Response to Chapter One of “Noise” by Jacques Attali

This week we were assigned to read Chapter One of Noise by Jacques Attali and also design an album release poster for one of our favorite music artists.

Choosing a musician to design for was challenging. I ended up selecting LCD Soundsystem because their music has been appearing frequently in my Spotify playlists, and I have generally found their album art to be clean and bold and ultimately a clear aesthetic to replicate.

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I found some images to start with including lead singer James Murphy:

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Also some torn paper texture:

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And after a few iterations I ended up with a design that I feel does a decent job of capturing the aesthetic: monochromatic, high contrast, san serif typeface, a little grungy, and understated.

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In the reading from this week I was struck by the point from Attali around the prophetic nature of music, that it tends to precede political change. This aligns with my own observations around the slow nature of government, which seems to follow popular opinion but only gradually and through consistently applied pressure.

Attali draws a directly line, connecting music with popular ideology, something that has been recognized for centuries by those holding power. I can’t speak to the effectiveness of these strategies, but there are certainly examples of power being exerted in attempt to control the “dialogue” of music – enabling propaganda while also silencing dissent. “What is called music today is all too often only a disguise for the monologue of power” (Attali 9).