Go Back To Those Gold Soundz: the rock poster beyond the show by Dani Lurie

GO BACK TO THOSE GOLD SOUNDZ the rock poster beyond the show

Dani Lurie www.danilurie.com

CONTENTS

1 Introduction Part one: introducing the poster 8

The modern poster explosion

Graphic design for music

A brief history of rock posters

Poster makers, poster collectors

Part two: the multifunctional poster 26

The rock poster as communication

The rock poster as artefact

The rock poster as art

The rock poster as consumer product

The rock poster as souvenir

52 Conclusion 54 Bibliography 58

Index of images

Jay Ryan, 2007

Posters have long been an integral part of promoting live music. In their most basic capacity – advertising – they will tell you what is happening, where and when it will happen, and who will be there (and how much you’ll have to shell out to get in). They are graphic communication at its most basic: a synthesis of type and image utilized to convey set information grounded in time and space. But the rock poster is more than that. It is a physical, two-dimensional visual representation of two intangible and ephemeral strands of information: sound and experience. The poster will exist long after the show is over; immortalizing, communicating, inscribing. It is a representational cultural artefact. And, with rock posters seeing an exponential rise in popularity over the last decade as digital music displaces traditional album artwork, some have argued that they have become the most important visual representation of contemporary music (Hayes, 2009). I will be introducing the topic by exploring graphic design at the intersection where the auditory meets the visual; the history of these modes of representation and how they have adapted to the changing music industry. The history of rock posters will be covered, as well as an analysis of the modern poster explosion and the people driving it. I will then be discussing the ways in which the rock poster occupies five implicit functions beyond its explicit advertising purpose; as [sub]cultural communication; as a cultural artefact; as art; as a consumer product; and as a souvenir and object embodied with memory. To support my argument, I will be looking at three case studies from this field: GigPosters.com (an online community and the world’s largest historical archive of this form), The Flood Gallery (a Greenwich gallery specializing in show posters), and All Tomorrow’s Parties (UK-based promoters of festivals and concerts, who commission artists to design posters for their events).

On my methodology, the primary sources that I have used for an analysis on the subject are books on the history, culture and community surrounding the modern rock poster; some of which are especially useful because they contain comprehensive series of interviews with designers and artists working in the modern poster scene. It is important to note however, that because the authors and interviewees of these texts are collectors, patrons or poster artists themselves (or at the very least, fans of the medium), they exhibit a bias towards what I will call the ‘sublime function of the rock posters’. That is, they are already on board with the argument that the rock poster takes on various roles beyond its blatant advertising function. Some of the secondary sources I have used to support my argument cover the area of graphic design in music. Again, the authors of these materials – as designers and music fans themselves – have a tendency to romanticize the hey-day of the physical, visual music product (record sleeves and so fourth). So why is it important to talk about rock posters? To the uninitiated, an academic discussion of the topic may seem frivolous – some may argue that they are simply advertisements, ephemera, aesthetically pleasing pieces of print. However, there is also a global movement that celebrates them, and artists and collectors who devote themselves to them. Books have been published and academic papers have been written. Galleries house them, exhibitions display them and they fetch sums to match works of fine art. That in itself warrants a conversation, an understanding of why they have captured people’s interests and why there is a culture of fans who passionately believe in their enduring value. If posters are objects that occupy space and demand our attention, then they are worth paying attention to.

Frank Kozik, 1992

“This is the power of The Poster.” Wayne Coyne, artist and singer of The Flaming Lips (Grushkin & King, 2004, p. 16)

PART ONE introducing the poster

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Where there was once a large 12-inch vinyl cover to hold, now there is a gig poster.â&#x20AC;? The Heads of State, graphic design and poster art studio (Hayes, 2009, p. 90)

The modern poster explosion Over the past decade, there has been an exponential rise in public interest for creating and owning rock poster art, and this phenomenon has been dubbed ‘the poster explosion’ (Hayes, 2009). The factors that have contributed to this trend include the changing state of the music industry and the Internet, for better and worse. One of the major arguments for the rise of interest in rock posters is that they have filled the void for physical music products left behind by the demise of traditional, tangible packaging formats, particularly the large visual space offered by the LP cover (Hayes, 2009). In a music industry adapting to new digital technologies and weakened by illegal file sharing, the financial struggle of record labels has meant that most have become increasingly reluctant to pay to produce music packaging. It also means that musicians have become progressively responsible for procuring their own promotional materials, and they often seek out poster art as a dynamic and relatively inexpensive advertising tool (Brook, 2008). The other major factor to enable this rock poster explosion is the Internet. Posters are no longer confined by time and space: anyone with an Internet connection can access posters from all over the world, regardless of where they are or when the event occurred. It has consequently created a globalised community of poster artists and enthusiasts, while the sale and trade of posters has been fostered and mediated by collector-orientated websites like Expresso Beans (2008). On the other hand, the Internet has also ushered in a redundancy of the poster’s original intent. Online event listings, which are relatively free to publicise, have displaced the poster as the dominant vehicle for event promotion (Cowel to Lurie, 2011). Some listings utilize ‘poster’ designs that were never intended to be printed, instead fated to only ever be image files mediated by the screen (Brook, 2008). A worldwide crackdown on fly-posting and the reluctance of promoters to fund printed promotional material 9

has meant a further confinement of posters to the computer screen (Brook, 2008). One might argue that the inability of the poster to occupy physical public space means that this modern revolution is a relatively declawed one because – unlike its predecessors from the psychedelic and punk countercultures – it is not visible on the streets. Instead, these posters often begin life on a band’s merchandise table or designer’s website, and end up occupying a wall in someone’s home or office space (Heiman, 2010). The website Gigposters.com, an online community and hub for the world’s largest collection of rock poster art, has largely been credited as the dominant influence on and platform for the modern poster movement. Launched by poster fan Clay Hayes in 2001 with a small collection of flyers, it has grown with – and directly contributed to – the global poster explosion of the past decade (Hayes, 2009). Now the website boasts an archive of over 130,000 poster designs from a community of more than 10,000 designers, with hundreds of new images being added by members each week. The usability of the website encourages the categorisation of posters and consequently, its search feature enables users to browse designs based on band, designer, venue or city. The website is the perfect example of the paradoxical nature of the digitised poster in an online environment: it has freed the poster of certain limitations, in that it increased accessibility by abolishing the constraints of history and location. However, in doing so, it has imposed a different set of limitations because, as a digital reproduction, the poster loses its physical form and is subject to the mediation of the computer screen.

Posters from all over the world can be found on GigPosters.com

“Music and images can bypass reason and connect straight to our hearts, our soul, our physical self, or wherever that point is where we react intuitively rather than rationally.” Lewis Blackwell, former editor of Creative Review (Lürzer, 1990, p. 9)

Graphic design for music There is an undeniable tendency for people to desire a visual or physical counterpart to the auditory. Sound is that most abstract of things â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is intangible, invisible and spatially unconfined. It is ephemeral too, and rarely leaves a trace of its existence. Mechanically speaking, sound is an oscillation of waves of pressure, which means that sometimes we are able to feel its phantom vibrations although it remains hidden to the naked eye (The Physics Classroom, 1998). And yet there is something about the human condition that demands a visual component to help us interpret what we hear (Grushkin & King, 2004). Studies into synesthesia â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the neurological phenomenon in which one sensory modality crosses over into another â&#x20AC;&#x201C; have suggested that the brain is hardwired to process multiple stimuli and combine them into a unified experience (Novella, 2009). There is a long history of the visual representation of music, both for practical and conceptual purposes. Perhaps the most fundamental and recognisable form of visualizing sound is sheet music; the notational system of notes, measures and staves that provide a linear diagram of sounds as they move in horizontal and vertical motions on a page (Woolman, 2000). It is a kind of typographic sonic language that can be read and translated into sound by musicians. Indeed, in the first half of the 20th century, it was this sheet music with its illustrated covers that preceded the music-based graphic design that we see today (De Ville, 2003). Graphic design for music has been instrumental in not only documenting the changing states of the musical landscape and popular culture, but also helping to define them (Stoltze, 2008). Before the 1940s, music graphics were confined to sheet music covers and advertisements for vaudeville and music halls (De Ville, 2003). Like the record covers and CD packaging that would follow it, sheet 13

music was published with illustrated covers to attract music shop browsers by defining the character of the musical scores they featured, while drawing from a iconography that distinguished different genres of music (De Ville, 2003). They contributed to the experience of ‘reading’ the sound (Shaughnessy & House, 2000). Music already has certain values encoded in it, and it employs visual representation to consolidate and elaborate on that experience. It is also a symbiotic relationship, in that “great music graphics inform the music which informs them” (Blackwell, quoted in Lürzer, 1990, p. 10). In his book Album (2003, p. 10), designer Nick De Ville explains that the most important attributes of music graphics are identity (“to offer a visual equivalent of the character of the music”) and distinctiveness (“to distinguish [that work] from the work of other performers in the same field, whilst not losing sight of its genre allegiances”). It’s no wonder why there has long been collaboration between musicians and artists as well as a history of avant-garde bands emerging from art schools – they are mutually productive cultural forms that share an understanding of the importance of aesthetics in creating a unified statement (Mott & Inglefield, 2010). The music industry is changing however, and its graphic component has been forced to change with it. The displacement of formats is nothing new – the vinyl LP gave way to the cassette tape, and that to the CD jewel case – but none has had the same impact as the rise of digital music in the Internet era. It has irrevocably changed the way we discover, purchase, listen to and interact with music. If traditional music packaging has given music physicality, then the mp3 has dematerialized it (Shaughnessy, 2008). Faced with the growing redundancy of music packaging, many graphics enthusiasts and music fans believe that there still needs to be some kind of visual expression of that sound or, as designer Stephan Sagmeister puts it, something to make the consumer feel good about the band (De Ville, 2003). That’s where the poster comes in. 14

Andy Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1967 album cover for The Velvet Underground

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I guess when people feel strongly enough about things, they stick up posters and signs.â&#x20AC;? Bryce McCloud, poster maker (Died Young, Stayed Pretty, 2008, 59 mins.)

A brief history of rock posters Show posters came into being because they were a necessity. In many cases, they were the only advertising tool possible (Grushkin & King, 2004). During the inter-wars period, posters were used to advertise performances in theatres and music halls, with impresarios working with artists and designers to turn out publicity material that captured the spectacle of the musical extravaganzas in which they specialized (De Ville, 2003). Things changed in the 1960s, when the psychedelic counterculture was the first major underground movement to utilise show posters for their cause. Psychedelic rock posters performed the dual function of advertising upcoming concerts while addressing youthful disaffectedness through their subversive imagery and play on the universally understood themes of ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’ (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). The first recognized instance of the rock show poster removed from its advertising capacity came in 1966, when promoter Bill Graham began commissioning posters for his shows at the Fillmore Auditorium to hand out for free to concertgoers at the end of the night (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). The idea was that these posters would promote the bands in a different way: they would reinforce their name and ethos, and extend the concert experience by reminding the attendee of the great time they had at the show, thus immortalizing it in their memory (Grushkin & King, 2004). By the end of the 1960s, decorating with posters had become something of an international phenomenon, and “the presence or lack of posters on one’s wall was an immediate indicator of one’s hipness quotient” (Grushkin & King, 2004, p. 182). It wasn’t until the rise of punk in the late 1970s that posters once again shook up the cultural landscape. They were characterised by the same immediacy, power, and relevance of the psychedelic posters but with a strippeddown approach and chaotic aesthetics (Drate & Salavetz). The 17

dominant means of production – high contrast photocopies – was as relevant and essential to punk’s DIY sensibilities as the poster form itself (Mott & Inglefield, 2010). For punk, excluded from mainstream media, posters provided an effective and inexpensive means of reaching the public. The next great change came in the 1990s, when the commissioning control of promoters and venues was replaced with a new system whereby the artist would design and print their posters in exchange for the right to capitalise on the marketability of popular band names and sell their posters themselves after the event (Grushkin & King, 2004). As designer and critic Art Chantry so eloquently puts it, “rock posters changed from being something of advertising value an artist was paid to do, to a promotional art product the artist pays to do for a promoter that the artist himself will then market” (Grushkin & King, 2004, p. 479). From this system came the modern rock poster that we’re familiar with today.

A Fillmore Auditorium show poster by Wes Wilson, 1967 19

“What I’m doing combines my two obsessions: design and music.” Jason Munn AKA The Small Stakes, poster maker (Munn, 2010, p. 13)

Poster makers, poster collectors The rock poster community is said to be at the intersection between artist, craftsperson and music fan (Hayes, 2009). It is fair to say that the people behind them are music fans first and foremost, crafting their posters out of a genuine passion for the bands that inspire them (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). For most poster artists, it seems that making rock posters is the natural result of combining their interests of graphic design and music, and for those who produce their own prints, of getting their hands dirty (Hayes, 2009). Some had their start in poster making when their own band had a show that needed advertising. Some admit that, as they don’t play music, it is their way of being “with the band” (Hayes, 2009, p. 20). The reality for most artists is that, because rock posters occupy a particular niche, there is little money to be made from them, and mostly little fame (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). The pay off often comes as the result of the poster being a designer’s oversized business card. Frank Kozik, a key figure of the modern rock poster scene, maintains that he doesn’t make a living from posters, but from the graphics jobs they bring in as advertisements for his services (Grushkin & King, 2004). Whenever someone feels compelled to create posters or handbills, there will be someone else collecting and coveting those creations (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). For the enthusiasts who occupy the niche market of rock posters, there are various reasons – and often a combination of them – behind salvaging, purchasing and collecting those sheets of paper. Some collect posters for the band name itself, in keeping with that time-honoured teenage ritual of covering walls with printed matter that celebrates one’s musical allegiances (Heiman, 2010). Some will collect a poster based on its graphics, using it in the same fashion to assert their visual tastes (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). Some collect posters because they are well-produced prints, and they desire that tactile connection to music that 21

disappeared with their beloved vinyl covers (Heiman, 2010). For some enterprising collectors, posters are bought for their monetary potential. Then there are those who keep rock posters as souvenirs, to commemorate events they have attended. GigPosters.com has helped to create an extended, globalised network of poster designers and aficionados, and has allowed for a cross-pollination between geographically isolated poster communities (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). One of the most positive influences of the site is that it has provided a platform for people to have their work seen by other poster artists (Hayes, 2009). As website member Denny Schmickle says, “previously it was nearly impossible to have posters seen and critiqued by massive poster art personalities... but now I’ve actually spoken with many of my design heroes, either in person or via the Internet” (Hayes, 2009, p. 62). The tone of interaction on the website appears to be one of camaraderie and there are open discussions on everything from production techniques to business workings and ethics (Hayes, 2009). In fact, it has been a result of the relationships forged via GigPosters.com that poster artists have organised to meet in person to display their work in its physical form. Both the American Poster Institute (2002) – a non-profit organisation dedicated to furthering public awareness of poster art – and Flatstock – an ongoing series of exhibitions promoting it – were first organised out of conversations between interested artists and supporters on the forums of GigPosters.com (Flatstock 29, 2011). That these organisations and communities exist is a testament to the rock poster’s place in the modern cultural landscape.

Poster for Flatstock 2007 by Buster Moody

PART TWO the multifunctional poster

“If you can’t read the poster, or won’t stop to read it, maybe you weren’t ‘meant’ to be at this show.” Robert Plante, poster maker (Grushkin & King, 2004, p. 485)

The rock poster as communication Not only do rock posters promote the details of upcoming events and convey the essence of the music that they advertise, but they also have the capacity to communicate statements and interact with subcultural tribes through coded visual language. With the poster as their platform and popular band names to draw public attention to their work, artists have the privilege of being able to speak to potentially untold numbers of people, particularly if their posters are circulated online (Grushkin & King, 2004). It’s quite a soapbox too – designer Jermaine Rogers gives the example that if he makes a poster for the popular alternative band Radiohead, his design could be seen by millions (Grushkin & King, 2004). Nick De Ville theorises that during the last century, music graphics have been the closest thing the design world has had to a living folk art, in that they are “clannish, heterogeneous, disposable, generated from ‘beneath’, amateur, faddish on the surface (although in many ways rooted in symbolic continuity), and firmly part of popular culture” (De Ville, 2003, p. 8). Subcultural groups develop their own self-defined visual language forms as a way to speak privately amongst themselves (Grushkin & King, 2004). By utilising the iconography familiar to certain groups, the poster artist has a degree of control over the demographic that attends the events advertised by their posters. Art Chantry explains how punk and psychedelic posters were used to draw in similar thinkers by seeking out the already initiated: “[they] were never meant to persuade straights into attending the gatherings – those posters were not even legible. But, like-minded individuals understood, and the gatherings grew larger” (Grushkin & King, 2004, 363). Of course, some of these countercultural representations, like those from punk or hip-hop, are invariably absorbed into mainstream culture and ultimately become cultural clichés, neutralized of their threat and subject to marketability. 27

J Rice, 1979 28

The Small Stakes, 2006

“Today’s disposable culture paves the way for tomorrow’s collectible nostalgia.” Emek, graphic artist and poster maker (Hayes, 2009, p. 74)

The rock poster as cultural artefact The moment an event is over, the poster that promoted it automatically sheds its advertising capacity. But it does not become obsolete – rather, it becomes a cultural marker, a piece of visual ephemera that acts as a testament to that particular moment in time and space. A cultural artefact is a “man-made object which gives information about the culture of its creator and users” (Webster’s Online Dictionary). Posters are such cultural artefacts because that they continue to evolve and reflect the times in which they were created, and as such, provide a historic record of the musical, visual, cultural and perhaps even political landscape (Grushkin & King, 2004). In terms of graphics, the imagery on the poster can give a ‘visual hit’ to the musical genre or subculture that it is representing (Grushkin & King, 2004). And what of the textual information that they contain? The band may break up and the venue may shut down, but the poster will always bear witness; it will tell its viewer that these things once existed. The rock poster functions as printed ephemera because it is evidence of an experience that no longer exists (McCannon, 2009). The word “ephemeral” is used to describe that which only lives or has relevance for a short time (Twyman, 2008). Unlike the event itself, which is truly ephemeral in the most literal sense, the poster that advertised it (presuming it isn’t discarded) can be ephemera, in that it lives on because it continues to occupy space in the physical or digital world. Rock posters may have an inherent obsolescence but they are not disposable as long as people bother to collect, cherish and share them. They may live a short active life in their original role as promotional material, but it is their afterlife that offers alternative representation and engagement with the viewer. The Internet has been an instrumental factor in the modern poster’s function as cultural artefact because the digital world lends itself 31

to preservation. Before the proliferation of the poster scene on the World Wide Web, rock posters could only be seen in person or in printed publications, and even then, it was regionally influenced. The Internet has offered complete, instant access to concert poster designs from all over the world, regardless of where the viewer is located and when the event occurred. Because websites like GigPosters.com have provided a space to upload posters regardless of when they were created, they have allowed for the resurrection of decadeold ephemera that may otherwise have never been seen outside of an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private collection. Now a whole new generational audience can view and take inspiration from that visual material. Such unprecedented access has led to an expansion of influences as every day, new designs are posted and commented on, praised, criticized, imitated, and sought after (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). The Web has capitalised on the boundless ability of the pixel to â&#x20AC;&#x153;do the hard graft of replication and mass communicationâ&#x20AC;? (Stothard, 2011, p29). Of course, the consequence of the work on the Internet being exclusively screen-based is that those posters have been deprived of their physicality. For many poster artists who design their work for a format intended to occupy an amount of physical space, the constraints of digital reproduction can be seen as a step down (Stothard, 2011). However, the screen offers a different kind of materiality. These images are intangible, yes, but it is because of their intangibility and lack of form in the physical world that they are not subject to the same decay of physical posters. Digital images have the potential to be preserved in an immaculate state as long as they exist in the technological ether of the Internet, and they take on an almost omniscient quality because they can be replicated and redistributed at will. Ultimately, the power and success of websites like GigPosters.com lies in their ability to secure and share these images, so that they may go on to intrigue and inspire a whole new set of poster enthusiasts.

J Rice, 1979

“Gig posters are the new American pop art; instead of Campbell’s soup, you get your favourite rock band.” Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company, poster art studio (Hayes, 2009, p. 80)

The rock poster as art Rock posters walk a precarious line in the art world. Despite being one of the most burgeoning creative fields, many critics still consider them to be “just a ghetto of lowbrow trash” (Hayes, 2009, 74). Are they not simply advertisements, albeit beautifully executed ones? In his book, Art of Modern Rock, Paul Grushkin asserts that rock posters are “one of the first globally accepted populist art forms” (2004, p. 408). Despite the lowbrow connotations, it is this status as a kind of “People’s Art”– and the accessibility that that entails – that plays to the poster’s advantage (Grushkin & King, 2004, p. 471). Because it is an art form that is essentially open to anyone and has little formal rules, it attracts designers who engage in pushing boundaries and expanding visual frontiers (Grushkin & King, 2004). Rock posters are also relatively inexpensive to buy, which makes them accessible to young people and others who cannot spend a lot of money on original art. In giving poster art monetary value, it takes on the implications of having bankable artistic worth, and the perceptible market fosters the production of new work. Another thing to consider is that rock posters typically inhabit a physical space outside of the context of traditional art institutions. As advertisements, they occupy telephone poles, venues and record shops; once the event is over, they hang on the walls of homes and offices. In an essay he wrote entitled There was a time when the only art I had on my walls was by Peter Saville (King, 2003), music critic Paul Morley explains that even though his Saville-designed gig posters were devoid of imagery - and essentially just featured an arrangement of type, text and space that alluded to an event – he considered them to be art. Maybe then it is that definitive act of displaying them – of framing and hanging these prints up for public view – that adds artistic merit to these aesthetically pleasing pieces

The Flood Gallery 36

of paper. Perhaps also, when one values something as a work of art, that is what it becomes. An example of the rock poster occupying a conventional art space is The Flood Gallery in Greenwich Market, London. It is a commercial gallery that specialises in gig posters, movie posters and art prints (The Flood Gallery, 2011). It is relatively new, having only opened in July 2011. It is a small, well-organized space with immaculately screenprinted posters tiling the walls, flippable display racks on the floor and spreads of related paraphernalia like empty frames, books and apparel. The connotations of placing rock posters in this environment represents their paradoxical state in the space of the gallery. Essentially, what are the implications of posters inhabiting a place generally reserved for fine art? If a gallery implies a space for the display and sale of art, and rock posters are placed on its walls, do they then become works of art? Have they been inscribed with any more of a highbrow cultural significance because they have been curated and hung, instead of being bought from a band’s merch stand in an underground club? In her analysis of souvenirs in museum stores, Tina Butler (2005) argues that commercial objects do indeed take on new meanings given the sociocultural connotations associated with the institution, so this may be the case for rock posters too. Although, in the words of poster artist Mike Budai, “why confine yourself to a gallery when the whole city can be your gallery?” (Hayes, 2009, p.36) One of the things that you first notice upon looking at the posters adorning the walls of The Flood Gallery is that they rarely feature events from London or even the UK. In fact, most of them are advertising shows that have taken place in America. Gallery manager Michael Cowell explains that reason: there are simply so many more US-based artists than UK and Europe based, with the names of American artists being the most recognisable – and by extension, the most likely to sell (Cowell to Lurie, 2011). This means 37

that not only have the posters come unstuck in time, they have come unstuck in place too. The implication of this is that the gallery has reclaimed the physicality of the poster, which could be seen as a reaction to the screen-based globalised poster explosion that has been facilitated by the Internet. What I mean by this is that yes, those posters were always physical, but they only existed as physical objects at their point of origin. A person in London might only be able to view a poster for a show in Texas through the mediation of a computer screen on the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website or GigPosters.com. However, on the walls of a gallery, the poster has regained its tangible form, even if it is subject to a displacement of location. All of the posters in The Flood Gallery are promoting events that have already taken place, and so they have been stripped of their basic advertising function. Because the posters in a gallery no longer function as advertisements, they are subject to the connotations of being sold through a mediator for profit, and therefore their essential role becomes that of merchandise. However, as the gallery buys these posters directly from the artist â&#x20AC;&#x201C; who has already paid their dues to the band â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those posters are in the strange position of being band merchandise that has taken the band out of the commercial equation. In that case, one might argue that maybe they are not items of merchandise after all, and are pieces of art in their own right.

Adam Turman, 2005 39

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The appeal of music graphics for most designers lies in its ability to bridge the gap between art and commerce.â&#x20AC;? Clif Stoltze, graphic designer (Stoltze, 2008, p. 6)

The rock poster as a consumer product The event merchandise stand is a commercial space that represents the marketability of popular music and the commodification of experience (Grushkin, 2009). Once engaged in the act of being bought and sold (whether in person or online), the rock poster inevitably becomes a consumer product, albeit an alternative form of band merchandise in that it is an unbranded one. Whether it is an afterthought or done intentionally, rock posters capitalise, in monetary terms, on the appeal of the musician or band whose name they bear. The rock poster was first produced as a consumer product in the 1960s by promoter Jo Boyd, who recognized the marketable potential in the desirability of the poster as a badge of identity (Crimlis & Turner, 2006). There has been a growing trend in the past decade for people to turn to rock memorabilia, and to rare posters in particular, as an alternative form of investment (Dave Simpson, 2011). This boom in the poster market has been fostered by the increased accessibility offered by the Internet, with auction websites like eBay and online art dealers facilitating the interest. Alternative forms of event promotion have caused a shift in the motivation behind producing rock posters, as nowadays more are being commissioned as merchandise than are actually used as advertisements (Cowell to Lurie, 2011). Sometimes posters will be made for events that have already sold out – in which case their advertising function is redundant – but the artists or musicians know that they will be able to sell them at or after the event (Died Young, Stayed Pretty, 2008, 93 mins). In the case of these posters that only have a post-advertising, commercial function based on the appeal of a name, they are merchandise or – in the case of attendees using the poster to commemorate an event – memorabilia. The Flood Gallery, for example, embodies the commodification of posters. It is a retailer as much as a gallery; all the displayed work 41

is available for purchase, with price labels (one figure for framed, one for just the poster) clearly affixed upon each print. Because the gallery takes rock posters out of their context as promotional materials or mementos, they are bestowed with a fundamentally commercial function. Michael Cowell, the gallery’s manager and a poster artist himself, says that since the owners have yet to initiate a push to attract the serious poster collectors, the gallery has been surviving off the passing trade of the relatively affluent area, with many of their customers being “middle-class young families looking for stuff to fill houses” (Cowell to Lurie, 2011). Of the clientele who come into the gallery unaware of the rock poster scene, Cowell says that there tends to be an odd balance between those who buy prints because they like the artwork and those who buy them because they recognise a band they are interested in. It seems that the posters tread the fine line between merchandise and art: Other exhibitions I’ve done of my own poster work, it’s usually quite heavily driven by people who are interested in the image over band – but here we’ve noticed predominantly it’s more people who are interested in the band than the artwork, or finding a balance within that. The thing we’ve noticed most is that if they don’t recognize the band then they can feel slightly alienated from the artwork, like they don’t understand it. So we spend a lot of time sort of explaining what the bands sound like as well as what the posters are. (Cowell to Lurie, 2011)

A poster merchandise stand at the End Of The Road festival, 2011

“It’s precisely because they possess form and substance that tangible posters have the ability to anchor us physically to a specific concert in time and space.” Nels Jacobsen & Dirk Fowler, poster makers (Drate & Salavetz, 2005, p. 17)

The rock poster as souvenir When a person collects a rock poster from an event that they attended, the poster becomes an object of nostalgia that mediates the memory of experience through its physical form. The word souvenir literally means “to remember” (Gordon, 1986, p. 135). As a physical object, the souvenir “concretizes or makes tangible what was otherwise only an intangible state,” and its presence helps locate, define, and freeze in time a fleeting, transitory experience (Gordon, 1986, p. 135). Although they serve the same concretizing function, some people suggest a distinction between the souvenir and the memento; that souvenirs are more or less universally recognized, while mementos have a more implicit personal significance and are only recognized by the people who save them (Gordon, 1986). I would argue that the rock poster occupies both these terms because poster designs can be the definitive visual representation of particular events while reconciling the memory of experience (souvenir) but they can also be inscribed with more abstract personal significance (memento). There is something in the human condition that makes us desire objects to help us hold on to ephemeral experiences. In the case of the rock poster, designer Nels Jacobsen suggests that this phenomenon might have something to do with the fact that live music is, by its very nature, transitory: “each note hangs in the air for a moment or two and then disappears. It’s only natural to want a poster that memorializes a particularly significant concert” (Drate & Salavetz, 2005, p. 10). But, some might argue, can’t that impression be achieved in the same way with visual records like photographs or film recordings? While a photograph or video can capture particular moments in time, their limitations lie in the fact that they remain primarily literal mediums, and as such the viewer is forced to mediate their past experience through the particular concrete angle or sequence chosen by the author (Drate & Salavetz, 2005). In 45

contrast, the poster can communicate with one image the spirit of an entire event because it relies on the viewer and their memory to account for their subjective experience. An example of posters being created for souvenir purposes are those commissioned by All Tomorrow’s Parties (or ATP), a Londonbased music promotions company. Founded in 1999, ATP organises one-off shows and concert series, but their signature events are their three-day long festivals of the same name, which are curated by bands or artists, and held at holiday camps. They are known for commissioning posters to advertise their events by collaborating with a variety of well-known artists and designers. Because of the understandable variation in artistic styles, there is usually no visual homogeneity between the posters besides the presence of the ATP logo. ATP does utilise the poster images in an advertising capacity before the events, appearing in promotional material online and in print. However, it is only at the merchandise stand of the show that the posters first appear in their actualised form – screenprinted at full size on paper stock, in limited editions and signed by the artist – and available to buy as souvenirs. ATP keeps an online store on their website, from which anyone can purchase the remaining prints of posters after their events. This means that anyone, regardless of whether they attended a show, is able to purchase a souvenir poster. There are reasons to purchase a poster for an event not attended – maybe the buyer enjoyed its aesthetics or identified with the bands that were playing. It does, however, change the nature of the poster because it can only ever be an objective souvenir or art object, and never a memento. That is, even though subjective meaning can be assigned to the poster by the individual after the fact, the explicit memory of experience intended by the poster will always be out of reach.

Michael Motorcycle, 2010 47

Tim Biskup, 2009

Hanging on a wall after a concert, the poster will forever be negotiating past and present, time and space. In her essay on the souvenir and nostalgia, Tracey Benson (2001) argues that the object is imbued with an almost magical quality because it has the capability to communicate with its possessor and has “the power to tangibly occupy one space whilst symbolising another temporal and geographical site”. Similarly, in her book On Longing (1993), Susan Stewart suggests that the souvenir longs for its place of origin, that there is a perpetual desire for reunion and incorporation: “The souvenir seeks distance (the exotic in time and space), but it does so in order to transform and collapse distance into proximity to, or approximation with, the self. The souvenir therefore contracts the world in order to expand the personal” (p. xii). It is the act of owning a poster from an attended event that transcribes new meaning onto it. Once a poster is purchased from the merchandise stand of an ATP show, it takes on new significance as a personal, precious belonging; “becoming from that moment, a pathway for the owner to create stories and narratives around their experiences of the past” (Benson, 2001). Benson goes on to say that the souvenir “is incapable, beyond its material history, of having significance or meaning without a connection to an owner” (2001). It is personal meaning that she is referring to, that which is symbiotically embedded in the context of memory. Even as time passes, the importance of that poster as a memento will always be in relation to the event’s moment in time because that was the point of origin in the concert-goer’s narrative of the self. In effect, the poster has been transformed from a relatively mass-produced consumer item, to an object that occupies the more privileged status of a personal possession, operating in the personal history of the individual (Benson, 2001). Simply put, we can use posters to tell the story of ourselves.

The poster, as a representational memory object, assists in the reconciliation between the imagined experience of the past and the phenomenological world of the present. The word ‘nostalgia’ is used to describe a yearning for the past (Boym, 2001), and it can be a transcendent experience because it is often idealised and removed from bodily experience (Benson, 2001). This calls for a discussion on the fallibility of subjective memory and therefore the authenticity of remembered experience. Once it leaves the context of the present world, ‘authentic’ experience becomes both elusive and allusive (Stewart, 1993). Upon attending an ATP festival, one might never be sure if the experience they remembered was accurately their own, or – if by gazing at the poster on their wall with a sense of nostalgia – their memory of the past has been influenced by the idea of experience represented by the poster. With the distance of time and space, the memory of the body is replaced by the memory of the object, which lies outside the body’s experience (Stewart, 1993). As musician Wayne Coyne explains: For better or worse, The Poster gets in the last word because imagination and memory lie so closely in the vortex of the mind. But memory is the weaker of the two and imagination the more potent – even devastatingly so. The power of The Poster is such that each is constantly absorbing and overwhelming the other. (Grushkin & King, 2004, p. 16)

The view from a crowd at ATP, 2010

Wayne Coyne, 2010

Conclusion As this discussion has shown, the rock poster is more than its blatant advertising function, and it has an important afterlife beyond the show that it promotes. The poster occupies a significant space in music-based graphic design because it is regarded by some as one of the last bastions of tangible objects in the music industry, where the products are becoming increasingly intangible. In the past decade, there has been an exponential rise in public awareness and interest in rock posters, facilitated by the Internet and globalised networks of poster enthusiasts. As a consequence of this modern â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;poster explosionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, more posters are being produced now than ever before, whether they are intended to serve a promotional function or one of marketable merchandise, or both. The crux of this argument is that, advertising aside, the dynamism of the rock poster lies in its the ability to negotiate more conceptual strands of information. Rock posters are representational objects, communicating the abstract concepts of sound and experience through their physical form, and fulfilling a human need to have a visual counterpart to the incorporeal. They have the power to communicate to subcultures through coded visual language. They are artefacts, pieces of ephemera inscribed with the record of cultural landscapes. They are works of art that hang in galleries and they are consumer products to be bought from them. They are souvenirs on which to attach the memory of experience and build personal narratives from. Before and after the show, they epitomize a displacement of time and space, and still anchor their viewer in the present. This is the power of the poster.

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Index of images i Tuffy, L. (2005) Devo poster. In Hayes, C. ed. (2009) Gig posters. Volume 1, Rock show art of the 21st century. Philadelphia: Quirk. p. 131. iii Ryan, J. (2007) Shellac poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4107/gpshellacdf9.jpg> [Accessed 27 April 2011]. 3 Kozik, F. (1992) Soundgarden/Pearl Jam poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.freakfilms.com/ aa/04americanartifactfrankkozik.jpg> [Accessed 14 October 2011]. 6 Fowler, D. (2008) Willie Nelson poster. In Hayes, C. ed. (2009) Gig posters. Volume 1, Rock show art of the 21st century. Philadelphia: Quirk. p. 65. 11

Lurie, D. (2011) Viewing GigPosters.com from a laptop.

15 Warhol, A. (1967) The Velvet Underground & Nico album cover. [online image]. Available at: <http://4.bp.blogspot.com/t34uDcExgOs/TqnsgppQZXI/AAAAAAAABtI/OQAYV9_1wFQ/ s1600/velvetandnico.jpg> [Accessed 20 October 2011]. 19 Wilson, W. (1967) Byrds 1967 Fillmore poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oVrGO1m_s9I/ Tb16IQiNwAI/AAAAAAAACf4/LFozm2IEp9M/s1600/Byrds.jpg> [Accessed 20 October 2011]. 23 Moody, B. (2007) Flatstock 2007 poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.bustermoody.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/flatstock-poster.jpg> [Accessed 14 October 2011]. 58

24 Munn, J. (2007) Blonde Redhead poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://honorabledanielsan.wordpress. com/2010/05/01/awantedmag-issue-3-jason-munn-of-the-smallstakes/> [Accessed 10 October 2011]. 28 Rice, J. (1979) Black Flag poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.catasonic.com/ChinasComidas/Assets/BlackFlagBahamas.jpg> [Accessed 5 November 2011]. 29 Munn, J. (2006) Mates Of State poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs193. snc1http://www.thedonutproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/ mates-of-state.jpg> [Accessed 27 April 2011]. 33 Rice, J. (1979) Black Flag poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.crispinsartwell.com/graphics/blackflag.jpg> [Accessed 5 November 2011]. 36

Lurie, D. (2011) Photos from The Flood Gallery.

39 Turman, A. (2005) The Queers poster. In Hayes, C. ed. (2009) Gig posters. Volume 1, Rock show art of the 21st century. Philadelphia: Quirk. p.9. 43 Lurie, D. (2011) Rock poster stand at the End Of The Road festival. 47 Motorcycle, M. (2010) Bowlie 2 poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.atpfestival.com/files/img/ events/20101210-bowliejjbig.jpg> [Accessed 14 October 2011].

48 Biskup, T. (2009) ATP 2009 Nightmare Before Xmas poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.atpfestival.com/controller. php?catimg=2049> [Accessed 27 April 2011]. 51

Lurie, D. (2010) Watching The Dirty Projectors at Bowlie 2.

52 Coyne, W. (2010) NYE 2011 show poster. [online image]. Available at: <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RR0ClH8h3kg/ TMSKVArBU_I/AAAAAAAAIlo/tL-nOWylIDo/s1600/flaming_lips_ gig_poster_oklahoma_2010.jpg> [Accessed 14 October 2011].