There seems to be a revival of al things 80's at the moment and I'm loving it. Apparently its due to the recession, but I'm not sure how that would effect music and fashion. Perhaps because its cheaper to stay in fashion by ripping the arms off an old denim jacket or cut a pair of Jeans into shorts than buy new clothes. But 80's fashion is in more than ever before, since the real 80s. Popstar's clothes, hair and makeup is more daring a la Lady Gaga and La Roux, and the electric sound 80s music is back.
Yesterday my dad introduced me to the band, Empire of the Sun. I gave it a listen on Spotify and I loved it straight away as it sounds so 80's and I love anything 80s. Can't really explain why but everything was just cooler in the 80s. What I also loved straight away was the album art work and I thought I've gotta look at that more closely.
Empire of the Sun's Walking on a Dream album cover
Their artwork reminds me of movie posters form the 80s and after looking the artwork up on the internet I found that the idea for the album artwork came from the band members themselves after beng inspired by movie posters by Drew Struzan who is responsible for the posters of such films as Back to the Future, ET, Indiana Jones and Ladyhawke. Back to the Future is my favourite film of all time and the posters are timeless classics. I love the graphic style in which you can't tell whether the image is a painting or a photograph. They look almost like they are painted with an airbrush.
The Empire of the Sun album cover also reminded me of Michael Jackson's Dangerous (1991, not quite 80's but close enough) album cover, my favourite album cover of all time. The photo montage of futuristic buildings, animals and a dark night sky gives it a sci-fi fantasy feel as does the Dangerous album cover. The members of Empire of the Sun are also wearing regal/military clothing in the style of Michael Jackson and Adam Ant in the 80's. The Dangerous cover features crowns and animals wearing regal clothing. Both covers are beautiful pieces of art that you could look at for ages and not see all the details.
Another artist taking inspiration from the 80s in her image, Album artwork and music videos is Ladyhawke. As I mentioned earlier Dan Struzen deisgned the poster for the 80's film 'Ladyhawke', from which Ladyhawke took her stage name. Her music also sounds really 80's: a sort of mix of electro and rock.
Ladyhawke movie poster by Dan Struzan
Ladyhawke'e album cover is done in a very 80's style with a watercolour painting/coloured pencil drawing and handwritten type and clashing colours.
I love the dreamy music video for My Delirium which is animated in watercolour paintings and looks beautiful, like a storybook illustration coming to life.
Stills from Ladyhawke's My Delirium music video.
It reminded me of the well known video for A-HA's Take on Me in which a comic book character comes to life. They both appear s to be animated using the stop-start technique which is very 80's.
I hope music artists continue to be inspired by the 80's in their music and in their artwork and music videos.
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