Hipgnosis: The Legendary Album Cover Designers

0:00It's April 18th, music news today starts now, AI powered and always on beat. Interest in hypnosis, the legendary album cover design team, is blowing up right now. Their iconic prism for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon just hit 50 years old. There's a new biography called Us and Them, a major exhibit at the Grondanger Museum in the Netherlands, and a documentary by Anton Corbygion called, squaring the circle, coming to theaters later this year. Founders Aubrey Powell and Storm Thoruson started small, charging just 150 to 200 pounds per cover. They clashed hard with record companies prioritizing wild art over cash. Inspired by folks like Marcel Duchamp, they turned everyday stuff into masterpieces, like that famous cow for Adam's for peace. Pink Floyd trusted them completely through hits like Dark Side, Wishy Were Here, and Animals. Bands shelled out big money with no limits, think two months scouting LA spots, setting a stuntman on fire or that inflatable pig that escaped at.

1:03Battersea Power Station. Led Zeppelin went abstract too with presence. The pig incident turned into epic free publicity, though it nearly caused an air crash. They skipped the wall after Roger Waters picked Gerald Scarf. Punk killed their vibe-cheek cut and paste jobs from Jamie Reed, for the sex pistols undercut their 50,000 pound budgets. Hypnosis kept pushing till compact discs shrank everything down. Powell calls it a rollercoaster ride that redefined album art forever.