While an album is the collection of music an artist finds fitting to group together for release, an album cover also plays a significant part in the overall visual presentation of the art. An effective album cover can be just as captivating as the artist’s music. Album covers have grown so important that the Grammys recently created and officially awarded the first ever “Best Album Cover” category. Tyler, the Creator, won it in 2026 for his album cover of “Chromakopia.”
Some artists approach their covers with portrait-style photographs of themselves; an example of this is Adele’s “25.” Other artists select photos of what appear to be simplistic yet striking daily images, like Nirvana’s “Nevermind.” More examples of cover art include a minimalistic approach, such as minimizing or completely excluding text, making great use of simple colors. Examples include Kanye West’s “Jesus Is King” andPink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.”An interesting twist to album covers in our digital age includes moving images rather than still ones. Streaming platforms like Apple Music provide artists with more opportunities to showcase small snippets of video, rather than a single still image.
Some examples are Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” and The Weeknd’s “After Hours.” Another new approach includes launching entirely new or altered album covers with the rebranding of deluxe or anniversary versions of previously released albums. MF Doom’s “MM.. FOOD” 20th anniversary relaunch included a new album cover.
