Kittens on classical vinyl album cover art. A pre-internet attempt at world domination.

60′s were a time of kitsch. Although it was the height of fashion at the time, designers went a bit crazy – pairing bold colours with the most random objects. Mind you, among garish décor disasters it wasn’t all bad and we can look back fondly for reflection and inspiration at an amazing colour revolution. But besides those interesting design sensibilities, what could this have to do with the internet today? Cats!

Having invaded just about every facet of today’s popular culture, it’s hard to imagine the internet without cats. From Maru to Keyboard Cat, the net’s feline superstars have contributed to more lost hours than we’re able to calculate (or want to know), and helped spawned countless memes and lolcats.
While we joke that it’s their secret plot to take over the world, it might actually be not far from the truth. Past attempts may have been thwarted for various reasons and maybe there just hasn’t been the right time or opportunity, that is, until the internet.

It’ no secret cats love attention and adoration – the ancient Egyptians knew it, and before the demise of their civilization cats had it pretty sweet. Also thanks to them cats haven’t forgotten it and with the distraction of the internet we have turned our attention away from our fluffy friends leaving them only course of action – World Wide Web domination.

No longer satisfied with “helpfully” standing in front of our computer monitors or slumping lazily over keyboards as we surf, chat and social network, cats have perhaps taken it upon themselves to infiltrate and dominate – in turn becoming a main reason to be online and waste time. We share their exploits, crack up at ridiculous antics and totally forget why we went online in the first place.
But after all was the internet their first bid for world domination? As it turns out, perhaps not.

Kittens on classical vinyl record covers

Collecting vinyl records has long been a fun aspect of visiting op shops wherever we go. Among the good, the bad and the downright terrible cover art are the treasures uncovered from a time before we were so digitally connected.

Classical albums once only featured serious looking conductors, beautiful illustrations or photos of picturesque places in Europe. Then somewhere along the way, someone decided that cats could and would sell albums. How this came to be, we’ll probably never know, but it happened and it means we have a new collecting niche. And it’s kitsch. The kind of kitsch that captures a designer movement perfectly.

And for these covers there’s no clear explanation for how they came to be, except that it may have been a failed attempt at world domination by our feline friends. Perhaps somewhere a cat lazily threw himself down upon some poor graphic designers desk while they contemplated, without inspiration, how to jazz up the next album cover. Sometimes I’m not particularly fussed about what music it is or who conducted some famous orchestra because sometimes, it can only be about the cover.

And for a buck a pop, these are a pretty good investment, not so much for their contents but for just how ridiculous the outsides are.