Many modern albums feature risqué, cheesy or simply unappealing art. These albums ward off potential listeners because of their inability to market to a variety of audiences. Many decent artists are tossed aside because of their image or outward appearance towards listeners.
People sometimes judge an artists music based off their album covers. We shouldn’t, but we do. Bands like Young the Giant, A Day to Remember, Muse and Counting Crows have always had very artistic and visually appealing album covers. Notice how those are all relatively known artists? Every cover doesn’t necessarily have to be a piece of work, but if you had to choose what music you’d listen to by looking at the album cover, we would all be miserable.
Think about Miley Cyrus for example. She has become a household name for being quite an eccentric between her performances and her album cover. Most people have specifically targeted and judged Cyrus off her image, but many of these people have not actually listened to her music. Her image has drawn attention to Cyrus as a person, but not as a musical artist. Cyrus’ fans are made up heavily of under 18 kids who followed Cyrus through her Hannah Montana years. She quickly tried to changed her image, but much of her fan base followed. I’m not saying her albums are bad or good, but she is treading water in terms of musical public relations.
Take Black Veil Brides’ 2011 album Set the World On Fire. This album features the band, in their full metal attire, standing in the center of flames as they pose in overly dramatic positions. Black Veil Brides is known for being a predominantly metal band so the cover makes sense for their style of music and audience. People usually don’t venture into the metal/rock/hardcore territory for fun unless that is their preferred musical taste. Their album cover relates to the type of audience they want to reach. The band isn’t interested in suburban moms jamming out to Fallen Angels.
Though both these artists have made a definite image for themselves, musicians who appeal to a wide variety of people create these unappealing covers that scare away people who would actually be incredibly devoted fans. The covers of albums are called “album art” for a reason. The cover should represent the style of music and artists personality and the type of audience they want to reach, not make the listener want to toss the unappealing disc back in their drawer. Album covers should be artistic, represent the band’s style and who their ideal listener is.
The perfect example of this is AC/DC’s Back in Black album. It is a simple black cover with the AC/DC logo on it. It represents the band’s dark, rock style, attracts their listeners and is simple. No one can look at the cover and toss it aside because it is ugly. Back in Black may not be artistic dramatic, but it doesn’t exclude other listeners and stays true to the band’s style.
Overall I feel like many people take a look at album covers and judge the music inside way too quickly. We as the listeners shouldn’t be tossing aside every album that isn’t as pretty as we want, but artists should also take into consideration what type of cover is more appealing and more likely to sell the music.