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）
When people listen to music today, they typically use streaming services like YouTube or Spotify. However, traditional formats like vinyl records have regained popularity in recent times. Vinyl records are circular discs that store music in grooves on their surfaces and are played on a turntable. As the turntable’s needle runs along these grooves, it picks up vibrations and translates them into sound. The history of vinyl records dates back to the late 1800s, but material and technological challenges delayed mass production until the 1950s. Despite early versions having short playtimes and poor sound quality, vinyl records introduced a new era
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