They say you should not judge a book by its cover. Perhaps. But I remember buying albums in second-hand record stores when I was a younger man. Sometimes you couldn’t listen to the record before you bought it. You had to guess what type of music was on it from the album cover art.
A jazz record would have had a black-and-white photo of the musician in a low-lit, moody atmosphere. Classical music would have the musician, well-lit and in color this time, posing with their instrument. A heavy metal record would often have a grotesque drawing of some kind of nefarious creature engaged in something your mother wouldn’t like. A pop record might have a picture of young people in colorful clothes speeding along the road in a vintage car. An alternative band might choose a stark logo on a blank background. A progressive rock band might choose to have an artistic juxtaposition of elements suggestive of some metaphor or other.
Most of the time, I found, the album artwork was a pretty good indicator of the quality of the music on the record. If you liked the artwork, you would probably like the music.
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報記者古德謙
I wonder... what would you expect the music to be like on a CD with the artwork in the picture above?
(Paul cooper, taipei times)
俗話說，人不可貌相。或許是這樣沒錯。但這讓我想起了我那段曾在二手唱片行買唱片的青春歲月。有的時候你是不能試聽你想要購買的唱片的。你必須看著唱片封面，然後猜猜裡面的音樂是什麼樣子。
爵士樂唱片的封面通常會擺上一張樂手的黑白相片，它的燈光是晦暗的，它的氛圍是感性的。古典樂的唱片封面裡，燈光是明亮的，顏色是彩色的，伴著樂手一起合影的，是樂手的樂器。重金屬唱片的封面則是各種妖魔異形做著不可告人的事情的彩繪。流行樂唱片則可能是一群打扮鮮豔開著老爺車在路上狂飆的年輕人。另類樂團的唱片裡，單調的封面背景上面是顯眼的樂團標識。前衛搖滾樂團的唱片封面則可能是以藝術手法錯置的各種隱喻元素。
我發現，大多時候，音樂品質的好壞從唱片的封面設計就可以看出一二。你如果喜歡一張唱片的封面設計，你大概也會喜歡裡面的音樂。
當您看著一張如上照片封面設計的CD，您預期的裡面的音樂是什麼樣子的？
（台北時報記者詹豐造譯）
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