The Rockhound by Luckbox Magazine

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The Rockhound An Old School Lens On New School Rock ‘n’ Roll

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usic can feel like a favorite pair of jeans—too good to ever leave behind. But music runs deeper. It’s personal. That makes it difficult to avoid getting trapped in a private music bubble, continuously replaying the same albums to get that familiar but still thrilling feeling. Yet that quashes exploration and expansion, and it certainly doesn’t help the music industry flourish or provide any opportunities for young artists to become the next big thing. Rockhound reviews are meant to expose readers, and avant rock music listeners, to current rock artists who draw inspiration from classic bands, such as The Beatles, Stones and Zeppelin. But these artists don’t just mimic that classic rock sound. They are creating a sound that is completely their own—and that deserves the same recognition we afford the names above.

Keep up with all things Rockhound on Instagram @rockhound_luckbox and Twitter @rockhoundlb, and in every issue of Luckbox magazine at getluckbox.com.

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RECORD HIGH

Punk-rocker Turned UFO Researcher By Kendall Polidori

He’s not just a musician, and Angels & Airwaves is not just a band— Tom DeLonge creates and educates through ‘psychic warfare’

ike any other punk rock kid hanging out in a garage and making music about broken homes with buddies who also came from broken homes, Tom DeLonge couldn’t care less what people thought of him. For photo shoots, he sported only boxer briefs and sometimes not even those. He ran around vandalizing whatever he pleased and pining after girls.

Luckbox | October 2021

Though DeLonge’s obviously matured over the years, when he walked into a dimly lit Chicago hotel lobby for an interview with Luckbox before his Lollapalooza set, he was wearing a wrinkled navy blue tee, jeans and a red trucker hat. He had an iced tea in hand, and it was evident he was not the same person he was back then. He looked like a dad—a regular guy—which is exactly

who he is and wants to be. When DeLonge left Blink-182 in 2005, none of his fans quite understood why. Here was a punk rocker known for making sex jokes onstage and running around naked in music videos suddenly starting a new band with a mantra of Love. “I knew back then everyone was going to think this was the stupidest thing—they didn’t understand,”

PHOTOGRAPH BY KENDALL POLIDORI

Tom DeLonge opened up about punk music, human kind and what it means to be a good person during an interview with Luckbox.

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DeLonge said before taking the stage with his band Angels & Airwaves. “It wasn’t normal for a punk rock kind of thing to have that, but that’s why I wanted to do it.” Back in 2005, DeLonge finally had a vision for what his new band project was meant to be but said it took up until two years ago for it to really click with people. On the band’s most recent tour in 2019, the fanbase seemed to grow significantly, and now DeLonge and the other members of the band are able to present themselves in a way they always wanted to. “It’s cool to be a good person, to have love in your heart and treat people with respect,” he said. “It’s an energy thing. It’s a conscious thing. It’s a physics thing. So my goal with Angels is to get people to understand that being self-aware and improving the lives of others around you, literally is a physics-level fundamental expression of us as human beings.” DeLonge describes what he is

“People will not fucking believe what went down. I mean, they just can’t even grasp it. It’s gonna scare a lot of people … a lot is coming, and it’s going to change the world.”

doing as his own version of psychic warfare to make being a genuinely good person not so taboo, which includes managing his company, To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences (TTSA), a research development and media center for science and technology. Through the company and its subsidiary, To The Stars Inc., DeLonge and his team have published books, produced documentaries, started a podcast and most notably have confronted government officials, pushing them to release the results of their UFO research. Even before the Adventure of Angels & Airwaves, DeLonge was screaming at Blink-182 fans that Aliens Exist and obviously was not taken seriously. His personal research down the UFO rabbit hole started with simple curiosity and grew significantly as he found out more. Soon, it became impossible to resist. But it wasn’t until 2017 that his work was highly recognized. That’s when he received the UFO Researcher of the Year Award. Then in 2019 some of his findings were substantiated: The Navy confirmed that videos released by TTSA did indeed capture likenesses of UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). That same year, a New York Times article titled “Glowing Auras And ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program” prompted skeptics to take another look at what DeLonge was shouting into the void for years. More reports are surfacing because of DeLonge’s efforts to inform people. Earlier this year, the Pentagon released the Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Report, which DeLonge traces to his team’s effort to set up briefings in Congress and at intelligence agencies. The report represents the most direct U.S. government account of

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE 1992

Blink-182 forms in Poway, California.

1999

Blink-182 releases platinumselling album Dude Ranch.

2005

Blink-182 goes on hiatus. Angels & Airwaves is formed.

2006

Angels & Airwaves releases debut album We Don’t Need To Whisper.

2015

DeLonge assembles a team to pursue government data on UFO findings.

2017

To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) launches with three divisions: science, technology and entertainment. The company is composed of scientists, engineers and creatives.

2021 (SEPT)

Angels & Airwaves releases LIFEFORMS album.

October 2021 | Luckbox

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what officials call UAPs ever made public. It lists five possible explanations for UAPs but still states that researchers don’t know what the UAPs were. Not speaking for his team or company, DeLonge said he personally believes the government knows a lot more than the most recent UAP report suggests. It states that one possible explanation for UAPs is they’re technologies deployed by “China, Russia, another nation or a non-governmental entity.” He knows a lot that most people don’t, and he focuses on telling stories in a digestible way through To The Stars books and films. But much of what he knows is classified and what he can “expose” is limited. “People will not fucking believe what went down,” DeLonge said.

“I mean, they just LIFEFORMS, was can’t even grasp it. It’s released in September. going to scare a lot of The album returns people, and so we just to DeLonge’s garage have to go step-by-step. punk origins with heavy It’s going to change guitars and speedy More DeLonge the world.” interludes. It diverges Tom’s latest from How much? “These from his later synth-foLIFEFORMS are giant games that are cused space rock to get dealing with consciousfaster and more angsty. ness and the social engineering of DeLonge writes music for himself, mankind,” he insisted. not for the radio or to fit a streamIt’s difficult not to question how ing algorithm. With LIFEFORMS someone who came of age as a punk he uses what he’s learned over the rocker and skateboarder would go years to take a hard look at humanon to research UFOs, but DeLonge kind and how lives intersect. has a sense of wonder that leads him “I go through life now knowing— down many paths. not wondering—that my mindset The point of Angels & Airwaves and my vibration will affect every was to produce work through multi- single thing around me, from my media platforms, and he has been health to the people around me doing just that. After incubating for that I love, to the art that I create,” three years, the band’s sixth album, DeLonge said.

Listen Here Truth or Skepticism

Tom Sosnoff, entrepreneur, options trader and co-CEO of tastytrade, joins Dylan Ratigan, businessman, author and former host of MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show, for a weekly podcast covering everything from sports and investing to politics and monetary policy. One’s an iconoclast, and the other’s a contrarian. Tune in each week find out who is who. It’s unscripted and unpretentious—some like to think of it as rants, but refined.

The Prediction Trade

If you can trade it, or bet on it, you can bet they will talk about it on The Prediction Trade—the only podcast for gamblers, traders, investors, math freaks, data geeks and superforecasters devoted to the intersection of probability, prediction and profit. Each episode features expert guests with proprietary forecasting models and insights into the outcomes of prediction market events. So whether you live to bet or bet to live, check out the next episode of The Prediction Trade.

Truth or Skepticism and The Prediction Trade are available on your favorite podcast platform.

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FESTIVALS

Rock Enters a New Age—Again Rap, hip-hop and pop are dominating the music industry these days, but rockers say their genre is just in a down cycle

festival artists directly reflect the numbers. More than 30% of all on-demand audio and video streams in the U.S. last year were of tracks recorded by R&B and hip-hop artists, according to MRC and Billboard 2020 data. The R&B/hip-hop category claimed more than a third of all plays, at 33.9%. For audio streams, R&B/hip-hop accounted for 30.7% of on-demand plays, and across audio and video streams combined, it claimed 31.1%. So, what does it all mean for rock artists? The first Lollapalooza lineup in 1991 was

By Kendall Polidori

ack in the ‘90s when Blink-182 was touring on angsty albums like Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch, singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge would spend weeks on end in the back of a van, dirty and getting into fights with random people. Today, traveling with his space-rock band Angels & Airwaves, DeLonge noted that it doesn’t look quite the same as it used to for punk-rock bands—for a multitude of reasons that are easier to explain by saying, “We’re in a new era.”

Musicians are bringing back guitars, angst and soul ... That’s rock ‘n’ roll. During an interview with Luckbox before his July Lollapalooza performance in Chicago, DeLonge said rock goes through cycles. These days, rap/hip-hop and pop artists dominate the U.S. music industry, with rap/hip-hop the moststreamed genre, according to 2020 MRC data. But rock remains the second most-streamed music genre with 16.3% of on-demand audio streams last year. Pop was behind it with 13.1%. However, the streaming numbers are driven by golden oldies performers like Queen (929,000 streams), Elton John (743,000), Fleetwood Mac (721,000), Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty (630,000), and Journey (561,000). For today’s festivals, headliners are undeniably chosen for their streaming numbers

Luckbox | October 2021

and popularity. At Lollapalooza this year, the only obtainable classic rock artist with high streaming numbers was Journey, and they headlined one day of the show. With rap/hip-hop holding the No. 1 spot for most-streamed music genre, featured

made up of artists grounded in alternative rock, industrial music and rap: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails, and Ice-T and the Body Count. For a few years, the festival maintained musical acts within those three genres but has gradually expanded to embrace

PHOTOGRAPHY: (LOLLAPALOOZA) ASHLEY OSBORN; (ANGELS & AIRWAVES) JONATHAN WEINER; (POST ANIMAL) POONEH GHANA

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the moment’s most popular music and artists, hence choosing artists with high streaming numbers and the most attention on social media platforms such as TikTok. But, that’s not to say the festival lineup doesn’t cater to music-discovery lovers looking for smaller indie bands, such as Post Animal, ROOKIE, Mt. Joy, Whitney, Dayglow and Neal Francis. The fest also featured renowned rock bands like the Foo Fighters, Black Pistol Fire, Modest Mouse and Band of Horses. As a veteran rocker himself, DeLonge said rock has changed because of how it’s recorded. In the days of “classic rock” bands like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, music was recorded to have a raw, live sound. Now, artists pay more attention to how a song sounds digitally. “Back then, classic rock was recording reel to reel—analog,” DeLonge said. “So you had to write songs together, practice those parts, and then you all come in and record them delicately on analog tape. With computers, I don’t know anybody that writes in a room together and practices it.” The accessibility of computers and editing software has made it easy for just about anyone to write a catchy song—but DeLonge questions what’s behind much of today’s music: Who the people are, where they’re from, what they’re trying to say or if they even have anything to say. “It seems to me like everyone is starting to notice that there are a lot of hollow catchy songs out there,” he said. “I feel like this is the beginning of bringing guitars back, bringing angst back, bringing back something that has a soul, that has a reason for existing and a point of view that’s worth listening to. And that’s rock ‘n’ roll—that’s our job, right?” DeLonge’s not alone in his nostalgia. All five members of Chicago-based indie psychedelic rock band Post Animal said they would like to see more rock acts at festivals like Lollapalooza, but with the evolution of music comes the evolution of headlining names. Like DeLonge, the Post boys agree that rock is cyclical—phasing in and out of popularity. Now, with a few years of touring and recording behind them, the members of Post Animal believe rock is making a comeback, but in a new way. The band grew a loyal following by touring in a van across the U.S. playing fast and heavy garage rock—a sound that surely inspired a few mosh pits. But, as with their most recent album Forward Motion Godyssey,

which illuminates experimental synths reminiscent of those on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon album, they’re willing to evolve. The band has always appreciated other genres and sounds, and members felt it was time to try something new—as there’s only so much musicians can do before falling into the black hole of psychedelic rock, unable to write anything with range. They consider themselves a live band, though, noting that they don’t make music for streaming but instead

make it for people to hear at live shows. “We embrace the spectrum of modern rock,” the band members agreed. “We really do think there are a lot of people listening to rock music and rock bands, but maybe they’re not using the same platforms to listen to their music.” According to 2020 MRC data, rock music had 19.2% of total album-equivalent consumption by format for physical albums, or vinyl records, whereas R&B/hip-hop only had 3.7% of total album consumption from physical sales. Max Loebman, singer and guitarist for Chicago-based rock band ROOKIE, said most rock fans buy vinyl over streaming because that’s the point of rock—getting as close as possible to the imperfect and authentic sound. He doesn’t feel slighted as a rock artist, despite higher demand for rap/hip-hop artists at festivals, because there’s always a space and place for any genre of music. With bands like The Black Keys, Foo Fighters and Greta Van Fleet playing large arena shows, Loebman said it’s hard to say that rock is dying. Instead, it’s just surviving in a new way. For Angels & Airwaves, DeLonge acknowledged that the band’s sound does not plug into the way the market is right now. He said Pearl Jam still operates that way today—they roll into a town on tour and play a stadium show. But hardly anyone is aware they play stadiums. “No one’s talking about it, it’s not on the radio stations and there’s no posters,” DeLonge said of the band’s stadium gigs. “But everyone that was there is like, ‘That was the best show ever.’ That’s a really cool place to aim for, where you’ve built something that’s on your own terms.”

STREAMING DOLLARS Chicago-based psych-rock band Post Animal took to the Tito’s Handmade Vodka stage in July during Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival. .

Recorded music produced an estimated revenue of $12.2 BILLION in the United States last year, up 9.2% from the year before. Streaming accounted for $10.1 BILLION, which was 83% of the total and 13.4% higher year-over-year. Physical music sales of $1.1 BILLION were just 9% of total revenue, while vinyl records earned $626 MILLION or 5.2% of the total.

October 2021 | Luckbox

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RECORD HIGH

Making a Buck in the Band Music streaming gives artists exposure but not much else By Kendall Polidori

usic streaming gives relatively unknown artists a bigger microphone but a smaller paycheck. The mic’s larger in the sense that musicians reach a sizeable audience more quickly than ever before, but the resulting royalties won’t cover the bills unless a performer is approaching the popularity of Taylor Swift, Amazon Music’s Top Artist for 2020. Those trends matter because the pandemic has given streaming services a boost as fans seek music to fill their lonely hours of isolation. Before COVID-19, platforms like Amazon Music, Spotify and Apple Music were already gaining market share at the expense of radio and live shows, and now they’re more quickly crowding out older ways of listening. But is the convenience of listening to the latest Dua Lipa track with the simple tap of a finger worth making up-and-coming musicians struggle to make ends meet? “There’s no reason you should be working day shifts at McDonald’s if your band is raking in 100 million streams a week,” said Nick Bilski, a Chicago musician in the band SŌK. To stay afloat, he works at Guitar Center and teaches music lessons. “The losers are the 99% of artists who aren’t at Beyoncé’s level of fame,” said Ben Sisario in a New York Times article. “And they’re angry about not sharing in the music industry’s success.” But streaming has its advantages for some denizens of the music business.

Platforms profit Streaming services generate 83% of global music industry revenue and provide something the industry never had before: regular monthly revenue, Sisario said in The Times article. “To oversimplify, the big winners are the streaming services and the large record companies,” he noted. And the winners have a mountain of cash to divvy up. Streaming revenue in the United States amounted to $10.1 billion, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Streaming services “pay out roughly 60% to 70% of their annual revenue to ‘rightsholders,’ a group that includes musicians, record labels, songwriters, publishers— anyone who has a financial stake in the sales of a given record,” according to a Pitchfork article. But at least artists have an easier time getting their music onto digital distribution platforms like DistroKid, cdbaby, tunecore, Record Union and Reverb Nation than they did in the days of having to convince a record label to release their songs. Musicians choose which streaming distributor they want based on benefits and features. Vivian McConnell, a Chicago musician who goes by the stage name of V.V. Lightbody, has been on streaming platforms for the past 10 years. Today, listeners can find her recordings on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora Premium, Deezer and TIDAL, but the money is not what keeps the lights on. She would prefer not to think about how often she’s

June/July 2021 | Luckbox

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streamed but feels she has to pay attention to the numbers because that’s how a majority of listeners now consume music. Some of the singles McConnell has on streaming services were released through a record label that collects a large percentage of the streaming royalties. She released others independently, and their royalties come directly to her. Combined, her nine singles not associated with a record label have been streamed 90,000 times since 2018, earning her $455 (60% of streaming royalties).

A musician living in the United States needs three million plays annually to earn a gross income of $12,000.

The payout to artists Every streaming service offers a slightly different payout. In “Streaming service payouts,” below, there are nine platforms in order of how much they pay artists per digital stream, and how many streams it takes to earn a dollar. A song might need a minimum of 250 plays to make $1. One track reaching 10,000 plays on Spotify equals roughly $40 in streaming royalties. “At an average payout of $0.006 per song stream, a musician living in the United States needs three million plays annually to have a gross income of $12,000,” according to a Hypebot article. And the number of streams required to make a buck gets larger when members of a band divide the royalties.

On the brighter side, streaming tends to pay royalties directly to artists. When musicians relied on sales of CDs, vinyl or cassettes, the profit was larger but split up among as many as 10 different types of contributors. Key players in the making of a CD, for example, include the artist (6%), producer (3%), songwriters (4%), distributor (22%), manufacturer (5%), retailer (30%) and record label (30%). Suppose a band with four members who write their own songs was selling CDs for $16 and receiving a royalty rate of 11%, thus clearing $1.76. The producer would take 3% of that, leaving the band $1.71. Distribution would then cost 43 cents, leaving the band with $1.28. So, each of the four band members would get 32 cents. That’s why it takes around 1,500 song streams to make as much money as selling one album. Artists fight back In self-defense, artists sometimes hire attorneys to track compensation, said Christopher Johnson, assistant director of education for an organization called Lawyers for the Creative Arts. His clients often feel they aren’t fairly compensated, so he does the math to ensure their number of streams matches the royalties they receive. But with plat-

Streaming service payouts Streaming Service

Payout per digital stream

Streams to earn a dollar

Amazon Music Unlimited

$0.0119

Napster

$0.0106

TIDAL

$0.0099

102

Apple Music

$0.007

143

Google Play Music (now YouTube Music)

$0.006

167

Deezer

$0.006

167

Spotify

$0.00437

229

Amazon Music

$0.00402

249

Pandora Premium

$0.002

500

Luckbox | June/July 2021

forms like Spotify mostly relying on subscriptions to fill their pool of royalties—and with people either listening for free or paying $4.99$9.99 a month—there isn’t much money for royalties. “The most successful artists are the ones who are able to find every little niche market for their stuff, whether it’s in film, TV, etc.,” Johnson said. Collective bargaining and protests can help, too. McConnell belongs to the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers’ (UMAW) Chicago chapter, which campaigns for larger payments from streaming platforms. She recently took part in a demonstration outside Chicago’s Spotify headquarters to demand the company pay its artists a penny per stream. Some musicians found a reason for hope in April when Apple Music announced its intention to begin paying artists one cent per stream. “As the discussion about streaming royalties continues, we believe it is important to share our values,” Apple said in a letter. “We believe in paying every creator the same rate—that a play has value and that creators should never have to pay for featuring.” No other streaming platform has made that promise, and money alone won’t solve all of the problems musicians have with streaming. “It is a really awesome tool for discovering new music, but [as an artist] you have to be actively pushing yourself out of the algorithm,” McConnell said. “Smaller artists are being overlooked. If people are using streaming apps, they really need to know that it doesn’t support artists at all.” But the failure to nurture performers isn’t stopping the apps from growing. At the end of Q2 2020, Spotify’s 155 million paying subscribers gave it a 34% market share, Apple Music’s 72 million subscribers were good for a 21% share and Amazon Music had 55 million subscribers for a 15% share.

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Every year, Amazon Music increases its market share, and its Amazon Music Unlimited subscription pays artists more than its competitors unless Apple lives up to its penny promise. While platforms are competing for market share, artists are fretting about compensation. Determining who collects royalty checks often raises issues, especially when a band with several members is involved, according to Daliah Saper, a trademark, copyright and media attorney in Chicago. Music royalties are always confusing, and the confusion increases with digital streaming because of the multitude of ways to split music and the differences in platforms’ payouts, Saper noted. “Artists have to be educated and they have to understand all of the different ways they can exploit their music. Artists get into these collaborations and then they’re confused as to why they’re getting a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that stream.” Getting noticed Even though a majority of artists are not making much money from digital downloads or streaming, they can still use them to promote themselves. In one example, Diego Martinez, a Brooklyn-based musician known as Di Ivories, uses platforms to his

advantage. He leans on Spotify to build a fanbase and make it onto playlists but goes to Bandcamp and Amazon to sell merchandise and make slightly more money. Most of his income as an artist comes from merchandise sales, he said. It’s up to artists to do the work and not just wait for the streams to come in, Martinez said. He wants to see his number of streams grow but wants to see that growth turn into monetary value. To make money and grow as artists, musicians have to become players in every sector of the music industry, Martinez said. That means planning single releases so they make it onto curated playlists, promoting themselves frequently through social media, devoting time to creating and selling solid merchandise, playing live shows whenever possible and strategizing every move to ensure it will provide benefits in the long run. In the short run, Martinez monetizes his music by registering with Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), an organization that collects royalties for songwriters and publishers when anyone uses their music commercially. “It’s more important for artists to find their own way,” Martinez said. “If not, then they’re just a starving artist. In reality, we all are.”

Music Streaming Services’ Market Share

Source: Business of Apps Data source: Counterpoint

Here’s how many times fans streamed songs by the nation’s biggest hit-makers.

1. Drake 5.6 billion 2. Juice WRLD 5.3 billion 3. YoungBoy Never Broke Again 4.7 billion 4. Lil Uzi Vert 4.0 billion 5. Post Malone 3.8 billion 6. Pop Smoke 3.7 billion 7. Taylor Swift 3.6 billion 8. Lil Baby 3.6 billion 9. The Weeknd 3.5 billion 10. Da Baby 3.4 billion Source: HITS

U.S. Music Apps’ Reach of Mobile Users in 2019 Other 13%

YouTube Music 5%

TOP 10 MOSTSTREAMED ARTISTS IN 2020

Tencent Apps 12% Amazon Music 15%

Spotify 34%

Amazon Music 8.8%

Apple Music 21%

Apple Music 23.8%

Google Music 11.7% iHeartRadio 13.9%

Spotify 23.7%

Pandora 16.9%

Source: Business of Apps Data source: Verto Analytics/Statista

June/July 2021 | Luckbox

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ARTS & MEDIA

WHAT DRIVES US

the Dead Kennedys, Lars Ulrich of Metallica; and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. As Flea notes in the film, there’s “only one reason to do it—because you f—— love it.” In a world dominated by music streaming, music aficionados might forget that musicians used to tour to make a name for themselves. Besides radio and television, it was the only exposure a band could get. For Grohl, making it in music requires packing equipment into a van like a game of Tetris, shoving six people in the back and driving around the country to play as many live shows as possible. And there’s no good reason for it other than making that deeper connection with the audience. The movie connects the act of touring in a van to the 1960s journey of Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, who piloted a day-glo school bus across America, experimenting with acid. The pranksters lived by the doctrine of “you’re either on the bus, or off the bus,” literally and figuratively. The bus and its psychedelic paint job inspired the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. What Drives Us entertains music fans while revealing what drives musicians. But it glosses over the struggles and toxicity of touring with no place except for the van to call home. It did not fail to address how an individual band member’s problems become the group’s problems, though. The film pays homage to live music. Shots of a massive crowd singing along in unison to a Foo Fighters song tug at the heartstrings of any music lover. It gets personal with musicians by interviewing Steven Tyler as he’s perched on the dashboard of a van or filming D.H. Peligro as

he succumbs to emotion while relating an experience. Rock musicians were drawn to the lifestyle because it satisfies the soul and enables them to share their love. Flea said it best in the film: “It’s heaven, it’s f—— paradise, it’s the greatest thing you could ever do. I felt like we were this roaming band of gypsies. We show up and we rock you.” Music is about passion, wonder and discovering life’s true purpose. What Drives Us inspires viewers to follow their passion, whatever that might be. —Kendall Polidori

WHAT DRIVES US

4 out of 5 An intimate look at what drove rock legends to the music industry

Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl directed the documentary What Drives Us.

PHOTOGRPAHS: COURTESY OF WHAT DRIVES US

After playing a show in London in the late 1960s, the Beatles were driving home during a frigid snowstorm when the windshield of their van shattered. To stay warm, the four of them laid on top of each other on the van’s bench seat. As each rotated to the top of the pile, he swallowed a bracing slug of whiskey. That’s how the band got home without freezing to death, Ringo Starr recalls in the documentary film What Drives Us. The movie serves as a love letter to touring from iconic rock musicians who left everything behind and set out on adventures laced with uncertainty, passion and countless hours of sitting in vans and busses. There’s nothing quite like a ragged 10 hours of travel to make it to the next show. The film reminds viewers that it takes a special person to live as a working musician and that the beauty of music surpasses mere sound. Music is about connection, not only among the members of the band but also between the band and the audience. What Drives Us was created by people who know. Dave Grohl, the frontman of Foo Fighters and drummer for Nirvana, directed the film, and the Foo Fighters served as producers. They draw upon their experience to show what leads a person to take the blind leap of faith into the music industry and leave so much behind. Grohl narrates when he’s not interviewing the likes of Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers; Slash and Duff McKagan, who both made their names in Guns N’ Roses; The Edge, who earned fame in U2, Exene Cervenka, punk goddess of the band X, Tony Kanal of No Doubt, D.H. Peligro, drummer for

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The psychedelic-rock artist reimagines a ’70s-esque, soft-rock sound with guitar-driven songs. By Kendall Polidori Ty Segall & the Freedom Band ringing one guitar solo after another on Day Two of Pitchfork Music Festival.

Luckbox | November 2021

Since 2006, the Pitchfork Music Festival that grew out of the renowned music publication has graced Chicago’s Union Park with undeniably talented bands from a range of genres. These artists aren’t necessarily the most popular—they’re often the hidden gems that represent the best of their genre and show what may lie ahead in music. It’s tempting to throw all of the bands at Pitchfork into the “indie” category, but that doesn’t recognize their diversity. The festival actually displays everything that makes great music across a wide spectrum of genres. Acts range from indiefolk rockers Phoebe Bridgers, Big Thief and Waxahatchee, to eccentric psych-rock groups like Ty Segall & Freedom Band and Divino Niño. They run the gamut from funky acidjazz artists like Thundercat, to the neo-soul of Erykah Badu. Groups like Special Interest intertwine electronic beats with a heavy punk in-your-face vibration. Even those who hesitate to venture beyond the familiar can begin their exploration of Pitchfork by listening to music from their go-to genres. They may even find themselves devoting time to a genre they’ve previously ignored or even disdained. Before performing at Pitchfork in August, Tamara Lindeman, frontwoman of the Canadian folk band The Weather Station, said she likes to know the people behind the music, which then leads her to find new music in relation to those artists. You expand your musical hori-

PHOTOGRAPHY: KENDALL POLIDORI

Ty Segall Channels Jimmy Page

The Beatles, Stones and Zeppelin were awesome, but rock lives on. Why not break out of the classic rock cocoon and give new music a chance? Rockhound is here to help. Think of it as a bridge from 1967 to today and beyond.

KEEP ON YOUR RADAR Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station refers to Joni Mitchell as a source of inspiration she never tries to have: “She haunts me. She’s like my aunt, or it feels like she’s a relative or something. I have been following her for a long time whether I mean to or not.” And it’s evident in her music. Lindeman’s music is lyric-led and based in folk roots, resonating with Mitchell’s lyrical genius and work on albums such as Blue. Because she leads her music with her lyrics, before her Pitchfork performance Lindeman told Luckbox that her sound has changed immensely throughout the years. If her lyrics demand a different energy or instrument, she adapts—quite often teaching herself how to play a new instrument in order to capture what her words call for. The Weather Station is more than one sound, the band is an aesthetic and resonates with other folk/rock-based names, such as Bob Dylan and Fiona Apple.

VOICE OF AN ANGEL If you had your eyes closed while listening to Some Things Cosmic by singer-songwriter and musician Angel Olsen, you’d likely assume she was from the era of Judy Garland. Her voice is angelic and can be described as vintage. Her influences have been referred back to country-pop artists Pasty Cline and country-rock icon Roy Orbison, but she also uses the influences of classic jazzy-rock to create a sound that is uniquely her own. During her set at Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival, Olsen performed a cover of one of jazz-folk artist Marvin Tate’s songs, nodding toward the influence of jazz.

MELDING GENRES After Philadelphia-based rock band Hop Along’s performance at Pitchfork, drummer Mark Quinlan told Luckbox that every member brings their own musical interests and inspirations to the forefront, creating a melting pot of what he said he hopes is a unique sound. For him, it’s heavy grunge, ‘60s prestige and blue note jazz; guitarist Joe Reinhart builds off of that of The Beatles and Elvis Costello; bassist Tyler Long pays tribute to classic rock Americana; and frontwoman Francis Quinlan is a little bit of everything, with an eclectic taste. “Fran

zons by building upon what you already know. More than half of Luckbox readers, 55%, said rock was their favorite genre according to our most recent reader survey. Jazz came in second with 28% and country third with 26%. So, let’s use classic rock and jazz as examples. Ty Segall, who performed at Pitchfork, favors heavy instrumentation and guitar-driven sounds that bring to mind The Black Lips, The Strokes, The Black Keys and The Beatles. Whether he’s shredding on his Fender Mustang or his touring Les Paul, the fuzz from his guitar is the essence of rock ‘n’ roll: loud, kinetic and in your face. In typical festival fashion, Pitchfork sets start while another band’s set is still wailing across the park. The results aren’t always great.

Pitchfork Music Festival had a packed lineup with acts like (clockwise) Hop Along, Angel Olsen and The Weather Station.

provides us with an idea of a structure. And we sort of use that as a dartboard that we throw things at and see what sticks. I like to think of it as a library of resources that we all have access to,” Quinlan said. The band is surely not without range, mixing Francis’ raspy vocals and acoustic guitar with electrics.

In one example, indie artist Fay Webster’s soft pop-rock melodies were drowned out by Segall’s band. But at least that made the latter impossible to ignore. Segall’s fuzzy guitar riffs seem like something out of the early repertoire of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. But Segall also displays immense range, switching from the bluesy but explosive pace of The Faker (which mirrors The Black Keys’ early sound) to an acoustic-driven vibe in The Keepers, a song that invokes the sound of The Beatles. There’s no question that today’s rock differs from classic rock of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and that’s why it’s vital to listen to artists like Segall. Inspired by rock, blues and jazz, Segall and other indie-rock artists are giving birth to their own versions

of rock ‘n’ roll. Although undeniably original, the sounds of the new rockers capture a hint of nostalgia that honors the gods of rock. Start with his song Whisper— close your eyes and you’ll hear a Whole Lotta Love-era Zeppelin. Pay attention to Segall’s quick transitions between smooth melodies and powerful slides on his guitar. Segall and his band were scheduled to be in Atlanta on Oct. 22 for the Shaky Knees Music Festival and will make their way to California for the remainder of the year. Keep up with him and his upcoming tour dates on his website.

More Segall Listen to his full album Manipulator

Kendall Polidori is Luckbox’s resident rock critic. Follow her reviews on Instagram @rockhound_luckbox and Twitter @rockhoundlb.

November 2021 | Luckbox

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From your most-played songs to your search results in the middle of the night, the music streaming platform knows every action you take within the app By Kendall Polidori

Luckbox | November 2021

PHOTOGRAPH: THIAGO PRUDENCIO/SOPA IMAGES/SIPA USA

Spotify Knows More About You Than Your Taste in Music

t’s no secret that the internet created a world where digital “privacy” is practically extinct. Streaming services monitor users’ interests, habits and even the mood they’re in on a particular evening. They use that information to target suggestions for what to listen to or watch—and to choose what ads users see or hear. But in a digitally dominant society, is it really all that bad if streaming services like Spotify know when someone is feeling lonesome and listening to The Moody Blues’ Melancholy Man on repeat at 2 a.m.? At least that way the service can make some logical suggestions for what to listen to when wallowing in sorrow in the middle of the night. Like all other streaming platforms, Spotify tracks and collects personal data: sign-up information like names, usernames, email addresses, billing addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, genders, countries and cities. Unlike other platforms that are obviously collecting data, like Facebook and Google, Spotify has a more personal insight into its users’ lives. By tracking each song a user plays, what playlists they create or what podcast topics they choose, the platform can understand the mood or mindset of a user at any point in time. Music consumption is personal and intimate, and the ability to understand users’ behavioral data is key for creating Spotify’s personal profiles. Bryan Barletta, author and host of the newsletter/podcast Sounds Profitable—which focuses on audio and podcasting advertising— said it’s easy for streaming services to cross a line when collecting data. Spotify amasses an immense amount of data, but they are “going in the right direction with it,” instead of exploiting it, he said. The situation gets tricky when third-party platforms are involved because they’re more likely than Spotify to misuse the data, Barletta noted. For example, if a user signs up for Spotify with a Facebook account, that opens up more opportunities for data sharing. “It’s important to know that as users, you gave them this information,” Barletta said, adding that Spotify users can avoid third-party access by signing up for a free account or by making sure not to link the platform to other social media accounts. Spotify has become one of the largest collectors and gatekeepers of user data, but James Shelly, head of marketing content at Ethyca—a

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firm that helps companies identify and organize data collection—said the platform does an impressive job of presenting its privacy policy in an easy, digestible way. Like Ethyca, Spotify has a centralized hub where users can manage their privacy rights. “For the first 15 years of the internet, people were just kind of collecting data willy nilly, and that is a technical and operational challenge. So our software automates a lot of the privacy rights fulfillment processes that companies would otherwise have to employ people to go digging around in databases for. So we eliminate the potential of human error as well,” Shelly said. Spotify, which isn’t an Ethyca client, goes “above and beyond” in terms of users’ privacy rights, he said. The company itself is not required to grant users access to their data or the right to have it deleted in the U.S., but it offers it to them anyway. Spotify reigns supreme in data collection and knows exactly how to use it for “good”— making its music experience better for users. With personalized home pages and a slew of personally curated playlists and song suggestions (Daily Mixes, Discover Weekly, Artist Radios, Jump Back In, Made For You, Your Top Mixes, Fresh Finds, Uniquely Yours, and many more), Spotify employs users’ data to keep reeling them back in for more. Outside of Ethyca, Shelly spends his free time helping local musicians get their music algorithmically playlisted on Spotify. As a former musician, he understands the difficulty in getting high engagement on songs and said it’s challenging to grow a listener base without already having an established fanbase. Artists don’t know how platforms evaluate a song’s performance or what criteria they use to choose songs for playlisting, Shelly said. “The uncertainty means that there’s lots of room for emerging artists to get conned into paying to be featured on user playlists that don’t deliver real, engaged listens, thinking it is a good way to grow their profile,” he maintained. Spotify creates more than 100 million data points every day and has 365 million monthly users, according to an article in WIRED. But laws in Europe and California restrict the use of that data. The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, gives users in the European Union the right to access data Spotify processes and the right to request the company update, delete

THE GREATEST SONGS OF ALL TIME? More than 250 musicians, journalists, and music industry executives recently helped Rolling Stone magazine choose the 500 greatest songs of all time. Naturally, not everybody agreed with the resulting list. So Luckbox asked readers to pick their five favorites from the top 20 in the RS rankings. Here’s the comparison: 1. Respect, ARETHA FRANKLIN 2. Fight the Power, PUBLIC ENEMY 3. A Change is Gonna Come, SAM COOKE

4. Like a Rolling Stone, BOB DYLAN 5. Smells Like Teen Spirit, NIRVANA —Rolling Stone

or stop processing data. They can object to the processing of data, request a copy of data collected and avoid profiling. The California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, protects residents of California. “Consent is probably the biggest friction point … users get frustrated by all the hoops they have to jump through, and then they end up doing something that they later regret in terms of consenting to a certain use of their data,” Shelly said. About 97% of Americans say they have been asked to approve privacy policies when signing up for a service, according to a 2019 study by Pew Research Center. But only one in five adults always or often read privacy policies before agreeing to them, while 38% of adults sometimes read policies and 36% never read them, the study found. Besides vigorous data collection, Spotify has a computer-operated algorithm that lends a hand in song or artist recommendations. Spotify’s algorithm is the AI system Bandits for Recommendations as Treatments, or BaRT. It functions on two principles: exploit and explore. The first focuses on a user’s activity and the latter on activity by all Spotify users. It creates a home screen for each user with rows of recommended playlists, radio programs and albums. Some 69% of younger consumers are willing to share personal information with an app or streaming platform in exchange for personalized services, a survey by Entrust indicates.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody, QUEEN 2. Respect, ARETHA FRANKLIN 3. Imagine, JOHN LENNON 4. Smells Like Teen Spirit, NIRVANA 5. Gimme Shelter, ROLLING STONES —Luckbox Reader Survey

Spotify gains access to extra information about its users if they sign up through thirdparty services such as Facebook. And the platform shares users’ personal data with other Spotify group companies. It also releases user data to its advertising partners. So, does it ever cross a line? In 2018, an Austrian developer named Peter Steinberger tried the GDPR data export from Spotify and received a 250MB archive with every interaction he ever had with any Spotify client. The report revealed that Spotify tracks everything users do within the app, including noting which headphones they use. But Spotify respects data privacy and remains transparent about what it collects and how it’s used, Barletta said. The company does not sell users’ data, he noted. Spotify is more upfront than other platforms that collect data and feels more private than social media like Twitter or Facebook because users are not uploading photos or posting tweets or statuses. But users are adding to its algorithm in a different way—instead of setting their status as “feeling nostalgic,” Spotify knows when a user is feeling nostalgic by simply noting that they are listening to the Best of the ‘80s playlist. “Every action you make on the app is collected, and it contributes to ad rollout and user experience,” Barletta said. “We’re not as unique as we hope we are. Actions made by users that are similar then become trends. People are only outraged [about data collection] when it is in their face.”

November 2021 | Luckbox

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ROCKHOUND

Top 5 Rock

Albums of 2021

JUBILEE BY JAPANESE BREAKFAST Japanese Breakfast has a knack for transporting listeners to a different realm, era and life, simply through its electro-rock notes. The band’s latest album, Jubilee, is no exception and remains true to its name by delivering a moment of joy after years of deep reflections on grief by frontwoman Michelle Zauner. With brighter synths, horns and strings, Jubilee, which was released June 4, shoves listeners into a time machine and brings them back to the days of bright ‘80s glam rock—practically placing them in the middle of a scene out of Pretty In Pink. Relating to the likes of The War On Drugs and Lush, the 10-track album is a compilation of dreamy electro pop-rock tunes, all blanketed in layers of synth.

ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR

HOT SASS BY LIZ COOPER

iz Cooper combines deeply personal lyrics with a strong punk attitude, owning up to her own baggage on her latest album Hot Sass. After an extensive touring run for her first studio album Window Flowers under the band name Liz Cooper & the Stampede in 2018, Cooper found herself emotionally and physically drained. Her attraction to folk/country music helped her create the acclaimed folk-psychedelic album she worked so hard to make but left her cooped up in the Americana bubble. Nearing the end of her 20s, Cooper was evolving emotionally and spent two years working on her most self-revealing record yet. Hot Sass was released Sept. 3 through Thirty Tigers Records and marks a new era for Cooper and her band. They dropped Stampede from their name, and they’re running with a psychedelic openness and guitar-driven heavy rock. By straying from the constricting expectations of folk and Americana, Cooper and her band are pursuing sounds inspired by Courtney Love, David Bowie and Lou Reed. With Hot Sass, Cooper proved she is capable of so much more, whether it be heavy guitar solos or elongated interludes reminiscent of The Doors—and she’s not afraid to throw it in your face. Start with the song Lucky Charm and you’ll hear a drawn-out intro that brings to mind The Doors’ Light My Fire. Pay attention to how the guitar slide drops after the long interlude in Lucky Charm, allowing Cooper’s voice to prevail as the main attraction.

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Luckbox | December 2021

Start with the song Be Sweet, and you might hear the dreamy guitar chords that Fleetwood Mac employed in Dreams. Pay attention to the band’s use of sub-genres to augment their sound.

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DELTA KREAM BY THE BLACK KEYS

LONG LOST BY LORD HURON The mixture of Ben Schneider’s smooth, deep voice and Lord Huron’s folk-rock sounds can make listeners feel nostalgic even when it’s the first time they’ve heard the band. Long Lost, the band’s fourth studio album in nine years, is its most cohesive piece of work to date. Staying true to the group’s soft Americana and folk-rock sound, the album, which was released May 21, deserves to be listened to in chronological order. Lead singer Schneider often paints a picture in words, creating thoroughly crafted storylines with fictional characters and backstories. He even includes short breaks between songs with snippets of a fictional radio show host speaking—reeling people in to listen to the entire album. Riding on homey vibes similar to The Avett Brothers and My Morning Jacket, Long Lost is timeless, earning it a place in the timelessness of rock music. Start with the song Not Dead Yet, and you might hear Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl. Pay attention to the warmth of the music, which relies on acoustic instruments.

More Rockhound The Rockhound reviews Courtney Barnett’s new album

The Black Keys are no strangers to the rock scene and have made a name for themselves with 10 studio albums. Meanwhile, both members of the duo, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, have also been accumulating solo works of their own. With their latest album, Delta Kream, released May 14, the group returns to the roots of what inspired them to start creating music in the first place with a compilation of covers they learned to play when they were younger. The album honors the Mississippi hill country blues tradition with covers of songs by Junior Kimbrough, Big Joe Williams, John Lee Hooker, Bernard Besman, R.L. Burnside, Ranie Burnette and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Delta Kream is an ode to Delta blues and classic rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not meant to outshine the band’s other studio albums, but rather to bring their music back to the very beginning while still exploring new textures and grooves. Start with the song Crawling Kingsnake by John Lee Hooker and Bernard Besman, acclaimed bluesmen who were early inspirations for The Black Keys duo. Pay attention to how the song is built around the instruments and their true capability. The duo doesn’t augment the sound electronically to “improve” the music.

LITTLE OBLIVIONS BY JULIEN BAKER Julien Baker has always been a multitrick pony, writing and performing her own lyrics and playing piano, acoustic and electric guitars. Her niche is interpersonal lyrics that reflect her own thoughts and trauma. But she takes it even deeper with her third studio album, Little Oblivions, which was released Feb. 26. Departing from her usual acoustic alternative-folk, Baker brought in a full band to deliver an emotional declaration of ruin and the search for an escape. Her knack for smooth rock gets kicked up a notch with the inclusion of more instruments, but her music is still more lyric-driven. It requires delicate and compassionate listening, and understanding—it’s not just simple background sound. Her notes follow the direction of her words. Start with the song Faith Healer and you might hear a lyrical declaration that could have come from Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. Pay attention to the deep emotion in Baker’s voice and how she puts every piece of herself into each word. Kendall Polidori is Luckbox’s resident rock critic. Follow her reviews on Instagram @rockhound_luckbox and Twitter @rockhoundlb

December 2021 | Luckbox

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life, luxury & the pursuit of happiness

C released their English band XT 1978 album, G2, in io ud st nd co se um cords. The alb Re in rg Vi h ug thro Hipgnosis, by d ne sig de cover, t essay on how provided a shor nies use album pa m co of recording ct the attention tra at cover art to buyers.

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The Art’s on the Outside, Too The most iconic album covers help listeners connect with the music inside

By Kendall Polidori

tanley Mouse was in his 20s when he started creating psychedelic posters for the likes of the Grateful Dead and Journey. Later, he designed album covers for Styx and the Steve Miller Band. George Hardie was 25 when he gave birth to his first album cover for an up-and-coming Led Zeppelin. Stanley Donwood was 26 when he began producing album covers for Radiohead and the band’s lead singer Thom Yorke’s solo work. Andy Warhol was in his 30s when Columbia and RCA Records hired him to design album covers. He came up with some of the greatest ever, including the one for The Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground & Nico. Some of the greatest rock and punk album covers were young artists’ first stabs at creating art to accompany music—and it seemed to work in their favor. Well-known pleasures Take the case of 22-year-old Peter Saville, who designed the cover for Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures in 1979. The cover would become one of the most recognizable designs in pop culture. It’s on band T-shirts in nearly every clothing store, hanging next to the ones for Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and The Beatles. But the phenomenon doesn’t end there. The design graces coffee mugs. People have it etched into their skin

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as black tattoos. It appears as a poster on the wall to set the mood for critically acclaimed films. The cover even survives in the era of “meme art.” The cover art became a symbol for Joy Division’s first studio album and its last with lead singer Ian Curtis, who took his own life in 1980. Yet, the design did more than that. By the late ’80s, it helped define the punk era—it represented a generation of kids who went against the grain. Saville accomplished all that because he experiences music through his eyes as well as his ears. His art adds to an album’s sound and success. Unknown Pleasures is a surefire hit album on its own, but it’s hard to picture it without that cover. Part of the genius lies in omitting the album’s title, the name of the band and the record label. But ubiquity has its downside. Unknown Pleasures serves as an example of what happens when art takes on a life of its own: The importance of the album artwork eclipsed the reach of the music. Saville once told The Washington Post that use of the cover has become “gratuitous and tedious and insincere.” Still, the cover helped make Saville’s reputation. He’s an icon for artists like Julia Fletcher, a music-based designer and photographer in Brooklyn who also cites Barbara Kruger and Warhol as influences.

Without an album cover, music has no physical place in the world. FAMOUS ARTISTS AND ALBUM ART Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Strokes’ The New Abnormal Andy Warhol: The Velvet Underground & Nico’s self-titled album Painting by Henri Fantin-Latour and art direction by Peter Saville: New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies Banksy: Blur’s Think Tank Salvador Dali: Jackie Gleason’s Lonesome Echo Howard Finster: Talking Heads’ Little Creatures

Cross-pollination Album artwork reflects and expands upon the music, lyrics and attitude of what’s inside the packaging, Fletcher said. “It’s very hard but necessary work for designers to communicate that voice properly.” Although difficult, it’s essential. “It’s the first image that a listener is presented with when listening for the first time, so you want that connection to be there and for it to make sense,” she said. Another designer, Leo Horton, is studying at Rhode Island School of Design but has been collaborating with musicians on cover art since he was 16, including indie pop-rock collective Lunar Vacation. Horton works to capture the person-

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In 1969, a young George Hardie showed up at RAK Records in London to meet with the intimidating 300-pound Peter Grant, manager for the then-emerging rock band Led Zeppelin. Hardie, still a student at the Royal College of Art in London, had yet to win acclaim as an artist and designer. But the typography he had contributed to the cover of Jeff Beck’s album Truth attracted the attention of the four young English rockers looking to design the cover of their first album, Led Zeppelin I. Hardie brought cover art sketches to the meeting, but a curly headed Jimmy Page had other ideas. Page, Led Zeppelin’s guitar hero, presented Hardie with a photograph by Sam Shere of the 1937 Hindenburg airship disaster. The photo embodied the band’s name, which had allegedly originated with Keith Moon, drummer for The Who. Moon reportedly joked in 1966 that a band that included some of the musicians who went on to form Led Zeppelin would go down like a lead balloon. Using lots of dots, Hardie made a stipple tracing of the photo and was compensated $80 for creating the image that came to define Led Zeppelin. Half a century later, the original cover art sold for more than 10 times its estimate at Christie’s, landing at $325,000 and setting the record as the most expensive piece of original album cover art ever sold. After his work on Led Zeppelin I, Hardie went on to design covers for Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Wings and Sammy Hagar.

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Dollars and sense Calculating the compensation for album cover art always presents a challenge. It’s often determined case-by-case, and artists are typically brought on as freelancers. The emergence of indie artists has been accompanied by more indie art on album covers. Some musicians are creating their own cover art. Without the backing of a major label—like the early Led Zeppelin had—it’s hard to find and to pay for outside designers. For someone like Fletcher, compensation depends upon the project and how long it takes to complete the work. She typically charges $200-$325 for a poster, $325 per merchandise design, $325-

$500 for digital/single album artwork and $1,500 for vinyl packaging design. “These are all things covered in my contract and discussed prior to doing the work,” she noted. “But it’s important that we talk about pricing publicly because young designers won’t know what to charge otherwise.” Compensation aside, designers can reach for album-cover glory. Take the example of a classic like The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover. Paul McCartney dreamed it up, and Peter Blake and Jann Haworth designed it. In 1967, it cost $3,000 to produce, making it the era’s most expensive design, but it won a Grammy for Best Album Cover. In 2012, the original collage sold for $87,000 at Sotheby’s in London. In 2013, a signed copy of the album sold for $290,000. Fletcher noted that the more successful and historic an album becomes, the higher the value for the art associated with it. Horton said prices rise because

WE ASKED LUCKBOX READERS TO PICK THEIR FAVORITE ICONIC ALBUM COVER. HERE’S HOW THEY VOTED:

alities and aesthetics of the band by talking extensively with the members, listening intently and repeatedly to their music, and experimenting with numerous drafts of the cover. He finds that creative freedom and having enough time to hone in on a design help the most.

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exactly what you’re talking about. Fletcher mentioned that the cover for The Clash’s London Calling began as a riff off one of Elvis Presley’s album jackets but became even more iconic than the original. Countless parodies and recreations pay tribute to the source. Although she’s not developing parodies, Fletcher’s design work reflects the music she listens to—primarily from the ’70s and ’80s. It inspires her clashing colors, stretched type and cluttered compositions. Packaging for recorded music has changed since Saville designed Unknown Pleasures. CDs, vinyl records and cassettes still exist on the physi-

Vinyl is back For the first time in 30 years, vinyl has outpaced CDs in physical music sales. According to MRC Data and Billboard, vinyl is now the leading format for album purchases in the United States, thanks to the indie sector. The authors of Billboard’s annual report noted that vinyl albums were responsible for 38.3% of all album sales, physical and digital, in the United States. Vinyl also accounted for 50.5% of all physical albums, with 41.72 million vinyls records sold, up 51.4% from 27.55 million in 2020. More than half of vinyl albums sold came from the indie scene. Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) came in at No. 3 with 114,000 copies sold. Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour was No. 2 with 268,000 copies. And finally, Adele’s 30 was the No. 1 vinyl seller with 318,000 sales.

the public cherishes groundbreaking albums like Sgt. Pepper’s. “They become kind of these cultural landmarks and symbols that everybody understands or recognizes,” he said. Every week, record labels release albums with beautiful or at least interesting covers. In time, some will become iconic, Horton maintained. So far, the only latter-day cover that rivals Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures as a cultural—rather than just musical—phenomenon has been the Arctic Monkeys’ AM. The album, released in 2013, quickly developed a community in the way Unknown Pleasures did: The black and white cover, displayed on T-shirts, became a symbol for goth girls on Tumblr who weren’t your “average girl.” So, what makes an album and its artwork iconic? Fletcher suggested it starts with originality and ends with being reproduced and referenced time and time again. Their designs feel timeless decades later. Everyone still knows

Arctic Monkeys’ AM cover was designed by freelance illustrator and graphic designer Matthew Cooper.

cal plane, but images also take digital form as JPEGs, PNGs and NFTs—all in different scales. Designs now work in a plethora of media and may end up with a longer lifespan than a painting. “Without an album cover, the music has no kind of physical place in the world,” Horton concluded. “Music is formless.” But the cover provides form. “Until an album cover gives someone something to recognize a song by, there really isn’t anything they can tangibly hold on to,” he said. Kendall Polidori is The Rockhound, Luckbox’s resident rock critic. Follow her reviews on Instagram @rockhound_luckbox and Twitter @rockhoundlb.

March 2022 | Luckbox

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