The 7". They just feel so right.

Yikes! that casserole diagram looked totally different in the blog composing-window. I tried to fix it, but alas, to no avail.

So long ago I promised that I would formally introduce the 7" record. I've revised part of piece I wrote for my pilot project last fall–hold on to your butts!

Although some people would mention that Sun Ra and others from the 60s were the first to create these homemade covers, others would argue that it wasn't until the punks came around that the DIY tradition became popularized and solidified in the popular consciousness. One story I heard was that the Sex Pistols were strapped for cash so their album artist cut and pasted some things and called it a jacket. Some years later, the DIY tradition of designing one’s own cover art out of economic necessity was reshaped to include production as well. For bands who were not signed to a label and lacking the record industry’s infrastructure, doing nearly everything was the only means of getting their songs heard, and the cassette, as far as I can tell, was the first low-cost way to have absolute control over the tools of production (all one needed was music, a tape recorder, mic, tape duplicator and tapes). For the time, this was THE punk-est thing one could ever do.

However, tapes are small, their surfaces are a nuisance to print on unless you have stickers or stamps, plastic cases don't feel right (you know what I mean), and the surface area of the jacket doesn't leave much room for a visual statement like that of a 12" LP.

But the 45 was an ideal form to begin homemade experimentation on the visual extension of the music. This was partly due to its form factor—larger than a cassette in order to make a stronger visual statement—but smaller than a 12” in order to save money on material costs. Another factor, and an economic one on the part of the producers and consumers that may have influenced the 7” becoming the primary form of the DIY tradition is that they included only a few number of songs. It is cheaper for a band to record a few tunes and fit them on a 45 as opposed to a mass number and putting them on a 33rpm long playing single. This also makes 45s more affordable to the younger audience on a budget. Budget constraints as well as feasible man-hours put into the production of these records without the backing of a record company also limited the number of records produced in a given pressing (not to mention the extent of the audience).

With this in mind, I will ask that readers take a moment to reflect on the 7" as a specific medium for housing a physical object that allows for music to be re-heard. This is to say that the medium of the 7" is different from the 12", the cassette, the CD and the cute mini cds. Each have their own specific design constraints and form factors. The person who put together the BRICK album in the "Record of the Day" sidebar (number 9) understood the medium he or she was working with, and that's why the composition is so striking and every form or texture speaks: the brick print was made by a real brick and the texture of the stamp can be felt on the cover; the black element is a piece of construction paper cut with a scissors; the lettering is xerox paper (I think); and it's all tied together with packaging tape. It's so crude. Even the word "Brick" sounds crude. And the print is just larger than a 7" cover (bricks are usually 8" x 4", right?) so having the brick go off the plane makes it seem even larger than it actually is. In essence, that cover couldn't really be made any other way–the construction is so frank.

Similarly, the Hacksaw cassette (Record of the Day part 10) achieves a high degree of cohesiveness in its packaging. Tapes are small and fit in shirt pockets, so this object suggests the durability of tapes and their portability. One might suppose that you could turn a pocket into a case for the tape. The recycled pocket and recycled tape give the piece unity, although the actual craft could be refined.

Keen readers will no doubt have noticed the hidden agenda behind the "Record of the Day" sidebar. What I'm trying to do is to not only describe what constitutes a homemade album cover, but also to identify covers that graphically "nail it" given a specific medium. But what's interesting about these two examples, and others in the sidebar (like the "Drums" album) is that they house their physical artifacts in such a way that their construction can be read by anyone. In this sense, their album covers are open-door houses–to build upon yesterday's argument and metaphor–anyone can come on in and participate and learn if they choose to.

The most transparent blueprint for building a structure to house your music today is MySpace–which is to say that all the tools are there for the taking. Just like a record jacket, your MySpace page allows for a standardized form of musical reproduction to be sorted, labeled and categorized. And, just like a record jacket, it allows room for the visual extension of the sonic statement. Aside from not being a physical thing, MySpace is the newest medium for housing music. If we are to throw this into the category of mediums already mentioned, (like 7", 12", CD, cassette, cute mini cds, MySpace page), what are the specific design constraints and form factors of the MySpace page that separates the pages that "nail it" from those that don't? At least the CD was adaptable from the 7" and 12" because they shared similar qualities, like being flat, tangible, and having to include certain information (title, artist, etc.). They also share the responsibility, as I mentioned yesterday, of defining relationships by those who come in contact with them. MySpace has even more responsibilities as a house, seeing as it serves as a bulletin board, a distribution viaduct, and a contact list!

The extension of this potential monograph may not be relevant to this project, seeing as there's no physical thing to document, but it's interesting to think of MySpace as this house as well. However, it doesn't answer The Big Question of why people make homemade covers–virtual houses just make it that much more ridiculous for anyone to release vinyl when all the tools of production are at your fingertips!

lovingly,
James