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    ‘Sgt Pepper’s’ challenging union of high and low culture, art and commodity

    The Beatles are perhaps just as beloved for their experimentation as they for their accessibility. Nowhere was their joining of challenging, self-reflexive commentary and easy-to-love commodity more pronounced than in their 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – both in the music and on its timeless cover. This video essay chronicles the history of album covers, and deconstructs how, with Sgt Pepper’s, the Beatles transformed the album cover from a product package to a potential work of art in its own right.

    Video by The Nerdwriter

    24 September 2015
    Person holding the “Ellis in Wonderland” album cover by Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, featuring a colourful, whimsical scene.

    videoSubcultures

    Bad puns, regrettable costumes, and other joys of collecting kitschy album art

    13 minutes

    Black-and-white photo of firefighters in silhouette spraying water at a burning building at night, with flames and smoke in the background.

    videoHistory of technology

    Remarkable historical footage is locked behind paywalls. It’s time to set it free

    4 minutes

    A grid of vintage book covers with diverse abstract designs on a black background.

    videoArt

    Vintage book covers spring to life via hypnotic, geometric animations

    5 minutes

    Black and white photo of three people fixing a car by the road. One sits in the boot, while two others hitchhike and work on tyre.

    videoBiography and memoir

    Meet the Liverbirds! The bittersweet tale of Liverpool’s all-female answer to the Beatles

    16 minutes

    Black and white photo of a man with glasses and a beard, resting his chin on his hand, wearing a suit.

    videoArt

    Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer

    17 minutes

    Painting of a dimly lit bar with a billiard table, several patrons at tables, and a clock on the wall above a door.

    videoArt

    Ugly on purpose: the intentionally drab desperation of Van Gogh’s ‘The Night Café’

    7 minutes

    Diagram showing a person speaking into a microphone connected to a system processing speech through various components to a loudspeaker.

    videoHistory

    How the vocoder went from military tech to an instrument of the counterculture

    11 minutes

    A bearded older man in glasses and a hat sits in a cluttered room filled with Beatles memorabilia, including mugs and posters.

    videoSubcultures

    Banned in the USSR: how forbidden music made its way to Soviet streets on X-rays

    14 minutes

    Black-and-white painting of a surreal, elongated figure on all fours with pyramids in the background on a barren landscape.

    videoMusic

    A unique multisensory art experiment that begins and ends with a brush stroke

    7 minutes