Tween Programming–Album Art Photo Contest (“Libraries Rock” SRP 2018)

It took awhile to come up with a good idea for the 2018 SRP theme of “Libraries Rock,” but I came up with one that’s really simple and creative.  Our tweens and teens took parody photos of famous album covers around the library!

To get kids inspired, I printed out a bunch of pre-approved album covers the kids could recreate, my thoughts being:

A) Album covers can get kind of risque.
B) Kids today may not know what an album cover looks like.

Since nearly all album art is perfectly square, I’ handed out a bunch of our iPads (or they could use their own phones) and have them take photos with the “Square” setting.  That way they obviously come out perfect and there will be no need to crop anything.

I also brought up my costume box so kids can dress up with what we have available.  We also have some cardboard and crafting materials, so kids could make props if they wanted to.

I thought about kicking off the event by lining up to recreate the Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts” album cover.  They didn’t really seem interested in doing that, so we just jumped right into making our own album covers.  We went around the library and recreated the covers they wanted to do.

Tweens were able to pick something not on the list, but it would have to be approved by a librarian before shooting, though that didn’t come up at all for our event.  When they were completely done, we had their parents or guardian sign a basic release so we could display them in the library and online.

I complied all the photos and added the wording to make them look more like the actual album covers.  So they could come by and pick up finished photo after a few days!!!  You can put them in dummy CD cases for added effect–the dimensions are 4.75″ x 4.75″ if you’re interested.

And here’s one I made with one my library tweens at our actual event:

If you don’t want to make this into an actual event hosted by the library, you could also try making it a passive event/contest throughout the summer that your kiddos or families can participate in.  We something similar on our Facebook page, asking families to submit their own parodies for State Fair tickets; we had a pretty good response and it was a lot of fun to see where other people took the project!!

Here’s a list I came up with of famous album covers that would be doable in a library setting AND are also clean enough to do in a library:

Adele “21” (2011)
Backstreet Boys “Millennium” (1999)
Beatles “Abbey Road” (1969)
Beatles “Help!” (1965)
Beatles “Please Please Me” (1963)
Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967)
Beatles “With the Beatles” (1963)
Bruno Mars “24k Magic” (2016)
Clash “London Calling” (1979)
David Bowie “Aladdin Sane” (1973)
David Bowie “Heroes” (1977)
Demi Lovato “Don’t Forget” (2008)
Foo Fighters “There is Nothing Left to Lose” (1999)
Fugees “The Score” (1996)
Imagine Dragons “Smoke + Mirrors” (2015)
John Coltrane “Blue Train” (1958)
Justin Timberlake “The 20/20 Experience” (2013)
Kenny G “Kenny G” (1982)
Lady Gaga “The Fame” (2008)
LCD Soundsystem “This is Happening” (2010)
Michael Jackson “Bad” (1987)
Moby “Hotel” (2005)
Moby “Play” (1999)
N’Sync “No Strings Attached” (2000)
N.W.A.  “Straight Outta Compton” (1988)
Oasis “Definitely Maybe” (1994)
Oasis “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” (1995)
Patti Smith  “Horses” (1975)
Paul McCartney and Wings “Band on the Run” (1973)
Pet Shop Boys “Actually” (1987)
Queen “Queen II” (1974)
Ramones “Ramones” (1976)
Shaw Mendes “Illuminate” (2016)
Smashing Pumpkins “Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” (1995)
Taylor Swift “Fearless” (2008)
Taylor Swift “Red” (2012)
Weezer “Blue Album” (1993)
Wings “Band on the Run” (1975)

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