Designing Tube Map Art Prints for Music Fans
I started this art prints for music fans project in the middle of the Covid lockdown, mapping one band at a time, plotting every credited musician across every album to show how connection and disconnection drive creative output.
What began as a passion project has turned into a collection built around the human relationships behind the records.
The Origin Story: Mapping The Fall
It began with The Fall, a band notorious for line-up changes and a vast catalogue. After more than fifteen attempts, and input from dedicated fans and a band member, I got the first map right. That process established the rules and routes every map since has followed. You can see it on the The Fall Albums Music Map.
The concept was clear: show how musicians move through a band's history, so the creative chemistry that produced the records, and the changes that reshaped the sound, are both visible at once.
What Makes These Different from a Poster
- Researched: every line-up change, every album, every credited session musician, worked through by hand
- Checked: many maps have been corrected by fans who knew a credit I had missed
- Built to be read: they reward standing in front of them, which is not something you can say of most wall art
The Human Connection in Music
What a discography map shows that a list cannot:
- The creative partnerships that produced particular albums
- The line-up changes that marked a new direction
- The collaborative networks connecting musicians across decades
- The shape of a career, widening or narrowing as the cast changes
The Collections
Classic Rock
- The Beatles Albums in Order
- Pink Floyd Albums Music Map
- Rolling Stones Albums Music Map
- The Who Albums Music Map
- Queen Albums Music Map
- Jethro Tull Albums Music Map
British Invasion and Beyond
Punk and Post-Punk
- The Smiths Albums in Order
- Joy Division and New Order Albums
- Ramones Albums Music Map
- The Stranglers Albums Music Map
- John Lydon, Sex Pistols and PiL
- The Fall Albums Music Map
Solo Artists and Singer-Songwriters
- Bruce Springsteen Albums in Order
- Paul McCartney Albums Music Map
- Paul Weller Albums Music Map
- Kate Bush Albums Music Map
- Nick Cave Albums in Order
- Leonard Cohen Albums Music Map
Alternative and Indie
- Radiohead Albums in Order
- Nirvana Albums in Order
- Oasis Albums Music Map
- Arctic Monkeys Albums in Order
- Muse Albums in Order
- R.E.M. Albums in Order
Contemporary and Country
- Taylor Swift Albums in Order
- Foo Fighters Albums Music Map
- The country music maps, including Cody Johnson, Dierks Bentley and Lainey Wilson
Beyond Music: Film Plot Maps
The same technique applies to cinema, with every character as a line and every scene as a station:
Why They Work as Gifts
The person who is hard to buy for is usually the one who already owns everything obvious. A map gives them something they have not seen: the record collection they know inside out, drawn as a network, with names on it they never registered.
They suit birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and retirements, and they tend to end up somewhere the owner walks past every day.
How to Choose
By era
- 1960s: The Beatles, The Kinks, The Byrds, the Rolling Stones
- 1970s: Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Queen, Bowie
- Punk and after: Ramones, The Stranglers, John Lydon, The Fall
- 1980s: The Smiths, Joy Division and New Order, The Cure
- 1990s and after: Nirvana, Radiohead, Oasis, R.E.M.
- Contemporary: Taylor Swift, Arctic Monkeys, Muse
By what they actually like about music
If they care about players rather than frontmen, the session-heavy catalogues are the ones: Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones. If they care about a band as a single unbroken thing, the Levellers or the Arctic Monkeys read very differently. If they like a mess, The Fall.
Sizes and Print Detail
Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium acid-free matte fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free. Most maps are available in A2 (420x594mm / 18x24in) and A1 (594x841mm / 24x36in), and a few of the densest, including both Beatles editions and the Levellers, are produced in A1 only so the credits stay legible. All are supplied unframed or ready to hang in a black wood frame, from £42.00.
Supporting Independent Work
Every map is researched, drawn and published by me. No stock art, no generated layouts, and no corporation in the middle.
Start Your Collection
Browse the full range in the music wall art prints collection and the film plot map collection at mikebellmaps.com.
