It really is bizarre what pushes people\u2019s buttons these days.<\/p>\n
People getting riled up by album artwork should be something of the past. Partially because of the fact that album artwork is most often a tiny collection of pixels on a phone screen, glimpsed before you put your phone back into your pocket on your walk to work. The other side of this, though, is the fact that we should be tougher to shock than this, surely? The information age has put the entirety of human knowledge in that pocket, and I hate to break it to you, that includes some dark shit.<\/p>\n
Yet even before that, the 21st century wasn\u2019t the first time that human suffering was being beamed into our conscience. The Vietnam War was putting images of mutilated humanity into the living rooms of the world in the 1960s, yet that was seemingly fine. That was news, it was important for everyone to know about that. You put a piece of art on an album cover though, that\u2019s when you\u2019re a corrupting influence on the world\u2019s children.<\/p>\n
To be clear, that\u2019s not to let generations of artists off the hook. The description we hear of the cover of Spinal Tap\u2019s Smell The Glove was actually pretty tame in comparison to what some hard rock dullards were trying to pass off in the 1970s and 1980s. It still didn\u2019t make Tipper Gore\u2019s crusade against music with \u201cunacceptable content\u201d any more of an attempt to stifle free speech, but it was pretty gross. Look up the original cover to Appetite For Destruction for more info but for God\u2019s sake, not on image search.<\/p>\n
Then, we move into the present day. Despite living in the 21st century, there are still album covers that get people in a flap, even when you\u2019re not looking at the underground or underground-adjacent albums. Look up the original cover for Death Grips\u2019 No Love Deep Web for more info, but FOR GOD\u2019S SAKE, not on image search. Even in the mainstream, the cover for Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s Man\u2019s Best Friend made many horrible people cross and the question remains\u2026 why?!<\/p>\n
What makes an album cover unacceptable?
\nAfter all, we\u2019re in an age where the music world is dominated by female pop stars. We have been for the past 20-odd years. All of which have the clout to (seemingly) present themselves the way they want, and for a large amount of them, they want to present themselves in a way that shows the world what it already knows. That a lot of these people are among the most beautiful people on the planet. If I were one of them, I can\u2019t say I wouldn\u2019t do the same.<\/p>\n
Now, in a depressing way, you\u2019d expect the pushback on the Sabrina Carpenter cover now. After all, women doing what they please with their bodies is undergoing a carefully constructed cultural pushback. It\u2019s just part of the more rigid form of conservatism that a few mega-rich people are funding to push back against the overwhelming proof that they\u2019re ruining the planet. Yet even in 2010, when the first wave of female pop stars were taking over and only most of the world\u2019s information sources were controlled by outright fascists, Sky Ferreira got people\u2019s backs up with the cover of her debut album Night Time, My Time.<\/p>\n
Which is annoying, because the cover is fantastic. Shot by Gaspar Noe, the genius behind films like Enter The Void, Climax and I Stand Alone, Ferreira stands in a green tiled shower. She\u2019s soaked through and staring out at someone or something behind the camera, an unknowable look in her eye. It cooked be fear, or revulsion or suspicion, we just know it\u2019s nothing good. It introduces us to the vulnerable, yet scathing album perfectly. Except that Ferreira is topless on the cover. Which makes it bad. Apparently.<\/p>\n
A compromise was made that the version of the album art listed on streaming sites would crop out Ferreira\u2019s chest. Which is at the very least a damn site better than what happened to Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s album, which had to have its (also brilliant) cover replaced outright in several outlets. When better compromises are being reached regarding how female artists want to present themselves 15 years ago, you know shit\u2019s well and truly fucked. Here\u2019s hoping it gets better from here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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