Conventions of Pop artist Websites

Julia Duke-Vinton

FeaturesThe Homepage typically features things like:

• The artist’s logo• A menu bar/ Form of website navigation • A picture of the artist (usually the one

featured on the cover of their latest album)

• A loop track of their song(s)• An auto-playing music video (the most

recent or most popular one)

The Artist Logo

The artist logo is usually consistent (or matches the theme) with the font and colour of their most recent album. This is to promote their new album, since pop music is about getting their music into the charts and being most popular.

NavigationMost websites have a horizontal navigation bar across the top of the page for easy navigation around the website, however some use a drop down navigation bar and put all information on one page so that you can scroll down to find what you want. The usual tabs are News, Events/Tour dates, Music, Videos, Gallery, Bio, Social/Contact, and Store.

Artist photoOn many websites, the primary photo is one of the artist. This can be one photo, possibly the one used on the cover of their album, or a collage of photos from tours, gigs and photo shoots used for the promotion of their album.In some cases the main image on the website isn’t linked to their newest album, for example, if they are an established artist and have been successful for a long time, their image might be one that generally matches their known star image and style, like P!NK’s website.

Loop Track

A lot of the time, pop artists include a feature that allows you to listen to their music while on the website. This is a technique used to draw in the audience and their fans, so that they hopefully buy the music. Sometimes a link is used to open another window where you can listen to the songs. This way you can please both people who want to listen to the songs and people that don’t want the music playing on repeat while they go through the website.

Music Video

More often than not, there is a page dedicated to music videos, or videos of live performances. This use of multi-media encourages the audience to view more of the artist’s content, especially on Youtube, because Youtube views have recently become another measure of popularity and success, as well as album sales. Sometimes the music videos are restricted to one page on the website, and sometimes the music videos are a feature on the homepage, where you can view them in a small section.