Analysing and comparing websites.

In order to practice for our final piece we were told to create a website for a music band. I've chosen The Lumineers as I've blogged previously - it's one of my favourite bands. I used Wix software and it took me about 30-40 minutes to create a homepage for that Indie Rock band.

Check it out: https://darinamartin.wixsite.com/mysite

So, when you click on the website link - this is the first thing you see. The picture from one of their concerts works as a background, and the band's name is in the projectors from the photograph, which kind of connotes they are popular, 'in the spot light', and also establishes they are already quite big due to you can see a lot of people on the photograph, who came to see Lumineers performing.

When you scroll down there is a short biography of main members of the group. This would help to build up a star image by informing the audience about how the group was formed and what are its members like. Richard Dyer called it one of the star image paradoxes: 'A star should be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer', just as we can see here - audience do not see Lumineers right in front of them, however they get a slight sense of knowing them personally from reading their biographies. 

If you scroll even further down you would find more information about tour dates, new album and would also be able to watch their new video: "The Ballad of Cleopatra'. This is done in order to attract the target audience of Indie Rock and let them know about the updates of The Lumineers and their artwork. 

               

Overall, the homepage is designed in a very simple style, with a few pictures, a bit of information - to not let the audience get bored - and in the nice colours like white, grey and purple (symbolic genre convention) which reflect the relaxed and emotional music the Lumineers play.

After creating a homepage myself I've looked at the official Lumineers website in order to see whether I was close enough to the truth.

This is their homepage. Well, my guess with colours was quite right - they used pinky-purple and grey as well. Moreover, they've used one picture as the whole background as well as I did in order not to distract the attention of the audience from the main parts of the homepage - new album and new music video.

The rest of the homepage is kept in the same colours and style. Other than the music video they've advertised their new album and their tour dates on their homepage.

Overall, I would say both websites have something in common, and both reflect the music genre the Lumineers play through symbolic genre conventions (colour, pictures) and technical genre conventions (how everything is organised and laid out on the page), which helps to inform and attract the target audience of Indie and Folk rock.