A baby boy swims under cool, blue water, a one dollar bill dangling on a fish hook just in front him. If this image sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because you very well might have seen it before. Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album cover was one of the most iconic and recognizable of all time. It helped catapult the then unknown band to worldwide fame in 1991, and the album went on to sell a whopping 30 million copies to date.
While some album covers are carefully conceptualized and carried out, others are created using stock photos, graphics or even AI. Either way, certain images just work well as album covers, providing the perfect “hook” that draws listeners to to the music beneath the packaging.
As the name implies, Facebook page Images That Could Be Album Covers is a gorgeous gallery of pictures that would make amazing marketing material for music. From candid shots, to creative, bizarre, messy, intriguing or downright daring, the page showcases an array of visual art that hasn’t (yet) made it onto the cover of a music album, but totally could. Bored Panda has picked our favorites and compiled the following list for your scrolling pleasure.
“Never judge a book by its cover” is easier said than done, especially when the cover is specifically designed to give readers a glimpse into the contents contained within the pages.
In some cases, a cover can be so bad, it unintentionally forces someone to skip right past it. Or it could be so brilliant that it entices someone to pick up a book that they might not have ordinarily. The same rings true for a music album cover.
“Album art serves as a visual representation of the music contained within. It provides listeners with an initial glimpse into the style, mood and atmosphere of the music,” notes international design promotion organization Good Design Australia. “A well-designed cover can effectively convey the essence of the artist’s vision and create a strong connection between the music and the audience.
Before the release of the Nevermind album, Nirvana was an unknown band to millions of people. And while there’s no doubt it was their unique, non-conforming, grunge rock sounds that shot the band to superstardom, many experts agree that the album cover played a part in their instant success.
Just as Nirvana’s music lives on, long after the death of their frontman Kurt Cobain, so too does that iconic album cover. It features a baby swimming towards a one-dollar note, dangling on a fishing hook in front of him.
She thought she was gonna meet Satan but misread the invite
Robert Fisher is the man behind the design of the cover. “I remember the first time I saw it with all the type on it and everything … it was perfect. I was so happy with it,” he said. “When I showed the final cover for the first time to the band and management, they loved it and didn’t have a single change. Nirvana was such a great band and the two together just made magic I guess.”
“It was a great concept—a baby underwater, unable to breathe, going after money on a fishhook,” the photographer Kirk Weddles told Time magazine.
The cover was so legendary that it now features in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection and has been recreated time and again. One of those recreations was carried out in 2016, 25 years after the release of Nevermind, and featured the now-adult baby that was on the original cover.
“The anniversary means something to me. It’s strange that I did this for five minutes when I was 4 months old and it became this really iconic image,” Spencer Elden told the New York Post.
