Band Websites

By Luke Harris

Chapel ClubPrepared to offer free tracks as a reward to their fans, because they know a lot of them are likely to pay for their music

Wholly black and white; plain bold fonts

Access to ‘trendy’ social networking sites

Blurriness of the background photos reflects their sound

‘In touch’ with their fans

Live shows are important

Image under the ‘Photos’ heading is one of the band playing live, supporting the idea of the music being more important than the image

Chapel Club

PhotosMixture of classical and grotesque photographs

Bombay Bicycle ClubSimilar plain block font to Chapel Club website

Acoustic session played in an isolated and perhaps obscure setting

Colloquialism suggests they are current and ‘hip’

Deemed too ‘commercial’ to blatantly advertise their records

The MaccabeesDifferent font to Chapel Club and BBC, but still in white block capitals

Similarly to BBC’s website, there is a live performance playing in the background instead of a wallpaper

Their blog is hosted on Tumblr – a website which is quite current and ‘hip’

Lyrics PageThe fact that the band has a page dedicated to lyrics suggests they believe their music has ‘meaning’

Arctic Monkeys

Subverts slightly the norm of the genre to have mostly everything in black and white by featuring an off-white colour instead. This conforms to Giddens’ theory of the self, as it shows how self identity is a reflective project and is susceptible to change. Therefore a band’s image can change, as well as the general image of the genre

Again features an embedded video on the homepage, although it gives an insight into their recording process, as opposed to being a song performance

Arctic MonkeysAgain, fans are not forced to buy their records, as they are not advertised blatantly.

Gig dates and news is the only other thing displayed on the website, which signifies that their live shows are very important to them

Mystery JetsHomepage displays only the band’s most recent blog post . This is perhaps to encourage their fans to be constantly checking their website for new information

The way the message is adressed suggests a personal connection between the band and their fans

Lightspeed ChampionTitle font shows change in direction of his music, conforming to Anthony Giddens’ theory that the self is a continuously changing project. Shows how Indie artists have more power over their image than artists in other genres and that there is less of a hegemonic relationship between the record label and the artist.

Conforms to the idea of Indie music as slightly elitist – perhaps pretentious – and influenced by culture

Frankie & The HeartstringsTacky wallpaper-like background represents the band’s working-class roots and subverts the hegemonic idea of the ruling class

There is a link to their own record label, as well as the podcasts they produce. This ‘do-it-yourself’ approach is associated with Indie as a genre