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Rock Covers. 40th Ed.

30Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)Availability: In Stock
Dig into the 750 album covers that made rock history. Fact sheets, insider interviews, and lists from leading collectors take you on a musical memory tour. Covering everyone from Elvis to Bowie to The Sex Pistols, this complete volume includes bonus info on 250 records that became turning points for a band, an artist, or a genre.
Hardcover6.1 x 8.5 in.2.45 lb512 pages

“The material is wonderful. The subject merits so thorough and authoritative an account and caption details are good.”

The Spectator

“A lovingly and illuminatingly annotated journey.”

Metal Hammer

“A full anthology of familiar – and wonderfully obscure – rock albums.”

Nylon Magazine
Rock Covers. 40th Ed.

Rock Covers. 40th Ed.

30

Rock On

The most important record covers in rock history

Album art is indelibly linked to our collective musical memories; when you think of your favorite albums, you picture the covers. Many photographers, illustrators, and art directors have become celebrities from their album artworks—the best examples of which will go down in history as permanent fixtures in popular culture.

Paying tribute to this art form, Rock Covers brings you a compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth are presented in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions.

This far-reaching catalog of visualized rock is contextualized with insider interviews with professionals who shaped the history of rock, and by top-10 record lists from ten leading rock collectors.
The authors

Jonathan Kirby is a record collector and music writer. He served as an editor for Brooklyn-based music magazine Wax Poetics, has contributed in-depth articles for Oxford American and The Fader and is currently an A&R at Chicago’s famed archival label the Numero Group, where he also conceived the compilation Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound.

Robbie Busch aka “McBoing Boing” is an internationally recognized record collector and DJ. He has worn many artistic hats over the years: consulter and producer for numerous record labels, writer and photographer for magazines including Wax Poetics, Big Brother and XXL, comic book artist/writer and storyboard artist.

The editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Rock Covers. 40th Ed.
Hardcover15.6 x 21.7 cm1.11 kg512 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-7643-7

Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)
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4.8

/5

45 Ratings

Do you remember ?

Gerd,October 29, 2021
520 pages of memories and melodies

Que de souvenirs !

Christelle,October 28, 2021
Magnifique revue des pochettes mythiques des CD de mon enfance // de mon adolescence. A garder précieusement et à ouvrir de temps en temps pour un moment de joyeuse nostalgie !

Learn about graphic style

Kevin P.,October 27, 2021
I bought this book decades ago. It not only sparked an interest in music and love of album covers; it also taught me a lot about graphic design, period styles, and design principals that I would learn about later in college. I recently gave the 40th anniversary edition to my niece because no other book contains so much visual and historical information.

Très inspirant

Catherine,October 27, 2021
Ce livre est une mine quand on aime et la musique et le graphisme, très inspirant dans mon travail dans une Compagnie artistique. Il a fait remonter de multiples souvenirs de ma jeunesse, quand on se prêtait nos albums, et quand on achetait un disque juste parce que la couverture nous plaisait...

Finally!

Imre S.,October 27, 2021
I finally managed to have most of my record covers merged in one book - great piece of collection.