Japanese funk/city-pop album cover design and the late 1970s/80s aesthetic.

Abstract

This piece, titled “Japanese funk album cover design and the 70s/80s aesthetic”, reflects on the phenomenon of the style which emerged as the fusion of Japanese culture with western influences. Japan in the 1980s, undergoing significant modernization at a fast pace, had adapted the western style of living which, in turn, affected many different fields, not excluding art. There were many designers who collaborated with numerous music artists to create the album cover for their new releases. Among them was Hiroshi Nagai, one of the most influential illustrators of the era, whose distinctive style inspired likeminded individuals. The photographers’ contribution was also crucial in outlining the aesthetic of the Japanese funk and city-pop album artwork of the time, as many of the albums used the photos as the main artwork. The album cover, as we know it, is no longer just the blank packaging for the record - having grown tremendously with the popularization of both the music industry and graphic design, it serves the purpose of transcribing the sound to the visual form. This helps the listener envisage what the artist aimed to express on a synesthetic level. The style of the artwork is, obviously, dependant on the abum’s concept - always unique but often shares certain elements. Listing them in this piece, I find these patterns particularly interesting and realized that many unexpected and complex connections can be made. With Japanese funk music, one will find that both the music and the artworks are unlike those that one is accustomed to, even when (or maybe that’s exactly the reason) they only use simple elements. The key to achieveing this effect seems to be the straightforward approach to translating the emotions into the design language. In my dissertation, I mention such musicians of the late 1970s/1980s era, as Akina Nakamori, Toshiki Kadomatsu and Haruomi Hosono, and briefly introduce their notable music releases. Although sonically different from each other, they all evoke the feeling described by many as “being nostalgic for the things we’ve never actually experienced”. This very accurate and relatable observation also applies to the corresponding artwork design, often using open space, enhanced colors and the paradise-like scenery. The genres of funk and city-pop, making a big comeback in the internet nowadays, have been defined by the era that was once locally mainstream. The key objectives of this work include: introducing the style present in graphic design and music in the late 1970s and 1980s era in Japan, discovering the roots of the aesthetic, interpretation of the specific album artworks, thorough analysis of the repetitive patterns and the underlying principles, examining the ties between the funk/jazz-fusion/city-pop music and the illustration or photography used in creating the piece’s image, and finally, evaluating the influence of the 1980s Japanese design and music on today’s trends.