OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Everything Put Together Sooner Or Later Falls Apart

Just listening to a bit of debate on 5Live lamenting the loss of the Album Cover. Already battered by the hegemony of CDs, the argument takes in the rise of download culture and concludes that the medium is finally dead. These days even the concept of an album itself is under threat given the pick'n'mix nature of downloading, so why do we need something to wrap a virtual product in?

I guess they're right. Certainly my own experience of trying to decipher some of the miniscule text presented on some CD covers has left me with a can't-be-arsed-lookin' attitude these days. Aimed at youngsters with 20-20 you see. Us older folk aren't considered when it comes to cutting edge design. I guess they think we should be content with Daniel O'Donnell, Mantovani and Max Bygraves.

This constant miniturisation has rid me of the urge to spend days on end browsing through rack after rack of good old-fashioned 12 inch Long Players gazing at the sophisticated artwork and the concepts contained therein. Certainly as the Sixties progressed and the gatefold sleeve made an entrance, some of the designs far outclassed the pretentious crap on the vinyl.

Peter Blake's Sgt Pepper, the Andy Warhol Sticky Fingers cover with its real zip, and hordes of lesser artists and designers commendable efforts. Many, many overblown progressive rock offerings. There was an explosion of artistic expression. Arguments between bands and record companies over the rising cost of these 'works of art' began to be reported. The Beatles' Abbey Road cover was apparently going to be a photograph of loads of monks and the band somewhere up a Himalayan mountain. In the end inertia on the part of the group left us with one of the most recognised zebra crossings in the world.

Even the Punk backlash was infused with artistic endeavor when it came to the sleeves. Stripped back for sure. Angry and angular definitely. But still interesting works in their own right. And produced in bedrooms utilising the original cut'n'paste concept. Cutting stuff up and pasting it (using actual paste no less) onto the artwork. Like their predecessors, they became objects that would be pored over for hours, looking for clues.

Sad. But the rot did set in with the rise of the CD. There's not many covers that have become as iconic as the Dark Side of the Moon or Led Zepellin II since the work area shrunk by over 50%. Nevermind by Nirvana is one of very few that come to mind and even that one offended the American Bible Belt so they had to erase the baby's penis! If you buy it over here though those innocent naughty bits are still there in all their potential glory.

The question is: does it matter? Surely it's the music we all revere? Certainly, these days when your entire music collection can reside on a 4" x 2" bit of plastic and technology, the days of lugging round a few albums to your mate's or a party or wherever seem profoundly neanderthal. But something deep inside of me suspects that when the acquisition of music becomes too easy and we end up with thousands of cheap or free mp3s, we don't quite revere it as much as we did.

So times change. Technology drives that change and the commercial/artistic community respond by adapting and adopting. The medium is the message. Sadly, if we do download some crap, we won't be able to console ourselves anymore by admiring the artwork on the cover, we'll just delete the bugger.

Easy come. Easy go.