POST— MODERN GRAPHIC DESIGN &MUSIC
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April Greiman. Wet Magazine, magazine cover, 1979, Quote, Pg 2-3
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Postmodernism is a movement in art, culture, and music that is derived as a criticism to the modernist idea of ‘absolute’ values of aesthetics and trends in popular culture. It spans over four decades from 1950’s to 1990’s and interpreted into various areas from history to politics. Postmodernist graphic design approaches modernism’s visual rules brought of clarity and simplicity, and responds in complexity and contradiction.
WHAT IS POST— MODERNISM?
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Postmodernist Musical Attitude
The postmodern philosophy began to develop in music during the late 1960’s largely as a reaction to modernist music. Artists with the postmodern mindset often wanted to revolt, discredit or even attack the materialism and conformity that came with the modernist era. They prefered to draw inspiration from a wide array of contradictory and artistically unrelated areas, which are generally presented as social criticism or irony. During the span of postmodernism era, 4 genres became salient: Psychedelic rock in 60’s, Punk in 70’s, New Wave in 80’s and Electronic in 90’s.
Postmodernist musicians wanted to demonstrate their artistic attitude visually as well as their art. In this movement, graphic design played a significant role in postmodernist musicians’ logos, gig posters, and most importantly their album covers. Album covers are the closest visual art to postmodernist music as artists want their covers to define their musical attitude. With the emergence of this movement in various areas in art; music and graphic design advanced side by side. Lots of artists used these mediums to express their music. Postmodernist graphic design began to express parallel music with these designs.
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A. Barney Bubbles. Music for Pleasure by the Damned, album cover, Stiff Records, UK, 1977 B. Neville Brody. James Brown by Cabaret Voltaire, album cover, Virgin Records, UK, 1984
HOW POST— MODERNIST GRAPHIC DESIGN INFLUENCES MUSIC
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60’S PSYCHEDELIC ROCK Psychedelic rock emerges as a reaction against modernity from its music to its art. The term psychedelic comes from the Greek word psyche meaning spirit and delos meaning revealed. It basically means mind-freeing and resembles the idea of standing against the existence of conventionality in postmodernism. Psychedelic is meant to reveal the subject in all its failure and infinitude, all its constructiveness and creativity. This music genre, also called acid rock, was very much a part of the LSD culture which surrounded its creation. LSD drug often results in what is called an “ego death” in many users, similar to the loss of subject (stable, isolated identity) in postmodernism. Psychedelic album covers feature the typicality of the psychedelic art of abstract swirls, vivid colors and optical illusions. The curvilinear calligraphy that later became the mark of psychedelic art is illegible and hand-drawn. The album covers of this era start to push the boundaries of legibility and visual perception.
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70’S PUNK
The genre punk became a subculture after its rise in the 1970’s to early 1980’s. It generates fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. The punk’s rise against the harmonious music was like graphic designer’s revolt to restrictions. In the 1970’s the graphic artists associated with punk rock movement attacked on professional design’s orderly methods and polished conventions, refusing to admit anything as an error.1 The edgy look of punk was something sought in album cover design. The blocky typography, collages and chaotic approach was an antithesis of harmonious, tasteful, professional design.2 C. Karl Ferris. Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix, Reprise, 1968 D. Jamie Reid. God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, Virgin Records, UK, 1977
E. Jamie Reid. Never Mind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols, Virgin Records, UK, 1977 1–2. Jude Davis. The Future of “No Future”: Punk Rock and Post– modern Theory. 1996 E
10 New wave music is considered as the evolvement of punk music emerging in mid 1980’s. That’s why it is also widely known as post-punk. The differences in the new wave music were the experimental musical additions such as electronic and synth sounds. It can be said that New wave musical approach is punk with an embrace of technology. Around the same era, in the postmodernist graphic design, the acknowledgement of technology as an artistic medium had also begun. Wolfgang Weingart introduced new wave movement as a stance against strict Swiss typography and April Greiman brought it to United States. It quickly became popular in the west side and earned a name as “Californian New Wave.” The complexity, abstract and computer-generated graphics resembled the electronic sound and yet still protected its postmodernist values. This made the design style perfect for album covers for musicians who included experimental electronic sounds in their music.
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80’S NEW WAVE
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F. Peter Saville. Factory by New Order, Factory Records, UK, 1989 G. Jim Cherry. Claro Que Si by Yello, Vertigo, West Germany, 1981
H. Me Company. Alarm Call by Björk, CD single cover, One Little Indian, UK, 1998
90’S TECHNO
With the progression of computer technology and digital culture, music and graphic design evolved to a more “tech” style. Techno, electronic and computer-generated music became popular during the 1990’s and computer generated graphics were the perfect fit. April Greiman’s innovative approach to postmodernist graphic design during this era opened endless possibilities in design’s artistic vision. By the mid 90’s techno style was recognized everywhere as a lingua franca for music events. This “techno” approach to design developed into more of a cyberpunk style and electronic musicians embodied a whole new pattern.
Poynor, Rick. No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Yale Press, 2003. Davis, Jude. The Future of “No Future”: Punk Rock and Postmodern Theory. 1996 Lochhead, Judith Irene, and Joseph Henry Auner. Postmodern Music/ postmodern Thought. New York, Routledge, 2002. Postmodern Music. An Analysis of Postmodern Music and Music in Postmodernity, Wordpress Entry, April 2011. Crowder, Matt. Postmodernism & Postmodernist Music, Wordpress Entry, June 2013.
Designed and written by Ozlenen Ozbicerler Typefaces Used: Sailec and Raisonne. Digital Print, 7x10, 12 Pages Hammermill 50 lb. Cover 2 Copies, Accordion Fold Copyright © 2016 Ozlenen Ozbicerler, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art