The Beach Boys, the Beatles, Elvis Presley Websites Review, Essay Example

The Beach Boys

In the case of the site of the American popular music artist the Beach Boys, the group’s official site at www.thebeachboys.com provides a synopsis of the artists that include their history, current activities, such as touring and new release information, and an online store. These can be considered to be the three pillars of any type of musical website. Firstly, the inclusion of a biographical history of the group enables the fan or potential fan to understand the influences and origins of the artist or artists. Secondly, in so far as the artist remains active, providing up-to-date information on the artist or artists, in this case the Beach Boys, allows the website’s viewer to become familiar with the current direction and interests of the project. Lastly, the online store, which features, for example records for sale and download, as well as merchandise such as t-shirts, emphasizes the commercial aspect of music, using the Internet’s potential for the development of consumer markets. The Beach Boys’ website successfully incorporates all three of these elements, to provide a thorough site for an iconic group in American music history.

The Beatles

Certainly, the Beatles, whose official site is www.thebeatles.com, are an iconic act. Whereas no longer active, the group’s cultural relevance remains undisputed, and their website reflects the Beatles’ great musical legacy. This lack of activity means that the focus is spent on communicating this aforementioned legacy, so the website can have the feel of almost a historical document, although not in any negative sense of the word. Rather, the website seems conducive to offering rare insights and rare recordings of the Beatles, speaking to an already established fan base, while also introducing potentially newer fans to the art of this most significant musical group.

The website design itself reflects some of the more “psychedelic” aspects of the Beatles, with its emphasis on color, synonymous with the Beatles’ shift in image in the late 1960s and their changing of musical styles. This changing of styles, however, as the website shows, is an exploration of creativity, and the website endeavors to capture this same creativity, showing the diverse areas of the Beatles’ artistic contribution, for example, also placing a significant emphasis on the films of the Beatles. The website is thus successful in communicating the diverse artistic contributions of the Beatles, while also providing its history as well as an online store facilitating access to the artist’s product.

Despite some of the mythologizing of Elvis Presley, it does not seem to be a stretch to include him within the ranks of artists who are no longer active, regardless of various conspiracy theories that the “King is alive!” Much like the Beatles’ website, Elvis’ official website, located at www.elvis.com, also takes on the goal of communicating one of clearly the most significant figures in American popular music. Elvis, as presented on this webpage, takes on an almost iconic and mythic status, as the webpage makes notes of openings of various rooms in his private residence for public exhibition, resembling the old castles and residences of aristocracy and nobility that can be toured in Europe. Elvis’ status as a “King” almost takes on a literal sense in the way the website communicates his legacy, as he has become a figure of almost American royalty in a land clearly without any aristocracy.

Elvis Presley

Despite the website’s dedication to the legacy of Elvis, it remains thoroughly contemporary. For example, links to all the latest social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, are prominently displayed on the website’s homepage. A newsfeed is also prominently featured on the opening homepage, thus giving the impression that the legacy of Elvis remains active in the early twenty first century and is not a historical artifact. A comprehensive biography and history of Elvis is featured on the site, as well as an online store that offers a variety of products, such as musical recordings in all formats and merchandise such as t-shirts.

The website offers a very clean and cutting edge design, one that helps bridge the gap between the historical past and the contemporary present. This commitment to newness in web design once again can be interpreted as an attempt to communicate the ongoing influence and significance of a historical figure and artist: certainly, in the context of the American cultural and social landscape, the significance of Elvis cannot be denied, and the website, in this regard, reflects this same cultural and social pertinence of the King.