Rock Covers

by Jonathan Kirby, Robbie Busch, Julius Wiedemann (Editor)

Album art is indelibly linked to our collective musical memories; when you think of your favorite albums, you picture the covers. Many photographers, illustrators, and art directors have become celebrities from their album artworks—the best examples of which will go down in history as permanent fixtures in popular culture. Paying tribute to this art form, Rock Covers brings you a compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth are gathered together in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions. This far-reaching catalog of visualized rock is contextualized with insider interviews with five professionals who shaped the history of rock, and by top-10 record lists from ten leading rock collectors.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Art, Reference, Coffee Table Books, History, Photography

551 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2014

Reviews

[Mai M Ibrahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب من الحجم الكبير
وأنا بحب مزيكا الروك ف كان بالنسبة لي كنز إني أشوف الألبومات ف النوع ده من المزيكا كان ف ابداع بالذات ف الستينيات والسبعينيات

هصور الكتاب ع قناة عن الفن ع اليوتيوب لو حد مهتم
@3nelfn
بصور الكتب الورقية اللي بستعيرها من المكتبة العامة وبنزلها ع انستجرام
@mai.designer92

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarrely, the book is structured in alphabetical order rather than by decade, so you totally miss out on the aesthetic pop culture and trends of each era - which is jarring. Another huge shortcoming is the absence of an index, which makes this publication useless as a reference tool.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that doesn't know what it wants to be

"750 album covers that made history" is the subtitle. And it's a lie. Really. I've never heard of about a third of the albums in this collection (and I lived in part of the period covered). What you get is the authors' idea of 750 albums they like. And that's okay. Just don't pass this effort off as dealing with records that "made history" when it's far from the truth.

The authors give us four criteria by which they made their selections: classic rock; rarities; aesthetics; good background stories. You rarely get all four at once, especially since only a third of the covers come with an explanation of any sort; the rest are simply just covers with names responsible for the art. Sometimes you do get a backstory on the art; others, you get a backstory on the record. It's not consistent, and the information is scant, in any case.

What you ultimately have is a Taschen art book. And I love Taschen, so it's not their fault here, exactly. If you are looking for something deeper -- and an effort that removes "rarities" that are most often nothing but obscure records the authors liked, period -- you'll have to look elsewhere. The book ends with a number of critics listing their favourite 10 albums. Perhaps unsurprisingly they're all men, as are most of the music creators.

A disappointment.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of the images in the book is the strong point. I find myself agreeing with others who find the A-Z listing offers little in the way of progression of the cover over time which is a shame. As with any collection of this type there are albums I know and hate, albums I know and love, and ones I’ve not heard of some of which I’ve been seeking out. The biggest disappointment (for me) is that for many of the albums there’s no commentary, which is a great shame. But, overall, a fine book, and one which will no doubt provoke many conversations in the future.

[Anthony Rizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admittedly forgot I had this and found it today, and I decided to sit down and read it. I love the history of music, particularly rock and its various offshoots, but I found myself distracted by some odd choices and errors in this book. There are a multitude of albums presented here in an A to Z format, except a few are just randomly in the wrong place (Van Halen's 1984 comes to mind showing up not even halfway into the book). There is also commentary and history for some of the albums and story of how the cover came to be, but I was disappointed at how many were included with no text at all! Especially since some were unremarkable, it would have been nice to know why they picked it, at least? It was worth the read once, but that is all for me personally.

[Nicholas Plant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot of new artists and albums that I never would have known about unless I read this book!

It would have been nice if there was more information about more of the albums referenced in the book; but I will do my own research about the artists and songs that pique my interest.

I created a public playlist on Spotify titled "Rock Covers" that is 493 songs and 29 hours long that has one song from all of the albums in the book that I could find on Spotify.

I am looking forward to listening to some new tunes and looking at the artwork as I dive into these artists and songs I have never heard before.

[Andrés Balanta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish there would have been more background story behind each cover. My intention was to learn a little bit more about rock music and I thought this would be a good start, but the book lacks of that narrative. I also think an index is missing since there is no way to reference the covers.

[Cudipeich Grijander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy interesante colección de portadas de todos los estilos desde los 50, muchos recuerdos en estas páginas y muchos descubrimientos.

[Paolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raccolta di moltissime copertine di dischi di rock. Tantissimi gruppi e musicisti che non conosco. Interessante excursus nella storia del rock

[Robert Grohs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received this book for Christmas 2023.
I thought I was diverse in music, yet reading this book, I have a passion to listen to many other genres of music.
What a wonderful gift!

[Bruce Parliament · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nostalgic look at album covers from throughout the rock era. Full of famous and obscure artists.