Well, there are a lot fewer creative and eye-catching things you can do to package an audio cassette or 12 cm compact disc than a 12" LP. And digital downloads can’t really be “packaged” at all.
There is (was?) cool cd packaging as well. Like the Spiritualized album Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space that was shaped as a pillbox. You even had to pop the disc out of the blister packaging the first time you heard it.
And even nowadays when nobody buys cds anymore: For instance this cover for Jonas Kierkegaard’s Quiet works for Cello & Commodore 64.
And underneath the zipper, inside the jacket, there was another picture of white briefs. (Presumably the same person.)
Not in the traditional way, no. But I should think that if anything could be adapted creatively it should be digital downloads. Animated gifs? Interactive touch screen features?
One could argue that creative “packaging” of downloadable/streamable music already exists in the form of weird webpages and myspace profiles. I can think of at least one example where a band published a song as the soundtrack to a flash game. A downloadable version of the song was only available after having finished the game. (not linking since the site is no more) It might not be “packaging” in the traditional sense of the word, but creative distribution efforts definitely still take place.
Old, but not wise.
My copy did not have the real tie and handkerchief, but did have the inner liner art. This album also had three sides, both labelled B (or 2, it has been a long time since I looked at it)…
The N.M.E. (UK weekly music paper) issued an advance taster for the album free with every copy one week. It was a 7" flexi-disc in a minature glossy paper version of the sleeve, with the fold out flaps, etc.
Somewhere I still have mine!
The sleeve of Curved Air’s Second Album was several layers thick (5 in front of the record, and 1 behind it), each a different colour, with a smaller 1/4 circle shape cut out of each layer as they went down, giving a rainbow effect. And then you could unfold the entire sleeve, resulting in a single piece of card 2’ x 3’ with pictures and info on it.
I can’t find a very good picture of it, only ones where the cover is closed.
You may be right. I didn’t own either album, but my sister did. She already had the tearouts taped to her wall before I confiscated the albums.
The Beatles Yesterday… And Today has a pretty cool album cover story.
The infamous “butcher cover” looks pretty tame by today’s standards.
The original issue of A Date with the Everly Brothers had a gatefold cover and an insert of photos that could be cut apart like baseball cards. The second issue had the gatefold cover but no insert, and the third issue had no gatefold, and the picture that had been inside the gatefold was on the cover. The uncut cards are collectible today because people would cut them apart and tack them on walls.
The original US release of Jesus Christ Superstar came in a two piece box. They had to switch to a standard gatefold cover when the demand got too greast to keep making the box (I setill got mine).
Oh yeah, I remember that! I was going to mention that in the OP, but I was thinking it had a gatefold cover. It was unusual in that it included a separate booklet with the libretto.
Interesting. I’m not young either, never heard the term “grass-cleaning box” (I’ve never smoked pot, but I had friends who did), but “grass” was a common term for the stuff around where I grew up (southern California). There’s even a card game about it!
If the Jonas Brothers or someone like that did something similar, I’m guessing it would raise a pretty big stink.
Monty Python Instant Record Collection
It featured packaging that folded out into a cardboard box resembling a large stack of record albums (all containing spoofs of popular album names).
Absolutely. Like the Ozric Tentacles disc that was packaged in a liquid-filled clear plastic sleeve with plastic fish swimming in it. But where CD packaging really shines is in box sets. For example:
Girl Group Sounds: One Kiss Leads to Another
Brain in a Box (with 3D lenticular)
Life Less Lived
AC/DC box set packaged in a working guitar amp
And then there’s the cover for [Blind Faith](http: //a1.vox.com/ 6a00c22522e470549d00e398a041e90005-500pi).
Uh…I could make a case for requesting that be a broken link. That’s not the sort of thing people should really be looking at on their work computers these days–or am I just overreacting?
Yes, you are. Not all nudity is pornography.