Six Feet art and the topic of nudity

I've always thought this album cover was a bit strange, until today when I seen a much larger picture of it... now I think it's REALLY strange ! Anyone understand what's going on here ? How'd they come up with this weird cover art ?

I'm with you....strange. It definitely looks like any would "struggle" to get out of that box.

Very strange.
Maybe this cover art has something to do with the songs on the CD?

I can see how that image might work with the title "Struggle", feeling like you are trapped and smashed inside a glass bubble, no way out, etc.

Most definitely. As an artist myself, I'm fascinated how they came up with this concept - where they got the tube, what IS the tube, and how the heck did they get the poor naked guy out of there after the photo shoot ?? (and why was he naked ?   )

Just as much as I love the musical art created on the albums, I love cover art and like to ponder the artist's ideas and what he's trying to say. With this one, the concept is clear, but the questions I asked above are not so clear...

looking at it I'm not sure it's an adult.

^ well that would raise a whole different issue then.. if he's not an adult, we have a problem since he's nude.  I should hope the band wouldn't have an underage boy in the nude on their cover*



* course Atomic Opera had a nude child on the first run of their Penguin dust album... apparently people were offended cuz later copies had the child's nudeness covered.
 

I think it's odd that anyone would be offended by the Atomic Opera cover. It's not like it child porn or something.

Now the Scorpions Virgin Killer album, now that is offensive and is pornographic!

Serious, and it's not like AO album was the first to do this, think of Houses of the Holy, that was in good taste. There's been many others with bad taste - Blind Faith's debut and the Virgin Killer album were WAY worse than that.

I noticed while working with serial sex offenders that most of the offense comes from what the person expects or thinks about the art.

For instance, the AO cover is not offensive to me at all.  I have a 4 year old boy and I give him his bath every night.  For someone to be offended by that speaks of an issue with them not with the art.

That being said, there is plenty of art that is overtly, blatantly offensive.  Piss Christ, anyone?

Quote :

 For someone to be offended by that speaks of an issue with them not with the art.

THIS.

It's the album covers that are intentionally not going for the "art" aspect and clearly looking for shock value that should be banned.
Problem is, bands like Blind Faith and the Scorpions were able to get away with disgusting child porn on their covers cuz the albums were initially released in different countries that don't have strict child porn / decency laws.

As for albums released by Christian artists, the artist needs to be sensitive to the general public and obviously in obedience to God. Even with that in mind, I still don't see a shocking problem with Atomic Opera's cover art. But then I'm an artist myself, and I (as with many others) "get" the art.

As for albums released by the mainstream, unfortunately their goal is not "art" but shock, to bring sales. The Scorpions are an incredibly talented band with some GREAT songs, and yet they felt it necessary to defile a female child on the cover art for Virgin killer -why'd they do that ?? they didn't need to - their music speaks for itself... I guess it could be blamed on their "youth" as that album was going back quite some years, but it was still so unnecessary for a band of their caliber.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

As for albums released by the mainstream, unfortunately their goal is not "art" but shock, to bring sales. The Scorpions are an incredibly talented band with some GREAT songs, and yet they felt it necessary to defile a female child on the cover art for Virgin killer -why'd they do that ?? they didn't need to - their music speaks for itself... I guess it could be blamed on their "youth" as that album was going back quite some years, but it was still so unnecessary for a band of their caliber.

I don't know if it is true or not, but I read somewhere that the label insisted on the horrible cover, certain band members indicated that while they supported the decision at the time, they now regret it. I certainly don't endorse anything that depicts nude children for exploitation, but it's gotta be a little tough to be a young artist and have a snapshot taken of something dumb you did (or agreed with at the time) haunt you for the rest of your life.

Exactly. Good point. Makes you wonder- that child on the virgin killer album is a real human being, not a drawing or computer image - where is she today ? Did that cover haunt her, as you said, for the many years that followed ? Maybe it messed her up and she went into pornography or some other horrible lifestyle.
It be interesting to hear her story and if it had a good ending...

Here, I found this quoted from a magazine called "LOUD" (I think it was translated as the English doesn't seem to flow very good)-

"LOUD: Now I want to ask you about the famous censured cover of “Virgin Killer”. Who had the idea to release something so “shocking”?

Rudy: It was the publisher. By the way, it was of a journalist and the publisher. The song “Virgin Killer” tells us that “time is the death for virgins”, because when we are young we had many ideas and we are very ingenuous, but time will destroy all of this. That’s what happened…we gave the lyrics to the publisher and then they said us that the idea was to put a broken glass in front of a naked girl. The most curious is that a few years ago we met the girl of the photo, who is now about 30 years old and she is very nice. In that time the publisher knew it would have troubles with the album cover, and the boss even said that the record would be published. Nowadays it would be impossible to make something like that especially with the actual outrage of children sexual abuse, and we wouldn’t do it again, in that time it was already complicated, but as we were young we thought we had the right to go farther away."

 
Another source says this:
"The name of the girl on the original album cover of the Scorpions Virgin Killer, was named Jaqueline. She was 10 years old and appeared nude. The album cover caused so much controversy, that it was remade and even banned in some places."

That sounds quite similar to what I remember reading.