Look at the regional music scenes of the past that have gone onto national success and they all had their own individual art and graphic design as well as sound and image. Psychedelia from San Francisco in the late sixties had an art movement associated with it that still thrives today, even more so than the music it illustrated. Progressive Rock of the early seventies was closely tied with the fantasy poster artists of the day with bands such as Yes developing extremely close and long lasting associations with artists such as Roger Dean and Peter Max. New Wave had a very distinctive graphic design style and most of us can tell a punk rock design from a mile away even if we’ve never actually heard a punk rock song. If Los Angeles based musicians wish to create a buzz about their local music scene an effective way of unifying the various divergent styles, sounds and genres without forcing the homogenization of the music itself is to create an L.A. look through the use of graphic design, illustration, animation, cartooning and fine art.
We are living in the age of the enhanced CD, the DVD, television and the internet. These are visual mediums and for a band to ignore the opportunities these technologies present is on a par with leaving off the bass track on their CD. In the near future, the lack of visual presentation will be as glaring an omission. There is no reason that this very important aspect to developing a cohesive L.A. music scene must be prohibitively expensive since now, due to technology, the visual artists have as much to gain from their association with musical artists as the musicians have to gain from them. An enhanced CD, web page or DVD can just as easily be a vehicle to promote and market the works of fine artists, animators, film makers, cartoonists and illustrators as they are to sell the products of musicians and symbiotic relationships should be nurtured between them.
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