Album Art Used To Rock

I was at a dance competition yesterday and they guy providing music played some classic rock (Molly Hatchet, Journey, Foghat and so on) while we were waiting for things to begin. I decided that when I got home I was going to break out my classic rock CD's and find some good music to listen too. As I was looking at the disk I was surprised at how cool the album art used to be.

I remember back in high school trying to imitate some cool albums. I mean the album art was almost as important as the music in the sleeve. There was creativity. It told a story. It wasn't all about the bling, or some random photo session. It was art. And most of the time the musicians created the art themselves. Remember, these were Albums, so the size was very different from a CD. That could be some of the reason bands have abandoned the practice. As an example, I bought the Styx album Paradise Theater. I was so excited, it was a great album and after I had ripped the wrapper off, carefully slipped the black disk out of the sleeve, I was surprised to find a laser etched image of the album over right on the record. It was so cool I almost didn't want to the play it.

I read a great post today from Mark Cuban on the future of music. I have to agree. We have to move beyond selling music on discs. It doesn't mean anything today. Buyers and fans want more. More than you can stick on a CD. I love sets where there is a music disc plus a disk with say music videos, pictures, concert footage. Give me a reason to buy the whole compilation or I will continue to buy one offs from iTunes.

Here are a couple examples of album art I just love. Please comment with your favorite album art and maybe a link to the image. Share it.