ANCILLARY TEXT ONE: MUSIC WEBSITE CONVENTIONS

(THE KOOKS AND THE ROLLING STONES)

The Kooks WebsiteThis is a screenshot from The Kooks official website. The first main noticeable element of this website is that it uses media convergence; linking to different media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube and Tumblr to advertise their one product. This not only allows the band to advertise their product among many different platforms, but it may also allow them to introduce their audience to new websites.

The use of media convergence is quite conventional for music artists as it allows them to advertise to a range of different people who may use a range of different digital platforms, allowing the artist to promote themselves around the world, possibly widening their demographic.

It is possible that for my Ancillary One, which is to create a website for my artist that I will also use links to different media platforms, as it allows my audience to listen to the music on different platforms, allowing me to use media convergence but will also allow me to reach across to a wider demographic, which includes a variety of people using different websites and media platforms. Since my target audience is mainly older teenagers, it would make sense to use links to more popular websites such as Facebook and Twitter as they are very popular with the current generation as these websites can help them keep up to date with current affairs, this could also be very useful in terms of promoting my artists music as Twitter and Facebook’s constant update may help me promote the music but may also help build up hype within the demographic if they hear about any current news about my artist and their music.

The Kooks WebsiteThe layout of The Kooks website seems very minimalist, it’s very simple and neat but also very clear and easy for the audience to navigate around. The pictures of the different album covers and EP’s are neatly aligned across from each other, with a list of clear links below the picture which can be used to direct the audience to different media platforms where they can listen to or buy each song which is useful because the writing on the links makes their purpose clear to the audience. The use of links to songs is fairly conventional to many music artists, however due to the variety of music website designs, not all websites display them so neatly and instead have links scattered around the website which could make the website seem unprofessional, however, at the same time, some bands will only showcase their latest work and have links to their older music, possibly because they want their demographic to focus on their latest work while also allowing their audience to have access to older music/albums which is less restrictive but also may help some fans to notice and see the changes in the bands physical and musical style.

My Own WebsiteDepending on how I would like to lay out my website, I would like to be able to use links as will also the audience to navigate around the website but will also use them to give the audience links to where they can listen to or buy the song, which can simultaneously allow me to use media convergence as I am linking the audience to other media platforms where my song is

available. However, on The Kooks website, even though the simple theme can be quite effective as it allows the audience to have easy navigation around the website and clear news of the bands

new songs and albums, the background and font make the website look almost too simple and quite unprofessional which can create disadvantages for a band which is considered as famous

as The Kooks. The websites design may also act as an anti-climax as the audience or an individual fan of the Kooks as they may get individually excited about something that they hear

about the band on one social media platform, but then if the go to the official website, they could be put off by the seemingly too simple design as they may think that it possibly looks quite

rubbish, especially for a professional band such as the Kooks.

The Rolling Stones WebsiteOn the Rolling Stones website, the colours that are used are pink and blue and to the audience looks very vibrant, however the use of the colours seems to be very specific as the colours anchor to the colours that are being used on the cover of an advertisement for the bands current exhibition. This allows the band to advertise their latest promotions which appear straight away when someone opens the website, this is how the website opened when I accessed it on my phone, which could mean that the band have specifically designed their website to do that, this is also helpful as it will allow the audience to clearly see the latest important news about the band. However, the bright colours of pink and blue may appear a bit childish and simple to some people and fans of the Rolling Stones and a general audience may think that an old, possibly sophisticated band such as the Rolling Stones would have a different theme, possibly a less vibrant colour. Although the use of block colours is quite minimalist and doesn’t draw too much attention to itself which could help keep the demographics’ attention on other aspects on the website such as the latest news and band pictures; it could be argued that the bright colours of pink and blue do contradict the idea of not keeping the audience’s attention as the bright colours may distract the audience and pull their attention away from the more important aspects of the website. The use of a block colour as a background seems quite conventional to many music websites as the block colour seems very simple and may allow bands to clearly showcase other aspects of their website without it looking too messy and possibly unprofessional.

For my website, I feel like it would be better to go for a simple, possibly block colour background as it may not distract the audience from the important aspects on the website, although as another option, I am considering using a background that consists of a full actual picture, preferably a picture relevant to my production and over it, will be aspects of the website on a block coloured scrolling news feed.

The Rolling Stones WebsiteThe website also has a section in which it showcases all of the bands albums, including ones from when they were first formed. Although many bands might not need this feature, it seems essential to a band such as the Rolling Stones as they have become figures of British music history, however, it may also be helpful as it is possibly informing newer, younger fans of the Rolling Stones of the bands history and also gives them insights on the Stones’ change in music style. Seeing some of the bands old albums may possibly encourage some fans to research about these older albums and start listening to them which may help widen the Rolling Stones demographic, but may also help promote the bands older music and help them cement that historic status that they’ve come to earn. Although this formant works for the Rolling Stones, for many bands, it seems quite unconventional to showcase all of their work, including old music and albums, to a consuming audience, it may make more sense to only clearly showcase the bands newest work because that is what seems more relevant to the band and the audience.

For my website, I don’t feel like it will be necessary to showcase the same amount of work as the Rolling Stones do on their website, however, I do think it will be helpful to showcase the main, current song and album on my website, which will be the same as the song used in my music video.