Research

Point idea

Are album covers relevant enough to be important for an artist anymore?

https://medium.com/the-prototype/the-evolution-of-album-covers-dcb765620102

In those days album covers were very important to the person who bought them, because there wasn’t MTV, there weren’t music videos, there wasn’t the saturation of Youtube or any other available source to learn about your favourite rock n roll star. So an album was very important. You’d buy an album and scour the cover while playing it, looking for clues as to what made those artists tick. We latched onto that early on, by including lyrics, by including postcards, posters and little clues.

in a way it has always been there (artistic expression) they just has to work within a smaller frame of creativity has there wasn't many other ways of expressing etc... so in a way album artwork meant a lot more back in the day compared to now as it was part of only a few ways an artist could express themselves visually.

Vinyl vs Digital/Streaming

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-sax-analog-nostalgia-20160103-story.html

My passion for collecting records is driven by the same judgment. It was only after I uploaded my CD collection to iTunes, then abandoned that for the endless buffet of streaming, that the unseen benefits of listening to vinyl became apparent. All the digital inventions (MP3s, iPods, Wi-Fi, cloud computing) that brought me free, disembodied music anywhere, anytime, made me value music I can own, display, touch and feel with all my senses. To the millions of consumers worldwide who have resurrected the record industry over the past few years, I suspect the feeling is mutual. To us, the return of vinyl — even as we listen to streaming services on the drive to work — represents not regression, but progress.

Silicon Valley may never look back, but for the generation who has grown up with omnipresent digital technology, nostalgia isn’t just some foolish whim. It is a life raft, and the one sure means of grounding ourselves in a world that promises constant change. My turntable is from the 1970s and so are many of the records that play on it. It can be fixed, modified and restored, but it cannot be rendered obsolete. When disruption is the norm, the real disruption may just be permanence.

http://www.spin.com/2014/05/did-vinyl-really-die-in-the-90s-death-resurgence-sales/

FROOT album campaign research

Marina and the Diamonds - FROOT album campaign

Uses a mixture of Vinyl "scratch and sniff" single releases that each have their own physical experience as well as a digital one - whether it be a music video or visual that relates to each song through sound, colour and visual aesthetic.

The campaign was titled "Froot of the Month" that went of for six months before the album was released. The campaign was produced to try and reassure the fans of the album's quality by releasing six songs that are each accompanied by a visual world.

Six music videos were released with the six singles. Here are some examples.

The album campaign was also backed by a fashion merchandise.

And a blog that followed the whole album campaign from the first single to the last tour date. The page was filled with Marina's personal photographs, messages, quotes and visuals that have influenced the projects aesthetic.

My interpretation:

For this project it is clear the artist wants their fans to feel fully invested with this album. They do the their best to capture their audience with unique "scratch and sniff" vinyls that are sent out to fans each month six times before the arrival of the album. The fact that 

Essay research links

http://leadingusabsurd.com/is-the-album-cover-art-a-dying-art-form/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/apr/21/thedyingartofrecordsleeve
https://medium.com/the-prototype/the-evolution-of-album-covers-dcb765620102#.k7usnbafc
http://www.slideshare.net/jspraget1/the-history-of-album-art
https://www.amazon.com/Cover-Art-New-Music-Graphics/dp/B0030ILX4Q