This document discusses the history of music as art from classical composers through modern artists. It notes that classical composers like Beethoven, Mozart and Bach were highly regarded as artists during the 18th century. It then outlines key people who helped establish music as a graphic art form through album cover design like Alex Steinweiss and Rick Griffin. The document questions whether giving music away for free by artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails devalues music as art. It highlights Wu-Tang Clan's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album which was released as a single work of art to restore music's status as high art. It remains uncertain whether treating albums as limited art works will continue and gain public support

2. • Beethoven, Mozart and Bach -
top dogs
• Classical Period - 18th
century
• Concerts = $$$
• Only time to hear their music
• Composers/musicians
regarded as artists

3. pre-1938

4. Alex Steinweiss
• First Art department
head of Columbia
Records
• Designed first album
covers
• Golden age of Jazz
• Graphic, poster
intention

6. Rick
Griffin
Stanley Mouse

7. • Surfer + Surf Art
• Read MAD Magazine
• Close with The Grateful Dead
• Designed their albums and
posters
• leading psychedelic poster
designer

9. • San Francisco based
• influenced by Rick Griffin and Art Nouveau
like Alphonse Mucha
• Hippie art and psychedelic stuff
• befriended Journey, Grateful Dead &
made posters and albums covers for them

11. • Music Industry is screwed in the 21st cent.
• CD sales suck, people just stream and
steal
• Musicians aren’t valued as artists, nor are
albums valued as art largely
• Different ways to handle this situation

12. In Rainbows (2007) was
released for digital
download “name your
price”
• First time a large
band had done
something like this

13. Trent Reznor
released Year Zero in
2007
• Album was paired
with a remixed album
and video game
(poster from the
game)

14. Those two artists adapted one way,
compromising and using the system
Did it devalue their art, to give it away for
free?
Were these attempts to gain respect as
artists or to play into the failing system?

15. • Once Upon a Time in
Shaolin
• One record, on tour to
galleries, museums, etc.
• Only time you can hear it is
if you pay to hear it in the
gallery
• Restore music as high art

16. “History demonstrates that great musicians such
as Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are held in the
same high esteem as figures like Picasso,
Michelangelo and Van Gogh”
“The idea that music is art has been something
we advocated for years” -RZA

17. Will this trend continue to spread?
Will more albums see limited releases and
be treated as works of art?
Will the public support this concept?
Me:
yes yes and no