The relationship between graphic and music industry: the creation of visual identities for modern music genres

Abstract

What drives a person to give themselves the opportunity of listening to a new band they have never heard of? Why do people associate different art styles, typefaces, photographs, or even specific colors to a music genre? How did legendary bands like The Rolling Stones or The Beatles achieve that their names became recognizable even by the younger generations? Visual communication is crucial for a band or a musician to transmit a message to consumers strong enough to catch their attention even before listening to a song or an album. This thesis explores how graphic design helped legendary artists and record labels to build identities around the evolution of their music genres across historical events and the implementation of different technologies through the decades of the last century to nowadays.