The era that Steely Dan and their contemporaries were most prom inent in was the 1970’s and the 1980’s. That era was one of massive social change starting in the late 1960s, and continuing through the 1970s. Examples were the counterculture movement, the protests against the Vietnam war, and the women’s right movement. This affected the music industry significantly , with the emergence of many new genres like hard rock, but also soft rock, jazz fusion, and disco.
In this context, Steely Dan carved their own niche. Some consider their genre yacht rock, but that is highly contested. Personally, I feel that it is a jazzy rock. But in a sense it is pointless to arbitrarily assign a genre to their music, because they transcend them and became their own thing. Truly there is no one like them. Their sound is entirely unique, their most recognizable work being their debut album Can't Buy a Thrill, which has been certified platinum. Rolling Stones magazine listed it as one of the greatest albums of all time.
The process of creating the poster was a long one. First, I had to come up with the basic idea. Based on the assignments prompt and requirements, I started thinking about my band, and I thought that it would work well to use an image that fit the name of the band. So I chose a pattern of steel girders that I saw in a stock image and was inspired by. I was also inspired by the “Art of Rock” book, from the SFMOMA exhibit of the same name, to put a gradient in the background of the poster. The sun above the girders was also inspired by the same “Art of Rock” book. All of this was done in Adobe Illustrator, with its many extremely versatile tools. The only thing I would have done differently is to not take so long to come up with the concept I wanted to make. Overall I have learned more about the history of the music I love than i did before.
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