Conventions of Music Websites

Websites are used to promote and to sell the band they are advertising. Conventions of websites include:

• The logo will be clear and the bands name will be clearly displayed, to let the audience know who the website is based on.
• There will be merchandise advertised that is purchasable online.
• There will be photos of the band throughout their history.
• There will be the dates of upcoming events such as festivals and concerts that the band will be performing in.
• There are sometimes a brief description of the bands origin so that people can become familiar with the roots of the band.
• The website will advertise new singles and albums, as well as old ones.
• The hyperlinks will be laid out in a way that is clear to see and easy to use.
• There will be sample music of the band as well as a music video and the website could promote other bands within the same record company.
• There will be an opportunity for the audience to sign a subscription with the band.
• There will be message boards, which offers the fans a chance to talk about their band.
• As well as this there will also be news feeds, updating the audience on the band/artists current affairs.

Website Review

The background of this website is the same of the Strokes' latest album in order to promote the album. The Stokes' logo is clear and shown in several places on the website, it is easily visible to let people know who the website belongs to. The layout of the website is simple and follows the conventions of a music website by including features such as the bands next events, photos of the band, news on the band, the opportunity to buy albums, tickets, singles, records and merchandise. As well as offering a forum for the fans to discuss the band, their albums, concerts and express their views.

The Strokes website homepage

The website lays the photos out clearly and the hyperlinks are clearly show, making the website easy to navigate through. The bright colours of the album stand out to attract the attention of the audience. The album is easily purchasable and stands out which is market tool to make it easy for people to buy the album.

Influential Album Covers

Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) - The Beatles
The Beatles Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band has an iconic album cover and is largely recognised. The album cover depicts several dozen celebrities, including different political figures. This album cover reflects the change of style of the Beatles music and of their appearance. Through this album they separated themselves from being a pop band to establish themselves as an experimental band who were experimenting both with music and drugs. The album cover helped progress them to a psychedelic rock band. The iconic nature and its uniqueness of the album cover has inspired us to do something different with our digipak.

Band Logos

The Rolling Stones Logo

The Rolling Stones logo is instantly recognised all over the world and has become an icon in popular culture of Rock 'n' Roll. The ''tongue and lip'' created by John Pasche represents the band and was created to encapsulate Mick Jaggers big lips. The pop art was also used to chow the bands rebelliousness with the tongue being stuck out representing a disregard for rules. The logo could be argued as the most innovative logos ever created and the Rolling Stones have used it for their merchandise and albums ever since its creation in 1970.

Music Video Research

David Bowie - Heroes

This David Bowie single of 1977 was made into a video which focuses primarily on the performance of the artist and has him in the spotlight singing. The first 80 seconds we can see there are no cuts and the camera used establishes the setting, then zooms in and around for closer intimacy with the artist. The shots used for the performance are simple and the video is reliant on the performance to entertain the audience, which it does. The other shots are also close ups of the artist, offering more intimacy between the artist and the audience which creates a relationship between the two. The shots last a long time which creates the sense of the performance being live and therefore will please fans of the rock genre, who this video is aimed towards.

Digipack review

The Beatles - Revolver
The Beatles 1966 album was reissued in 2009 in digipak form to allow for more artwork to be given to fans.

Front
The front cover contains the album cover designed by the band, which reflects the feel of the album.

Middle
The digipak opens two ways allowing for a greater amount of artwork to surface.

Back
The back of the album shows the track listing as well as the record company and additional information of the band. The back differs from the front cartoon drawings as it features a photo of the band, however it is again in black and white. The contrasting nature of the two pictures show how the songs of the albums are not the same and that the band have the ability to adapt.

Book
The book contains lyrics as well as photos of the band as well as other artwork designed by the Beatles.

CD
The CD is a copy of the front cover which reiterates the image and the themes created from it.

Band Logos

Band logos offer artists to express their themes and attitude through an image. These logos are often put on the artists album as well as on their own merchandise.


Nirvarna
Nirvarna's band logo expresses their childlike attitude which contrasts with their dark themes of their songs by using a bright yellow ''smiley face'' in front of a black background. Th bright yellow represents  joy and energy, whereas the black represents power and fear. This logo is instantly recognisable to fans due to its uniqueness and has been parodied in American culture many times due to it standing out.