
Pink Floyd is one of the most iconic musical groups of the modern era. The band is extremely popular and while you may not be able to pick out members of the band from a crowd, most can certainly link the image on the front of The Dark Side of the Moon album to the name. The combination of timeless music and a creative thought provoking cover design help to make them so memorable.

The symbol in the foreground is something recognized by scientist and is to do with the refraction of light through a prism. The light begins as a single beam and converts to a beautiful array of colors as it passes through the prism. The background is pitch black, instantly drawing your eyes towards the colors spewing from the prism. These colors can be deemed to have a positive connotation without any insider knowledge. Without digging any deeper I would presume the string of light to represent our life and the colors to symbolize the many opportunities which arise throughout our existence.  It’s very difficult to make any true sense of this art without listening to the album itself. The name of the band isn’t even included which seems to be counterintuitive. At first glance we don’t understand, leading to a feeling of mystery and curiosity which adds a whole separate element to the piece of art.  Human nature naturally draws us towards things that we can’t understand or comprehend. We seek discovery and by leaving out the band name, many people were inclined to buy the record over the simple fact that they didn’t know who made it.

Many artists of today create songs with almost no substance that mean very little to nothing. Pink Floyd is quite the opposite, pouring their heart and souls into every song they create. Dark Side of the Moon discusses the philosophical and physical ideas that can lead to a person's insanity, and ultimately an unfulfilled life. This darkness is shown on the cover of the album, blanketing a majority of the canvas. Insanity can be seen in several different lights as it applies to this composition. Many people struggle to carry out their own unique individual lives and instead decided to roll with the tide. They unintentionally lose themselves and settle for something they’re not, simply because the natural flow doesn’t coincide with their dream. These type of people suffer from ignorance a lot of the time, not grasping and conceptualizing the flaws within the world and go through the motions robotically. Suffer may not be the right word as this ignorance can provide bliss and shield a person from the harsh reality of life. The second kind of insanity can be found in the people who resist the flow of the tide. These type of people are more observant and are able to conceptualize the corruption all around them. This is no better though as fighting the strength of the current is extremely difficult, wearing a person down until they are just as crazy as their counterparts who ride the wave.

The song Money is about greed and the illusion of a life well lived that comes with having an excess of wealth. Many people base the worth or success of their lives upon materialistic acquisitions, valuing all the wrong things. Society’s standards lead many to leave this earth with a false sense of fulfillment, believing that they have accomplished noble feats when in reality nothing of true value has been obtained. It’s extremely sad because plenty of these people come in with a pure heart and clean intentions, but leave with a heart littered with selfishness, due largely in part to the twisted agenda in which society has us wrapped up in. I believe the prism displayed on the cover to be society, manipulating and reshaping the thought processes of people. We begin as unbiased, straight edged beings with no preconceived notions until we face and experience society. After enough time in the “prism” our beliefs and morals are assembled and rearranged, spitting out a completely new person compared to the one who first entered society, symbolized by the array of colors which are created from the journey through the prism. I can’t tell for sure if the colors have a positive or negative connotation, as I think it depends on the person and how they deal and react to the world. These colors could potentially represent flaws and mistakes or triumphs throughout life. There’s also the possibility that the colors don’t explain anything, instead only displaying the many diverse components that make up an individual’s life. 

Pink Floyds cover set the tone for the music they put out in the album, creating an atmosphere where everything is up for interpretation. They lay it out for you to reflect upon and draw conclusions based on your own life and observations. This music has inspired multiple generations, largely due in part to the fact that they allow us to discover personal truth compared to voicing an opinion that has a set in stone meaning. The more we are forced to investigate and decipher information the more likely it is that we take something beneficial away, which I can soundly say we can from this work of art.
