"Global Village Coffeehouse" aesthetics: C/D?

seems to me that global village coffeehouse aesthetic is very much not what this vampire weekend cover is going for

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, March 12, 2019 11:22 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree. Someone mentioned Global Village Coffeehouse in a Hipinion thread about the Vampire Weekend album, but I don't think it was in reference to the cover, more just the general ~vibe~ that the band seems to be currently interested in.

The discussion of GVC in the Vampire Weekend FOTB thread was prompted by this Jordan S. post:

idk the visual aesthetic they're referencing in this stuff is pretty obvious to me... i guess ezra & i are roughly the same age and prob grew up around a lot of the same ppl (upper middle class suburban jews) but ironic riffing on the iconography of boomer hippies-turned-settled down adults and their kids (life is good brand clothes, tevas, fonts on the first wave of organic products, environmentalism, jam bands etc) is pretty in the sweet spot of the kind of social milieu this band has always occupied itself with

I was hoping this thread would be more about GVC and less about the VW cover!

Yeah. This whole aesthetics captured a certain middle aged contentment, still clinging to a vaguely progressive mindset. So boomers in their 50s basically.

From the gallery:

https://d2w9rnfcy7mm78.cloudfront.net/2365279/large_139ea3eea71eb5497d36ec66fb814677.jpg?1530161891

lol

I'm very into that gallery

i don’t know, who cares? design looks this way because this is what design looks like in 2019, we don’t always need to ascribe moral qualities to aesthetics

― marcos, Monday, March 11, 2019 11:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is so motherfucking otm i can't even

I think it’s just the 20 year nostalgia cycle we’ve been experiencing since, like, 1973

i was just thinking about how it was weird at woodstock they had sha na na play dress up 50s rock when many of the original rock n rollers were still doing great work at that time and killing it live

That's an interesting point, there aren't even any on this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock#Declined_invitations_or_missed_connections

Looks like Chuck Berry (for example) was actively playing festivals that year: He also played at large events in North America, such as the Schaefer Music Festival, in New York City's Central Park in July 1969, and the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival in October. (per Wikipedia)

I tried Googling the question, and the best I could find was a web page containing this info:

Elvis himself had no interest in hippies. He was a part of a previous generation and viewed hippies as a threat to society.

i think design trends are interesting, idk

xp

You should follow this blog (serious, not snarky, suggestion): https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/

i didn't realize 'global village coffeehouse' was actually a term used outside of this thread

https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/global-village-coffeehouse

anyway this was the first thing that came to mind

http://https%3A//www.nonesuch.com/sites/g/files/g2000005811/f/styles/album_detail__545___545_/public/201709/Le%20Mystere%20Des%20Voix%20Bulgares_1%20black.jpg

meh

http://https%3A//www.nonesuch.com/sites/g/files/g2000005811/f/styles/album_detail__545___545_/public/201709/Le%20Mystere%20Des%20Voix%20Bulgares_1%20black.jpg%3Fitok%3D1aR49Iru

mother fucker just look here: https://www.nonesuch.com/sites/g/files/g2000005811/f/styles/album_detail__545___545_/public/201709/Le%20Mystere%20Des%20Voix%20Bulgares_1%20black.jpg?itok=1aR49Iru

i think design trends are interesting, idk

― Trϵϵship, Tuesday, March 12, 2019 5:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree! but finding design trends interesting doesn't require us to imbue them with moral value. brands widely shifting to sans-serif typefaces in their logos in 2019 does not warrant moral outrage imo

I think outrage overstates my position. I love minimalism but don’t like how it’s becoming de rigeur.

xpost ah, I thought about that "les voix bulgares" cover too !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Division_Bell#/media/File:Pink_Floyd_-_Division_Bell.jpg

urgh
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5182VSyGE6L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

pink floyd design rules!

Really like this thread! The first thing that came to mind was the second Soul II Soul album:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61ISrAr0oUL.jpg

I guess someone mentioned Putumayo comps upthread already, but those are the first things that come to mind. They seemed to be in every bookstore and coffeehouse in the 90s. Were any of them ever any good? I remember listening to a few and not thinking much of them.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3427711619_10.jpg

VW cover feels kinda like a shit ver of this to me

https://e.snmc.io/i/600/w/f59054970a2db9b20278fe89c7617fb4/1931175

This Canadian celtic-tinged college folk-rock thing:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51huzAlcbRL._SX425_.jpg

Nice! Got some globes in various positions, a terrible font, elongated torsos, equitable gender representation...

The print edition of the New Yorker 3/11 (lol) is plastered with this aesthetic

Vw and the ny’er being synced up seems about right ...

xp - when you think about it we all live in this house called planet earth

There's a Facebook group simply titled "Global Village Coffeehouse" that has loads of examples, for fans of the style. It's not quite the same but the "Shiny Happy People" video reminds me of this aesthetic--maybe the similar vibe of "earthy multicultural positivity".

Not the same vibe, but speaking of that era's design, also worth a look is the "Factory Pomo" group, which compiles this style:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GNeiWPpVzEc/WAQwxqEMzYI/AAAAAAAAEcs/ekVCMisKDzg8MS8VAAt_7fNJ_3nmvDMcACLcB/s1600/front..jpg

Thank you, blatherskite! I'm pretty sure that the album cover I'm thinking of would fit more comfortably into the Factory Pomo genre. I joined the group and there are definitely a lot of earth/nature symbols in there too, but in a markedly different style than the Global Village Coffeehouse stuff.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EVX1G902L.jpg

London, Ontario's own!

The one I was thinking of was

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000IPKN.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

which wasn't as similar as I thought.

not global village coffeehouse or factory pomo really.

Saw a good example of GVC at my mom's house the other day. It was basically a flat metal sculptural form of the woman in this print. My mom said she bought it in Sedona lol.

https://d2w9rnfcy7mm78.cloudfront.net/3980706/original_04f9ea5e120ee6e319a4e217b2cd0b8a.png

I lived in flagstaff in the late 90s and Sedona was like peak gvc then but with bobus kokopelli everywhere

This feels like it fits in with this aesthetic.

https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/790/MI0002790545.jpg

I have an album in my collection called The Planet Sleeps. It's a collection of lullabies from all over the world. It's really nice! It was released in 1997 (on compact disc only), and it fits this aesthetic to a T:
https://i.imgur.com/m1p45TR.jpg

happy earth day :)

https://images.app.goo.gl/Mc1Lg2q65ooExs3QA

http://aggieinthecity.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/earth20day205r2.jpg

Feel like the opening titles to Northern Exposure are the purest distillation of this aesthetic: the theme tune already sounds like a Vampy Weeks pastiche.

https://youtu.be/hKDzDA-jgRs?t=83

lol good call

I got strong vibes from this plate someone left in the breakroom sink:

https://i.imgur.com/EdccsaY.jpg

I imagine this plate magically adds sun dried tomatoes to anything you put on it.

smells like fiddlehead ferns

Feel like the opening titles to Northern Exposure are the purest distillation of this aesthetic: the theme tune already sounds like a Vampy Weeks pastiche.

Can someone start a twitter campaign to get them to cover it?

place in Raleigh literally called “Global Coffehouse Village”, was this a known fact and I was just i. the dark? And yes, the logo is extremely predictable.

Someone posted this on Twitter and it's bugging me that I can't identify it. Disclaimer: it may not be an album.

Twitter, What is this and where is it from? Its doing my canister in pic.twitter.com/3cj91qXFKc

— SfH (@simonfromharlow) May 31, 2019

one of the first replies says saved by the bell and it does look identical to the aesthetic in the opening credits for that