Music to the eyes

-Posted by Jon Lunger, ArtsQuest’s marketing manager and Chuck Klosterman fanboy.

Hipster indie rock website, and former print magazine, Paste recently released a post entitled “The 25 Best Album Covers of 2010.”

My personal bitterness aside (I subscribed to the magazine exactly 1 issue before they announced they were no longer printing it), I dig the work they do, and this particular post got me thinking.

Author Josh Jackson is right, despite the diminishing size of “album” art (from vinyl sleeves to CDs and then down to mere pixels), the artwork associated with music is often tremendous.  In fact, album artwork often effects the collective identity of any given moment in pop culture.

That’s on a grandiose scale, of course.  Generally speaking, only national and international acts have the reach to make such an impact, but on a much smaller scale, the artwork used to represent local musicians can, at times, define a local music scene.

I’m talking specifically of the show flyer.

Gracing the walls of indie record stores, coffee shops and other purveyors of local awesomeness, the show flyer can often unwittingly define the visual identity of a local music scene.

Oh the lowly show flyer… I think its about time they got the respect they deserve.

So, if you have access to some, email them to info@artsquest.org, or post links to them below.

While I don’t have a formalized plan, I want to start collecting Lehigh Valley show fliers…  At the very least, we’ll dedicate a post or two to them.

Viva la show flyer.