Simple and bold. This was the only direction that the members of Pink Floyd gave to George Hardie in 1973 to describe what they wanted the cover of their new album to be. The result? Dark Side of the Moon.
In 1967, Paul McCartney and Peter Blake discussed the idea that the new Beatles' album cover should be a shot of the band playing to a group of people in a park. This concept then ended up becoming the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
These two albums were separated by 6 years, two different designers, and two completely different bands in terms of musical styles, influences, and fan bases, and their differences are certainly reflected in their album artwork of choice. Yet, Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band are arguably the two most recognizable album covers of all time. So how is that possible? How can two bands as polar opposite as the Beatles and Pink Floyd yield two album covers that just about any English speaking person in the world will recognize instantly? One is simple and bold, the other brilliantly complex and inexplicable.
We can assume that their recognition can be partially explained by their popularity. Dark Side appeared on Billboard's top 200 album list for 741 consecutive weeks, it has sold approximately 40 million copies, and is easily placed on any list of greatest albums of all time.
Likewise Sgt Pepper has sold approximately 30 million copies, tops Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Albums of All Time, and has been called "a decisive moment in the history of Western Civilization" by prominent critic Kenneth Tynan.
Clearly popularity is in their favor as just about anyone who is a fan of popular or rock music from the 1960's and 70's has owned one or both of the albums. But that can't be the only reason that the covers are so recognizable.
Look at Michael Jackson's legendary album Thriller. It is far and away the best selling album of all time worldwide with estimates of over 108 million copies sold, it became the highest selling album of all time after only a year, and a copy of it is in the library of congress as it has been deemed culturally significant. But what is the artwork? Well it is a picture of Michael Jackson in a white suit. I would venture to guess that if you subtracted the text from the picture, a large number of people would not instantly recognizing that picture as being the cover of Thriller. How about the Eagle's Greatest Hits 1971-1975. It has sold about 45 million copies world wide, and I am not even sure what the cover is. I know it is light blue and has what I think is an eagle's skull on it. Again, could you show that picture to anyone on the street and have them instantly recognize that it is the cover of one of the best selling albums ever? Probably not.
So why Dark Side and why Sgt Pepper? I hypothesize that the albums artwork speaks to an equal amount of artistic interpretation as the album itself. The Dark Side prism is simple and bold, but its "meaning" as it relates to the body of work that is Dark Side of the Moon is far from overt. AC/DC's album Back in Black is simple and bold, but it is also overt. It is an all black album with white writing that only says AC/DC Back in Black. It is very simple, and it is what it says it is. A black album by AC/DC. Nothing more, nothing less. But Dark side of the Moon is a black album with a beam of light refracting in a prism and emitting a rainbow. No dark side, and no moon. So what does it "mean?" That is the point of all of this. There is no definitive meaning. The purpose of the prism is subject to just as much debate and speculation as the meanings of Great Gig In The Sky, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage/Eclipse, etc. One could even argue that the songs on the album are more overt in meaning than that of the album's artwork, not a small feat for a band who wrote some of the most abstract songs in history. The underlying point is that absolutely everything on Dark Side is open to interpretation, each lyric, each note, each backing narrative, the title of the album, and the cover artwork. And as every first year psych major can tell you, when you are forced to think about and interpret a piece of artwork, that piece of artwork become naturally ingrained in your mind. Thus, when the 40 million people who bought the album think about what the cover signifies, the cover art becomes etched in the minds of 40 million people. Add a bevy of foreign substances into the mix, and you've got yourself a hit. This is proof that weed increases memory.
On the other hand, Sgt Pepper follows a different road. The Beatles are the the greatest pop band in the history of the world. No other group of people have ever even come close to captivating virtually every English speaking person in the world at virtually the same time. Except maybe the guys who did the Macarena. The Beatles were the ultimate, they were in many cases, all things to all people, all at once, and they created a sound in the early 60's that would lay the groundwork for the future of music as well as be the definitive ruler by which all other music is measured for decades to come. But Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts club band was the ultimate departure. The Beatles were THE pop band, but then they threw out their entire playbook and made Sgt Pepper which was a vastly more complex, sophisticated, and artistically and culturally relevant piece of artwork than anything they had ever done up to that point. They deserted their signature sound and emerged worlds better than ever. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is unquestionably a milestone not just for the Beatles, but for the history of popular music, and it would go on to change how people listened to and create music forever. In my mind, there is no question as to why the cover of Sgt Pepper is so recognizable. when the greatest band in the world creates the greatest album in the world which happens to be the opposite of what made them great, but causes them to be even greater and subsequently changes the face of music forever, then you have a flow chart of insane power, and of course everyone will recognize what the album looks like. Sgt Pepper was a milestone in music the way the Apollo 11 moon landing was a milestone in mankind, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't recognize the shot of Buzz Aldrin next to the American flag on the moon's surface, even if it does look like this from time to time. To not instantly recognize Sgt Pepper immediately puts you out of touch with the rest of the world. Never mind the fact that the cover art is equally as obscure as Dark Side, never mind that no matter how long you have studied the artwork, you can still find new things about it every time you look at it, never mind that the cover is open to any and all interpretation, which is certainly all true, but its high level of recognition can almost certainly be attributed to the fact that that album is a symbol for what the world was, what the world is, and what the world would be. Or maybe I am stoned...
In 1967, Paul McCartney and Peter Blake discussed the idea that the new Beatles' album cover should be a shot of the band playing to a group of people in a park. This concept then ended up becoming the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
These two albums were separated by 6 years, two different designers, and two completely different bands in terms of musical styles, influences, and fan bases, and their differences are certainly reflected in their album artwork of choice. Yet, Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band are arguably the two most recognizable album covers of all time. So how is that possible? How can two bands as polar opposite as the Beatles and Pink Floyd yield two album covers that just about any English speaking person in the world will recognize instantly? One is simple and bold, the other brilliantly complex and inexplicable.
We can assume that their recognition can be partially explained by their popularity. Dark Side appeared on Billboard's top 200 album list for 741 consecutive weeks, it has sold approximately 40 million copies, and is easily placed on any list of greatest albums of all time.
Likewise Sgt Pepper has sold approximately 30 million copies, tops Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Albums of All Time, and has been called "a decisive moment in the history of Western Civilization" by prominent critic Kenneth Tynan.
Clearly popularity is in their favor as just about anyone who is a fan of popular or rock music from the 1960's and 70's has owned one or both of the albums. But that can't be the only reason that the covers are so recognizable.
Look at Michael Jackson's legendary album Thriller. It is far and away the best selling album of all time worldwide with estimates of over 108 million copies sold, it became the highest selling album of all time after only a year, and a copy of it is in the library of congress as it has been deemed culturally significant. But what is the artwork? Well it is a picture of Michael Jackson in a white suit. I would venture to guess that if you subtracted the text from the picture, a large number of people would not instantly recognizing that picture as being the cover of Thriller. How about the Eagle's Greatest Hits 1971-1975. It has sold about 45 million copies world wide, and I am not even sure what the cover is. I know it is light blue and has what I think is an eagle's skull on it. Again, could you show that picture to anyone on the street and have them instantly recognize that it is the cover of one of the best selling albums ever? Probably not.
So why Dark Side and why Sgt Pepper? I hypothesize that the albums artwork speaks to an equal amount of artistic interpretation as the album itself. The Dark Side prism is simple and bold, but its "meaning" as it relates to the body of work that is Dark Side of the Moon is far from overt. AC/DC's album Back in Black is simple and bold, but it is also overt. It is an all black album with white writing that only says AC/DC Back in Black. It is very simple, and it is what it says it is. A black album by AC/DC. Nothing more, nothing less. But Dark side of the Moon is a black album with a beam of light refracting in a prism and emitting a rainbow. No dark side, and no moon. So what does it "mean?" That is the point of all of this. There is no definitive meaning. The purpose of the prism is subject to just as much debate and speculation as the meanings of Great Gig In The Sky, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage/Eclipse, etc. One could even argue that the songs on the album are more overt in meaning than that of the album's artwork, not a small feat for a band who wrote some of the most abstract songs in history. The underlying point is that absolutely everything on Dark Side is open to interpretation, each lyric, each note, each backing narrative, the title of the album, and the cover artwork. And as every first year psych major can tell you, when you are forced to think about and interpret a piece of artwork, that piece of artwork become naturally ingrained in your mind. Thus, when the 40 million people who bought the album think about what the cover signifies, the cover art becomes etched in the minds of 40 million people. Add a bevy of foreign substances into the mix, and you've got yourself a hit. This is proof that weed increases memory.
On the other hand, Sgt Pepper follows a different road. The Beatles are the the greatest pop band in the history of the world. No other group of people have ever even come close to captivating virtually every English speaking person in the world at virtually the same time. Except maybe the guys who did the Macarena. The Beatles were the ultimate, they were in many cases, all things to all people, all at once, and they created a sound in the early 60's that would lay the groundwork for the future of music as well as be the definitive ruler by which all other music is measured for decades to come. But Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts club band was the ultimate departure. The Beatles were THE pop band, but then they threw out their entire playbook and made Sgt Pepper which was a vastly more complex, sophisticated, and artistically and culturally relevant piece of artwork than anything they had ever done up to that point. They deserted their signature sound and emerged worlds better than ever. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is unquestionably a milestone not just for the Beatles, but for the history of popular music, and it would go on to change how people listened to and create music forever. In my mind, there is no question as to why the cover of Sgt Pepper is so recognizable. when the greatest band in the world creates the greatest album in the world which happens to be the opposite of what made them great, but causes them to be even greater and subsequently changes the face of music forever, then you have a flow chart of insane power, and of course everyone will recognize what the album looks like. Sgt Pepper was a milestone in music the way the Apollo 11 moon landing was a milestone in mankind, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't recognize the shot of Buzz Aldrin next to the American flag on the moon's surface, even if it does look like this from time to time. To not instantly recognize Sgt Pepper immediately puts you out of touch with the rest of the world. Never mind the fact that the cover art is equally as obscure as Dark Side, never mind that no matter how long you have studied the artwork, you can still find new things about it every time you look at it, never mind that the cover is open to any and all interpretation, which is certainly all true, but its high level of recognition can almost certainly be attributed to the fact that that album is a symbol for what the world was, what the world is, and what the world would be. Or maybe I am stoned...
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