Sample & CD

1990-1999. Hip-hop's golden age covers, Nas, Wu-Tang, Biggie, OutKast. Britpop posters. Radiohead's OK Computer. The CD jewel-case era shrinks the canvas but doesn't kill it.

Part of Album Cover

24 moments in this segment.

1. 1991-09-24 - Nirvana - Nevermind. 1991 · Designer: Robert Fisher · photo by Kirk Weddle Baby Spencer Elden underwater chasing a dollar on a fishhook. Elden later sued (unsuccessfully) over the photo as an adult.
2. 1991-09-24 - Nirvana - Endless, Nameless (Audio). ) · 00:06:44
3. 1991-11-18 - U2 - Achtung Baby. 1991 · Designer: Steve Averill · Shaughnessy Anton Corbijn A 16-panel grid of fragments from a Berlin/Brussels reshoot. The band rejected the original cover; this multi-image solution took eight separate Corbijn sessions to assemble.
4. 1991-11-18 - U2 - The Fly [1080p] HD - Achtung Baby [1991]. 00:04:52
5. 1992-11-06 - Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine. 1992 · Designer: photo by Malcolm Browne The 1963 Pulitzer-winning photograph of Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức self-immolating in Saigon. The most uncompromising debut-album cover ever printed.
6. 1992-11-06 - Rage Against The Machine - Killing In the Name (Official HD Video). ) · 00:05:14
7. 1994-04-19 - Nas - Illmatic. 1994 · Designer: Aimée Macauley · photo by Danny Clinch Seven-year-old Nas's face superimposed on a photograph of his Queensbridge housing-project block. The cover, like the album, is a self-portrait of memory.
8. 1994-04-19 - Nas - N.Y. State of Mind (Official Audio). ) · 00:04:56
9. 1994-09-26 - Massive Attack - Protection. 1994 · Designer: Michael Nash Associates A graphic of a closed lock against a blue field, defining the trip-hop visual language for the rest of the decade.
10. 1994-09-26 - Protection (Remastered 2006). Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Protection (Remastered 2006) · Massive Attack · Tracey Thorn
11. 1994-11-15 - Method Man - Tical. 1994 · Designer: Wu-Tang Clan · Daniel Hastings Method Man in red lighting against a black background, the cover that defined Wu-Tang visual identity for the next decade.
12. 1994-11-15 - Tical. 00:03:57
13. 1995-10-02 - Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. 1995 · Designer: Brian Cannon · photo by Michael Spencer Jones Two figures crossing Berwick Street, Soho on a Sunday morning, the cover that defined Britpop's visual moment.
14. 1995-10-02 - Morning Glory (Remastered). ) · 00:05:03
15. 1995-10-24 - The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. 1995 · Designer: John Craig Victorian-era female portrait cut and pasted onto a starfield, the cover for the 28-song double album that defined late-90s alternative.
16. 1995-10-24 - Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Remastered 2012). ) · 00:02:53
17. 1996-09-17 - Tool - Ænima. 1996 · Designer: Cam de Leon · Adam Jones Lenticular cover, the image changes as you tilt the case. One of the first major-label CDs to use a physically interactive cover.
18. 1996-09-17 - TOOL - Ænema (Official Audio). ) · 00:06:41
19. 1997-01-20 - Daft Punk - Homework. 1997 · Designer: Daft Punk Black-on-black sticker logo on a glossy black sleeve. The cover that established Daft Punk's "no faces" rule years before the helmets arrived.
20. 1997-01-20 - Daft Punk - Homework (Full album). ) · 01:13:47
21. 1997-05-21 - Radiohead - OK Computer. 1997 · Designer: Stanley Donwood · Thom Yorke White paint over a Polaroid of a freeway overpass, with overlaid scrap-text. Donwood and Yorke made it in Yorke's flat in three weeks.
22. 1997-05-21 - Paranoid Android. 00:06:27
23. 1998-08-19 - Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. 1998 · Designer: Eric Johnson · photo by Eric Johnson Carved-wooden Lauryn Hill portrait that recasts the album-cover as classroom desk graffiti, fitting for the Miseducation conceit.
24. 1998-08-19 - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. 00:03:55