The Influence of Music Genre on the Related Graphic Design

Abstract One of the forms of art which leans on graphic design as a tool of advertisement is music. It began with designing the cover of music, music sheets and posters, but after the invention of recording and audio systems, music related design continued and it could be found on the cover of vinyl records, audio cassettes, CDs and DVDs. The main focus of this article is the correlation of style in music and graphic design. It seems that until the 60s sensations and perception in different styles had some interactions with music and graphics and also it had some direct influence on both of them. These forms of art by interacting with each other were moving in the same direction. As a result the forms and atmosphere of music, rhythm and color of the sounds were completely tangible and dramatic in the graphic design related to a specific music genre. After the 60s, tendency towards commercialized music and increasing variety of genres changed the graphic designs related to the music and as a result less musical sensation and divergence in the genres and styles are observable. In this study music and graphic genres and styles are tried to be investigated simultaneously. One of the hypotheses’ of this research is; characteristics of a style are influential on the related graphic design. Hence, the famous music pieces of a style were compared to the visual art forms (graphic design). It seems that the style characteristics of music are reflected in visual elements (design, color, rhythm) of the visual art.