Music

John Foster|Accidental Mysteries

Blues, Baptisms, and Prison Farms: The Lomax Snapshots of 1934-1950

Blues, Baptisms, and Prison Farms: The Lomax Snapshots of 1934-1950

Rob Walker|Essays

Personal Packaging

Fondly revisiting the look and feel of the mixtape.

Debbie Millman|Audio

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout discusses the early days of blogging, the poetics of theater and what it's like to be a drama critic for The Wall Street Journal.

Rick Poynor|Essays

From the Archive: Brian Eno, Artist of Light

An early profile of ambient musician and producer Brian Eno’s parallel career as a visual artist.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Soft Machine’s Dysfunctional Mechanism

An alternative cover for the French release of The Soft Machine’s first album alludes to the history of the machine in 20th-century art.

Observed|Collections

Classic Albums Reimagined as Books

Christophe Gowans re-imagines well-known album covers as book jackets.

Observed|Events

Speculative Sound Performance

On Tuesday, November 27, at Apexart in NYC: an exercise in sonic branding.

Rob Walker|Essays

On Dapper Dan

A look at the spectacular logo-remix aesthetic of rap-culture style pioneer Dapper Dan.

Rick Poynor|Essays

True Stories: A Film about People Like Us

Ambiguous but prescient, David Byrne’s film True Stories is a classic piece of postmodern pop anthropology.

Rick Poynor|Essays

It’s Smart to Use a Crash Test Dummy

The image of the crash test dummy has traveled from the subcultural fringes to the pop culture mainstream.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Brian Eno’s “Music for Films”

On Brian Eno and a competition to design an alternative sleeve for Music for Films

Rick Poynor|Essays

From the Archive: Graphic Metallica

Heavy metal’s extremity, as a set of aesthetic choices and as a way of life, exerts an enduring fascination.