the art of rock

a brief history lesson exploring the graphic design of music posters

today, let’s take a trip to the world of 20th century advertising, memorabilia, and graphic design via a small but mighty book called The Art of Rock: Posters from Pressley to Punk.¹

this is one of my favorite reference books, so it’s likely to appear on this newsletter again in some way. i believe i bought it at Fantasyland Records in Buckhead for like $3, back when i used to work within walking distance.

the version i have of this book is a pocket-sized paperback edition. pictures occupy majority of the pages, featuring 100 photos of eclectic rock posters that define a distinct generation.

author Paul Grushkin traces the origins of music posters from the founding of rock and roll in the mid-1950s to the 1980s, when punk and new wave had fully emerged as indie movements. moreover, the book provides historical, geographical, and social context to the evolutions of poster art.

using examples and statistics from the Great Migration, Grushkin explains how Black musicians developed rock and roll — only for the art form to later be co-opted by the mainstream. the posters of the time were strictly about business, even if they were increasingly eye-catching. these concert posters referenced the designs of carnival, circus, and minstrel show ads, but they were most reminiscent of boxing posters. considering that spectator sports have always been a major social attraction, it’s fitting that this “boxing style” prevailed well into the early 1960s.

decades later, it wasn’t uncommon for the boxing style to reappear when an artist from this era went on tour. one of my favorite things about mid-20th century posters is how they would list the lead singles next to featured artists.

from the mid to late 1960s, the art form took on a more psychedelic grassroots approach. some aspects of this era pulled very heavily from Art Nouveau and popular advertisements of the time, appropriating branded images to imbue them with characteristics of the burgeoning hippie culture (read: new age spirituality, elements of free love, and drug paraphernalia).

this carried on until the early ‘70s, just a few short years after Woodstock inspired a cultural reset. though Woodstock is considered a hallmark of countercultural iconography, its success actually cemented the future of mainstream rock music — it became clear that the sound wasn’t going away anytime soon. “For all of its idealism, Woodstock represented the first full realization of rock’s commercial potential,” says Grushkin.

then the mid ‘70s saw rock really hit the mainstream, whereas the late ‘70s/early 1980s punk and new wave revolutions pushed back against this corporatization of the medium. Grushkin writes of this era, “The louder the posters spoke, the weirder they looked, the funnier the inside jokes they conveyed, the more they partook of the new sensibility.”

The Art of Rock was originally released in 1987 and Grushkin states that this rebellious streak was still in effect at time of publication. he even goes on to say that the late 1970s/early 1980s posters have the most in common with the rock art from the 1950s — both poster styles tend towards “the loud and uncomplicated.” instead of being for the mainstream, punk posters directly recalled the grittiness of the streets.

i find it interesting that the author believed it was controversial to call music posters “art.” by now, we have allowed for much more abstraction in what subjectively can be considered art, so for me, it’s a no-brainer to admire these designs for their high aesthetic value.

i’d be curious to see a retrospective of posters from the late ‘80s until now — the most recent book in this category that i could find online was from 2011; please let me know if i’m missing out on related texts as i love collecting coffee table books like this. with this one specifically, it’s cool to flip through and notice shows that occurred decades ago in your city or on your birthday.

as someone who has collected my share of music art, i can personally recall posters featured in teen mags of the late 20th century that extended into the aughties (think Word Up!, Right On!, Teen Beat, and Tiger Beat). when i was a pre-teen, my sister and i had our bedroom walls covered in posters of B2K, B5, and the like.

remember the days when you could flip through a carousel of displayed posters at music stores like Sam Goody and F.Y.E. or even big-box retailers like Walmart? the last time i visited a F.Y.E. store was in August and i don’t recall that feature being as prominent as it once was.

of course, that’s not to say that music posters have fallen completely out of favor. whenever i visit Wax ‘N Facts in Little Five Points, best believe i’m checking out the free posters section near their register (and if you didn’t know, now you know.)

my current poster collection heavily reflects my penchant for 2010s indie; perhaps i’ll begin a miniseries spotlighting these posters or begin including them when i cover all of my collected items from one artist’s repertoire (this is not a drill: artist birthday shoutouts are returning in tandem with album reviews).

out of curiosity, i looked up all of the poster shops and resources listed in The Art of Rock’s index to conduct a series of “where are they now?” of course, i wasn’t surprised that majority of the shops are now defunct, permanently closed, converted into condos etc. for instance, one store in California is now a pet store, whereas another has become a pizza shop.

while reading this book, i noticed that San Francisco seemed to be a recurring theme amongst all the rock evolutions — fittingly, the only shop on the list that has maintained its original location and prestige is SF Rock Posters & Collectibles. another shop called L’imagerie has since moved locations and been marked as temporarily closed on Yelp, yet it’s currently available online.

additionally, Stanley Mouse — one of the book’s featured artists — is still alive and he has a website where you can learn more about his art style². if you’ve ever seen any Grateful Dead merch with skeletons and roses³, then you’ve definitely seen Mouse’s work before.

and just earlier this month, the Outsider Art Fair held an exhibition to commemorate the now-closed NY art shop Psychedelic Solution. now i’m left wondering: how will music posters hold up in an increasingly digital age? sure they still exist but do we give them the same reverence as before? can we expect to continue seeing them in the so-called metaverse? and if this style of promotion ever falls out of fashion, will they solely exist in the hidden corners of our minds or just as decaying remnants of a lost time when we wait at highway exits?

1. all images digitally scanned by me

2. according to the site, Mouse even has a potential NFT in development

3. this iconography was borrowed from an early 20th century illustration by Edmund J. Sullivan titled “A Skeleton Amid Roses.”