You walk into FYE and begin to move among the endless array of DVDs and CDs stacked and filed about the store. Today, you are in the mood for pop, so you walk over to the “pop/rock” section and begin to browse, when suddenly a colorful cover catches your eye.

Album art has always been a clever way to get potential fans to pick up a CD. Often, the cover of a CD advertises music with imagery reflective of the sound and style of the album to appeal to the right crowd.

“It is definitely important to have a cool cover design because it gives insight into the message of the album. Still, retro covers are so much cooler than the modern covers,” junior Paige Clark said.

Albums such as Graduation (6), by Kanye West, are colorful and eye catching with colors like purple, yellow, orange and pink, and a design that moves your eye around the cover.

The bear in the upper left corner of the cover is, in a sense, doing all the advertising. The bear wears the same clothes and style of Kanye West. Despite having his name on the cover, the clothing that the bear is wearing shows the West’s style, making it appealing to his fan base.

The cover and interior art was directed and design by Japan’s Takashi Murakami.

Other albums like Shwayze’s Let It Beat (7) use this same tactic, using bright colors and imagery reflective of the album’s content. Most, if not all of Shwayze’s music is related to beautiful women, taking it easy and having fun which his art director tried to capture in the album cover and subsequent album art.

The green mannequin and the pink underwear catches the eye and sparks some interest as soon as the viewer sees the image. Upon further study, the viewer realizes that the woman pictured on the cover is actually a stereo system. This alone makes the viewer think and wonder about the content of the album. The sandy beach reflects the feel and mood of the music.

The covers pictured to the right and above all follow this same idea of advertising the music with imagery appealing to a specific audience.

Music artists have been collaborating with visual artists since the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s, when vinyl and recording music became more mainstream.

The production of albums and the package that they are sold in is a way of tying together the visual art world and the world of performing arts through graphic design and visual creativity.

However, as the music world slowly adjusts to the computer age, this element has started to become scarce.