Archives

What is an Archive?

When I hear the word archive, I think of a place you go to find information. According to The National Archives, an archive is a place where you can gather facts, data, evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, and other primary resources. Archives are used for many things such as to store items as proof that something occurred or even explain how something happened. An example of an archive would be the Pennsylvania State Archives. The Pennsylvania State Archives purpose is to obtain, maintain the original existence, and make available the permanently valuable public records or the Commonwealth along with private papers relevant to the history of the state of Pennsylvania.

Why Make an Archive of Vinyl Record Covers?

Vinyl record covers are one of the first forms of artwork for media presented on a vinyl record, and vinyls date very far back. While it is very likely that there are archives of the songs featured, it is very unlikely that there is an archive dedicated to the cover art. These are especially important to archive, as these are printed on cardboard and can wear/lose their colors quickly. Also, it is worth making a scan of the back of the vinyl cover, as these are typically the only way a person can see the names of a vinyl’s songs.

Our Examples

We have chosen to show you four Vinyl Record Covers that make our case for why there should be an archive. Our first example is the legendary record cover for The Beatles album Abbey Road.
If you talk to anyone over the age of 16 they will be able to tell you exactly what the Abbey Road album cover looks like. It has been repeated time and time again by different people of all different ages, and different races. We have examined the cover as critiques as well, asking why is Paul the only one stepping on the white mark. Album covers like this and like my next example, Jimi Hendrix vinyl record cover Axis Bold As Love,redefine music and album artwork.

The Hendrix album cover is what is known as Afro Album Cover, which African American artists use. It is also historic because it is Jimi Hendrix, one of, if not the greatest guitarist of all time who’s life was cut way to short. Another example is the cover of the Kiss album Sonic Boom.

This cover artwork was done by Michael Doret, an artist who worked on other Kiss albums as well. This album cover has sort of a comic book look to it, with the large animations and bright colors.

Pink Floyd’s album cover for The Dark Side of the Moon is also a standout vinyl design. This album with a simple cover design was meant to focus on things that “make people mad.” It was designed by Storm Thorgerson, the prism dispersing light into color is meant to represent the band’s lighting and the theme of the record.