Sonic: Visuals for Music

Rating:
Summary: diverse art going with contemporary popular music
Review: SONIC - Visuals for Music compiled and edited by Robert Klanten, Hendrik Hellige, and Tom Hulan. Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, Germany; www.die-gestalten.de. 2004. 335 pp. $50.00 hardcover, ISBN 3-89955-040-4. color photographs and illustrations.
"Sonic" is an extended kaleidocope of the colors, shapes, and images of CD covers, album covers, and promotional and tour posters for popular singers and groups mostly from Europe and the United States. The innumerable graphics, art work, photographs, and combinations of these in all styles--from realistic to ironic to psychedelic to postmodern--are presented without captions except for notes on the name of the individual or art shop that did the design, the performer, and the medium (e. g., CD cover). In visually cataloging the hundreds of commercial works used in promoting and selling popular singers and bands in the highly competitive field of popular music, "Sonic" contains the many styles of state-of-the-art and some cutting-edge marketing; and also the diversity of the contemporary visual culture, as seen also in film, music videos, and TV advertising. It's a book to enjoy for anyone interested in the field of popular music and today's visual culture. Commerical artists and marketers especially would benefit from it. Contact information for the designers noted with the particular works is found in a section at the end of the book.