I remember wanting to be an album cover artist. Of course, I was probably ten at the time, but shortly thereafter cassette tapes began to overtake record albums, and everyone lamented the demise of album cover artwork. It was slightly resucitated with the advent of CDs (hey, a 5×5 inch surface is better than a cassette tape), and then fell into its death throes with the rise of MP3s.
However, it occurs to me that the iPad could bring back album art after all. And not just static art, but art you could interact with. Now wouldn’t that be nasty?
Totally agree, and the time is right. In the last year, a number of books have been published celebrating album art. It was truly amazing. In fact, if you look at albums like the Beatles’ Revolver, you see how album art reflected larger movements in art and culture, like art nouveau. In the Musee d’Orsay’s 2009 art nouveau retrospective, a whole room was dedicated to album covers — and it was a highlight of the show.