Alex Steinweiss's Accomplishments

“The way records were sold was completely ridiculous. The covers were brown, tan or green paper; they were not in the least bit attractive, and lacked any form of sales appeal” – these are the words of Alex Steinweiss, the creator of album artwork, way back in 1939. Before Steinweiss’ revolutionary creation, there was quite simply no such thing as an album cover; vinyl recordings were available to buy in the back of appliance stores, where one would enquire for the particular title of a recording and were it in stock, would receive it in brown paper packaging, which was commonplace for all records at the time – possibly reflecting the fact that sales of records at this time in history were neither impressive or significant, instantly suggesting
the theory that the introduction of album artwork is the heart of the attractiveness of modern day music. Whilst it cannot be denied that both sales and popularity would have undoubtedly been higher was it not for the great depression hitting the public in 1930, which happened to be the year Vinyl’s were commercially available for the first time after their introduction by RCA Victor; quite simply, the playback equipment was far too expensive for most.
But, Depression aside, Columbia records increased its record sales eightfold in a mere three months, proving that the reason which undoubtedly kicked the sale of the Album Artwork off is indisputably down to the introduction of album artwork, for which we have the young and creative mind of Alex Steinweiss to thank.

Alex Steinweiss, born in Brooklyn on March 24th 1917, attended Abraham Lincoln High School in 1930, where he quickly became one of the favoured students amongst the art school; Leon Friend, the chairman of the art department formed a group of talented artists known as the ‘art squad’ , where Steinweiss shone as both an illustrator and a graphic designer. After being featured in the fashionable PM magazine at only seventeen, Steinweiss won a scholarship to Parsons School of Design, and after graduating in 1937, was hired as an understudy to the Austrian poster designer, Joseph Binder. Steinweiss learnt a lot from Binder, and was particularly influenced by his ability to flatten colour
and simplify human figures, but then an opportunity came along allowing Steinweiss to become the advertising manager of Columbia Records, a job which he couldn’t turn down. Initially, Steinweiss’ work was largely concerned with advertising, erecting posters, designing fonts and all other design needs from the newly formed Columbia records. But one day, Steinweiss was arranging the brown paper packets ready to be filled with vinyl recordings, when he thought to himself why not fill these albums with colour, graphic and design too? His idea was to use a combination of drawings and paintings and use them instead of the standard brown paper packaging; but the main concept being for the image, whatever it may be, to specifically relate to the music, and the message it is trying to convey. Steinweiss is quoted saying, “I love music so much and I had such ambition that I was willing to go way beyond what the hell they paid me for. I wanted people to look at the artwork and hear the music.” This shows just how revolutionary Steinweiss’ concept was; people wrote it off immediately, thought it to be a reckless and un-necessary progression of the vinyl. Although for us living in the twenty-first century Steinweiss’ idea seems nothing less than a logical and rational step, it was clearly not the thoughts of most back in the 1930’s – but how wrong they were. The idea itself was revolutionary and had a vast impact on the record business, which can be seen in Steinweiss’ first cover; a ‘Rodgers & Hart’ album (see picture). The cover depicts a theatre marquee, with the artist’s names spelled out under a myriad of individual lights, all revolving on a red circle in the centre, perhaps referring to the ‘spider’ required to fill the hole between the 45 RPM record and the spindle allowing the record to be used on a standard turntable spindle. Considering that an outline of a record can be seen behind the red circle, this theory seems likely. The record was already on the shelves before its artwork had been added, but when it was added, it stood out from the shelves and become so much more appealing to the public. From that moment in history, the album cover never looked back; every new release’s sales were significantly improved, and the artistic packaging became an important part of the record, and was soon adopted by every other record company.

“Smash Song Hits” by “Rodgers & Hart”. 1939

Looking at the career of Alex Steinweiss, there are roughly five distinct periods. The first would be his time spent at Columbia records, where of course his career in the album artwork really set off; he spent six years solely with them, during the course of world war two from 1939-1945. In these six years the album cover was born, and it never looked back; come to think of it, neither did Steinweiss. Steinweiss had given birth to “music for eyes” , and the industry couldn't get enough of it. After spending two years as an exhibits engineer in the US navy tactical air direction centre, Steinweiss broadened his horizons from merely being Art Director at Columbia records; Steinweiss wanted to go on, and gain more success, thus causing him to also become a graphic designer, an pure artist, whilst working for several companies, industries and firms – not just Columbia records. Whilst being the beating heart of the ‘first golden age’ of the album cover, Steinweiss somehow managed to find the time to create his own font: the ‘Steinweiss scrawl’, which he made in 1947, and finds itself still being used around the world today:

Ever since its invention by Steinweiss, album artwork has been something more than a mere block of vibrancy to provide some visual aesthetics to give the purchaser more value for money; elements of symbolism, political statements, controversy, reflections of the music, replications of influential art and so on – my point being there is much more to it than one may initially assume.
The 1950’s would seem a fitting place to start; and within that what more fitting than the king of rock, Elvis Presley.
In one of his most iconic albums, ‘Elvis Presley’ (1956) which was really the moment when Presley fully emerged onto the big stage; the artwork fully shows the intentions that Rock’n’Roll had – a black and white shot of Presley embodying unbridled energy of the youth that fits the image at a slightly off-centred angle, juxtaposing the seated drummer ‘DJ Fontana’, giving the impression Presley couldn’t be confined on the vinyl and that he is literally throwing himself at the buyer; an act of genius by Colonel Tom Parker of RCA, who hired out the Robertson & Fresh commercial studio to shoot the cover. The prominent green and red text stands out in front of the black and white image, suggesting that this is the moment Presley really arrives into the music industry. The album cover portrays both the energy and passion that Presley achieved in his revolutionary music. The impact this cover had is undisputed; The Clash used the exact composition and scenario in their 1979 album ‘London Calling’. Following Presley in the same year I wish to jump to the genre of ‘Jazz’ – Quincy Jones’ ‘This is how I feel about jazz’ (1956) takes a different approach in the chosen album cover. During a time where jazz presented a very ‘upper-class’ type of music and that the viewer was demanded to be as enigmatic as the artist appeared, Quincy Jones took a much more common
perspective into the target audience of his music. What he conveys in ‘This is how I feel about Jazz’ is a feeling of compunction, making one buy it due a sense of sympathy and almost as if he made you feel obliged to buy it. The collage of reds, yellows and pale blue add a modern edge to the image, whilst the mere fact that Jones is looking out at the buyer gave a sense of connectedness with those who felt jazz wasn’t meant for them. One must also pay attention to the sheets in Jones’ hand, which give the suggestion that he is holding piles of sheet music. Mid fifties Jazz was a time where improvisation was key and a formulation of written music was uncommon; what Jones is doing here in fact adds an element of controversy to the cover. Jones is referencing back to the ‘swing’ era of music where jazz would constitute of a big band playing note for note reproductions of noted music; he reminds the viewer of Jazz’s rich history, and places himself right in the middle of this way of the past. Another significant jazz album of the 1950’s would be that of ‘Ella and Louis’ by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in 1956. At the time of 1956, it’s clear that Jazz is the music for the ageing and Rock’n’Roll is the music for the youth; the pure power and energy from the likes of Presley blew the music scene away, leaving jazz in the shadows. Miles Davies had created a new form of Jazz, that in fairness kept up with the rock genre, but the sort of Jazz Fitzgerald and Armstrong were acquainted with had well and truly died. What is important though, is that they are the first two to make this realisation; this album is for those who aged with them. They strip the cover down to the bare minimum; they both sit in unperturbed manners on two chairs – it makes the viewer feel as if they are interrupting a reverie, or walking in on two geniuses of the genre having a break. And for those who had aged with them, the album promises everything one would want; nothing special, nothing new, just a collection of relaxed unchallenging tracks which would connect and radiate a sense of warmth with the listener. The important aspect to realise about this album is that Armstrong and Fitzgerald made no attempt whatsoever to keep up with the rapidly growing music industry; they were content with what they were used to, and accepted they were past their prime – in a way they want the listener to realise this, and to appreciate that the tracks on the album were produced by the old hand who held unmatchable levels of experience. This was also the first notable album cover not to have the names of the artist on the front; a measure of their fame in an album which sets the bar for growing old gracefully. A man who held a different perspective in his idea of Jazz would be that of ‘Cecil Taylor’, one of the most controversial pianists of all time. Band members would walk out on him half way through a set, club managers would stop his set after the opening line; Taylors music was both radical and revolutionary, and in his album ‘Looking Ahead!’ (1958), he suggests to us that he is finally ready for the big stage, and he is ready to compete with rock. In many Jazz album covers the signer feels obliged to look out into the buyer, tempting them to buy the album – Taylor is almost too cool for that in ‘Looking Ahead!’ and conveys a sense of calm before the storm. With free jazz emerging in the 1960’s, Taylor knows his time has almost come on the big stage, and this is reflected on the cover of ‘Looking Ahead!’ which is remarkably prescient. Taylor is looking away from the buyer and into the future, whilst his choice of having one hand stretched out across the piano and the other holding a cigarette can be interpreted in different ways. One could argue that he is resting with a hint of complacency whilst he waits for the rest of the Jazz genre to catch up with him, whilst others have suggested that he is enticing the viewer to challenge him and will imminently jump up and take on anyone who thinks they can overcome him. The cover also sees Taylor slightly squashed in by the rather vast section allocated for his name and title, in which the white background heavily juxtaposes the black of the piano, which conveys a heavy colour contrast out of nothing, implying Taylor has a ‘power within’. The boldness of the lettering also suggests that Taylor is finally able to sell records on his name alone, representing someone who is on the cusp of the big-stage. To end the 1950’s it would be disrespectful not to finish with Elvis Presley, whose’50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong’ (1959) sends out a message saying that no one can come remotely close to the level he is at; put it simply, Presley is in a league of his own. This album was exactly what Presley needed at the time of November 1959; having been called up for the American army, many thought his status of the ‘King of Rock’n’Roll’ would be seized. However the image of 16 Presley’s staring out at the buyer in a glistening gold suit removed any doubt from the public’s mind as it exemplified every level of success in a reminder that he was the still the biggest selling rock and pop artist of all time. Whilst the album was mostly a compilation of greatest hits, the aim of the album was to be a piece of PR, and it did that exceptionally, fulfilling everything it aimed to do.

Originally designed by McCartney in an ink drawing, the Grammy award winning album of Sgt.Peppers aimed to, in the words of Paul McCartney, “reach out to the record-buyer in an aesthetically pleasing manner, because of our memories of spending our own hard-earned cash and really loving anyone who gave us value for money”. Designed

Fundamentally, the question of how influential album artwork can be is down to the marketing techniques being used at the time of production. However much thought and care goes into an album cover, or however much of a necessity it is to fully appreciate the music; it is all a complete waste of time should it not be advertised or even sold with the cover - something which, sadly, is appearing more and more in the music industry as the universal format becomes ever-more digital. Making financial sense as well as a general pragmatism, the ease of digital downloads is quite frankly unavoidable. Obviously we must not ignore the so-called ‘Vinyl-revival’ - after all compare Americas $36 Million of Vinyl Sales in 2006 to the $214 million in 2014 - not much needs to be said in this respect; the popularity of the Vinyl is clearly growing everyday, thus the potential for more and more artwork to be conveyed is too. However, when looking at this statistic on its own, it would be easy to think that the $178 million that Vinyl has appreciated by over the last eight years is $178 million that the digital download has fallen by; but how wrong this belief could be. Digital sales in fact, rose 4.3% in America in 2013 to a staggering $5.9 Billion; 33.15 times larger the amount vinyl sales appreciated over the same time period. The loser in this equation is by a distance, the sales of the CD. At $602.7 million in 2005, it now stands at roughly $120 million in 2014 – a fall of $482.7 million; it’s only set to decline even more as well, with its appeal falling so badly that its predicted to acquire a mere $1 million in sales by the time of 2022. So back to the original point - the sale of digital music is growing rapidly; the need for album artwork is fading rapidly. The majority of digital stores use only a mere thumbnail size for the album cover, suggesting that it only remains for ‘traditions’ sake. Understandably due to this less money is going into the artwork – why would a band put money into its artwork if it’s not going to get any money back for it?