to whom one of the best songs, Shine On, You Crazy Diamond was dedicated’  (Barry Miles, Gary Scott, Johnny Morgan (eds). (2008). The Greatest Album Covers of All Time. Glasgow: Collins)

Inspired by Roxie Music who packaged their country life album in opaque green cellophane, for fear of objections too its photographs of scantily clad women, they wrapped this album in black plastic. Although EMI in Great Britain and CBS in America objected, the band could not be stopped from executing this idea as millions of copies had already been shipped. The black plastic gave the idea that the album was not suitable for the general public which then on purchase, made the buyer feel as if they were being rebellious along with Pink Floyd. It was this that played a fundamental role in the selling of the album, although the band was already famous.

Pink Floyd  - Animals 1977

Animals was to go along the same farmyard theme as the Atom Heart Mother sleeve but instead of a cow a large inflatable pig would to be hovering over the London Battersea Power Station. However the shoot caused much problems for Storm, Powell and their team as during the first shoot the pig managed to break free, causing major delays Heathrow Airport as it intercepted flight paths; the Civil Aviation Authority managed to track it until it reached 18,000 feet and went beyond its radar range. In the end it landed in a farmers field in Kent, the pig was soon transported back to its rightful place were it was again hoisted up above the power station for its next shoot. The sleeve you can see is actually from the first day of shooting as it was that particular picture the band liked, they preferred the sky with its interesting cloud shape and colour. It was up to Storm to transfer the pig onto that photo.

10cc – Look Here 1980

Considering we have only looked at Pink Floyd covers, it seems only right to have a look at later covers that Strom and Powell designed for different bands. Already from this cover you can see many connections that the style of their work has remained the same, despite the band being a completely different genre. To begin with I find it very interesting what Storm has to say about this particular cover. ‘…The band asked for 'something different'. I never really have a clear idea of what that expression means ... I thought it was more engaging to ask a question and between us we came up with 'are you normal?' Anyway, the question led to the idea of normality and what could be more normal than a sheep, all of whom tend to follow each other. But to be normal you'd need a lengthy dose of psychotherapy.' (The Guardian [online]. (2013). Available from: <http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2009/may/20/storm-thorgerson-album-artwork>. [Accessed 23/08/13])

The Cranberries – Bury the Hatchet (1999)

Storm says: 'I was both suprised and heartened that the Cranberries chose the design at all ... the Cranberries had previously used pictures of themselves, often on a sofa. Our image was clearly a departure, not a sofa in sight. The second miracle arose after we decided that red earth was paramount to contrast with a blue sky, which had to be empty (ie cloudless, to echo the empty landscape and to emphasise that the All Seeing Eye can get you anywhere).' (The Guardian [online]. (2013). Available from: <http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2009/may/20/storm-thorgerson-album-artwork>. [Accessed 23/08/13])

This album being a massive leap forward, a whole 19 years, interestingly storm says he was surprised that the Cranberries used the design as they usually only used pictures of themselves, a great example that Storm’s ideas where unitc and different. This message is so clear in this sleeve , it closely links with panoptosicm, that you never know when your being watched and you never know who by. In this case it suggests you know you are being watched and as a result you feel so venerable you feel naked.

‘Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell had the magical effect of making the record within the cover more important than it actually was.’ (Hepworth) These album covers have got very much the same narratives, not exactly giving an idea to what the content of the album might be, but an underlying curiosity to what it could be. The visuals for all these covers are the make or brake selling point for these bands, exactly the same as what a magazine might do or even a billboard might do for selling the latest Hollywood movie. The cover is not just a cover to make it look pretty, its there to sell the music within. The music you can judge from the cover and its all thanks to the two that formed Hipgnosis. And as David Hepworth so rightly states ‘The music could often be dismayingly orthodox but the packaging encouraged you to give it the benefit of the doubt when it came to artiness”

Music Television// History and Facts

Music Televison.
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.

1974-1980s. The beginning f music Television 

The Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds, both of which premiered in 1974, were significant in developing and popularizing the music video genre in Australia and other countries, and in establishing the importance of music video clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts. In early 1974, former radio DJ Graham Webb launched a weekly teen-oriented TV music show which screened on Sydney's ATN-7 on Saturday mornings; this was renamed Sounds Unlimited in 1975 and later shortened simply to Sounds. In need of material for the show, Webb approached Seven newsroom staffer Russell Mulcahy and asked him to shoot film footage to accompany popular songs for which there were no purpose-made clips (e.g. Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking"). Using this method, Webb and Mulcahy assembled a collection of about 25 clips for the show. The success of his early efforts encouraged Mulcahy to quit his TV job and become a full-time director, and he made clips for several popular Australian acts including Stylus, Marcia Hines, Hush and AC/DC. As it gained popularity, Countdowntalent coordinator Ian "Molly" Meldrum and producer Michael Shrimpton quickly realized that "film clips" were becoming an important new commodity in music marketing. Despite the show's minuscule budget, Countdown's original director Paul Drane was able to create several memorable music videos especially for the show, including the classic film-clips for the AC/DC hits "It's A Long Way To The Top" and "Jailbreak". After relocating to the UK in the mid-1970s, Mulcahy made successful music videos for several noted British pop acts—his early UK credits includedXTC's "Making Plans For Nigel" (1979) and his landmark video for The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" (1979) which became the first music video played on MTV in 1981.

The long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP could use. Therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week. In 1980, David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to director David Mallet's eye catching promo for "Ashes to Ashes". In 1975, The Who released their all-music feature film Tommy, directed by Ken Russell, based upon their 1969 rock opera of the same name. Also in 1975, the band Queen ordered Bruce Gowers to make a promo video for their new single "Bohemian Rhapsody" to show it in Top of the Pops; this is also notable for being entirely shot and edited on videotape. The Alan Parker film adaptation of Pink Floyd The Walltransformed the group's 1979 concept double-LP of the same title into a confrontational and apocalyptic audio-visual labyrinth of stylized, expressionistic images, sounds, melodies and lyrics. The long-running British Rock music show The Old Grey Whistle Test produced a number of pioneering videos made especially for the program throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.

Video Concert Hall, created by Jerry Crowe and Charles Henderson, launched on November 1, 1979, was the first nationwide video music programming on American television, predating MTV by almost three years. The USA Cable Network program Night Flight was one of the first American programs to showcase these videos as an artform. In 1980, New Zealand group Split Enz had major success with the single "I Got You" and the album True Colours, and later that year they produced a complete set of promo clips for each song on the album (directed by their percussionist, Noel Crombie) and to market these on video cassette. This was followed a year later by the first American video album, The Completion Backward Principle by The Tubes, directed by the group's keyboard player Michael Cotten, which included two videos directed by Russell Mulcahy ("Talk To Ya Later" and "Don't Want To Wait Anymore"). Among the first music videos were clips produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for Saturday Night Live. In 1981, he released Elephant Parts, the first winner of a Grammy for music video, directed by William Dear. Billboard credits the independently-produced Video Concert Hall as being the first with nationwide video music programming on American television.

In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.

Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use video recording and editing equipment, and the development of visual effects created with techniques such as image compositing.^{[citation needed]} The advent of high-quality color videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of the New Wave era,^{[citation needed]} enabling many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film. However, as the genre developed, music video directors increasingly turned to 35 mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video. During the 1980s, music videos had become de rigueur for most recording artists. The phenomenon was famously parodied by BBC television comedy program Not The Nine O'Clock News who produced a spoof music video "Nice Video, Shame About The Song".

In this period, directors and the acts they worked with began to explore and expand the form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos, mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video. Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form, in which the musical artist was not shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to promote the artist, such videos are comparatively rare; three early 1980s examples are Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", directed by Arnold Levine, David Mallet's video for David Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure", and Ian Emes' video for Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur". One notable later example of the non-representational style is Bill Konersman's innovative 1987 video for Prince's "Sign o' the Times" – influenced by Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" clip, it featured only the text of the song's lyrics.

In 1983, one of the most successful, influential and iconic music videos of all time was released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller", directed by John Landis. The video set new standards for production, having cost US$800,000 to film. The video for "Thriller", along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", were instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV. Prior to Jackson's success, videos by African-American artists were rarely played on MTV: according to MTV, this was because it initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician Rick James was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel, claiming in 1983 that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song "Super Freak" and clips by other African-American performers was "blatant racism".

On March 5, 1983, Country Music Television, or CMT, was launched, created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The Canadian music channel MuchMusic was launched in 1984. In 1984, MTV also launched the MTV Video Music Awards (later to be known as the VMA's), an annual awards event that would come to underscore MTV's importance in the music industry.

In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 (then known as "VH-1: Video Hits One"), featuring softer music, and meant to cater to an older demographic than MTV. MTV Europe was launched in 1987, and MTV Asia in 1991. Another important development in music videos was the launch of The Chart Show on the UK's Channel 4 in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos (the only outlet many videos had on British TV at the time), without presenters. Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art computer graphics. The show moved to ITV in 1989.

The video for the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" made pioneering use of computer animation, and helped make the song an international hit. Ironically, the song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV. In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1988, the MTV show Yo! MTV Raps debuted; the show helped to bring hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.

1992–2004: Rise of the directors

In November 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. Directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Floria Sigismondi, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanekand Hype Williams all got their start around this time; all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze, Sigismondi, and F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films. This continued a trend that had begun earlier with directors such as Lasse Hallström and David Fincher.

Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time: Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million. "Scream" remains the most expensive video of all time. In the mid to late 1990s, Walter Stern directed "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve, and "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. During this period, MTV launched channels around the world to show music videos produced in each local market: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997, among others. MTV2, originally called "M2" and meant to show more alternative and older music videos, debuted in 1996.

2005–present: The Internet becomes video-friendly.

The website iFilm, which hosted short videos, including music videos, launched in 1997. Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing service which ran between 1999 and 2001, enabled users to share video files, including those for music videos. By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its sister channels had largely abandoned showing music videos in favor of reality television shows, which were more popular with its audiences, and which MTV had itself helped to pioneer with the show The Real World, which premiered in 1992.

2005 saw the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier; Google Videos, Yahoo! Video, Facebook and MySpace's video functionality, use similar technology. Such websites had a profound effect on the viewing of music videos; some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. The band OK Go may exemplify this trend, having achieved fame through the videos for two of their songs, "A Million Ways" in 2005 and "Here It Goes Again" in 2006, both of which first became well-known online. (OK Go repeated the trick with another high-concept video in 2010, for their song "This Too Shall Pass".)

The 2008 video for Weezer's "Pork and Beans" also captured this trend, by including at least 20 YouTube celebrities; the single became the most successful of Weezer's career, in chart performance. In 2007, the RIAA issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users to prevent single users from sharing videos, which are the property of the music labels. After its merger with Google, YouTube assured the RIAA that they would find a way to pay royalties through a bulk agreement with the major record labels. This was complicated by the fact that not all labels share the same policy toward music videos: some welcome the development and upload music videos to various online outlets themselves, viewing music videos as free advertising for their artists, while other labels view music videos not as an advertisement, but as the product itself.

In 2009, Thirty Seconds to Mars' music video "Kings and Queens" was uploaded to popular video-sharing website YouTube on the same day of its release, where it has garnered over one hundred million views. It also received over forty million plays on MySpace. "Kings and Queens" was featured as iTunes Store video of the week and was one of the most downloaded videos ever to be featured. The video also received four nominations at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, making 30 Seconds to Mars the most nominated rock artist in VMA history for a single year.

MTV itself now provides streams of artists' music videos, while AOL's recently launched AOL Music features a vast collection of advertising supported streaming videos. The Internet has become the primary growth income market for record company-produced music videos. At its launch, Apple's iTunes Store provided a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be watched via the iTunes application. More recently the iTunes Store has begun selling music videos for use on Apple's iPod with video playback capability.

To further signify the change in direction towards Music Video airplay, MTV officially dropped the Music Television tagline on February 8, 2010 from their logo in response to their increased commitment to non-scripted reality programming and other youth-oriented entertainment rising in prominence on their live broadcast.

Vevo is a music video website launched by several major music publishers in December 2009. The videos on VEVO are syndicated to YouTube, with Google and VEVO sharing the advertising revenue.

MTV

MTV (originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. The channel is headquartered in New York City, New York. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys," or VJs. In its early years, MTV's main target demographic were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at adolescents in addition to young adults.

MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. MTV's influence on its audience, including issues related to censorship and social activism, has been a subject of debate for years.

As of August 2013, approximately 97,654,000 American households (85.51% of households with television) receive MTV.

COP Presentation

1)

At the beginning od the summer I Didn’t know what my question was but knew I wanted to do revolve it around album cover art and the marketing of music.

FOR EXAMPLE How the packaging and design of an album worked in selling the music. It took a while for me to get the ball rolling.

2)

I did a 2000 word case study on Storm Thorgerson and Audrey Powell, talking about what it was about their work that had such an influential and inspiring effect on the industry, what it was about these covers that made the music  sell.

I went into the history of the two and the two founding Hipnogisis in 1968.

What it was about these album covers the was so influential to both art and the music industry

I analysed in total 7 of their most famous covers, explaining the history and meaning behind them and the effects they had on the industry.

And then my conclusion

3)

Up intill very recently my question was “what role did the album cover play in influencing the purchase of records in recent decades

I felt this question didn’t quite fit what I wanted to talk about so

“How has album cover design influenced the purchase of records compared to other marketing techniques in recent decades?”

 I am interested to compare how the album cover sold music against other marketing techniques that came after, such as

music television, and todays online promotion and discover whether there is still a need for the album cover.

4)

5)

Teppo Hudson’s dissertation ‘Significance of Album cover art as a branding tool.

This 60 page dissertation goes through a lot of very interesting subjects. In his abstract is explains His research is aimed to study the relationship between album cover art and branding theories.

Taking the band HIM as his main line of focus who he says have been very successful of making their cover art a branding tool.

Branding in the music industry

Construction of an identity

-Cover art having an important role of representing the music as a visual symbol.

Marketing in the music industry- There is a lot of very helpful information about marketing in the music industry.

6)

7)

For my practical I want to rebrand a band. Whether that actually be for a band or simply for a band I like.

This example above is the rebrand of Temper Trap by Boat Studios in London.

‘We wanted to create a visual identity that could run throughout an album campaign, visuals you could remove their logo from and it would still be unmistakably theirs’

So I woul produce an album cover to go across vinyl and CD.
Inner sleeve and center labeling.

Promotional matielal

And in the example here they have also made a book.