• Web Design

How Music Genre Affects Website Design: Some Bizarrely Popular Techniques

Have you ever thought how many music genres are there in the world? African, Avant-Garde, Blues, Brazilian, Comedy, Country, East-Asian, Easy Listening, Electronic, Modern Folk, Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin American, Pop, R&B, Rock, Ska, South and South-East Asian and many-many others. As you might have understood, each of the above mentioned large music genres is sub-divided into narrower categories.

So, why we recollect all those innumerable trends now? The reason lies in the fact that when you design a website related to music, your final web project should look like accurate visual print of a certain genre, otherwise it won’t reflect the soul of the artist and the spirit of the music.

In this entry we will try to guess what design techniques help us clothe something intangible like music into a static form visible and understandable by any user.

In fact, creation of a music site is a hothouse for web design junkies. Cool typography, crazy imagery, offbeat composition, wild visual effects, complicated concepts, hidden objects, lush graphics – no taboos as long as the music seeps through your design!

If we come down to earth from the cloud of creativity, it will be easier to see some major trends and musts in music websites development.

Last years, the overall popularity of social media sites has taken over the world and musicians can’t be considered exclusion in any case. They use every single opportunity to warm up fans’ interest with the next hot behind-the-scene story.

Not long ago, music websites were mainly done in Flash as the technology had no equals from the point of spectacular animated effects. Now, the situation has cardinally changed, and most bands switch to CSS, HTML and JavaScript to be up-to-date.

As any other website, a music one should perform definite functions:

• 1) provide the users with latest tracks;
• 2) sell albums and other stuff;
• 3) draw new fans;
• 4) keep the existing ones.

To cope with these strategic goals, any decent music site should include:

• Latest news
• Upcoming shows and events
• Blog
• Fully operative store
• Media (photos, videos, music)
• Bio
• Community Forum
• Newsletter
• Contact Info
• Press Page
• Social network connections like Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM…This list is not exhaustive, of course.

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Now, when we’ve discussed some technical matters a little bit, let’s talk about common design methods which let us set this utterly important connection of music genre and design style. Studying websites collected below, you will notice evident dependence of design style from music genre.

• Rock music websites, for example, can be referred to grunge style due to the dark, dirty textures, scaring images and worn out fonts. This layout suggests the users that their ears should get ready for hard, loud music.

Radiohead.com

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Foofighters.com

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Thestrokes.com

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• Classical music sites on the contrary tend to clean, minimalist designs with enough white space, subtle lines, readable fonts and quality images. They tune the user to positive mood and offer to relax.

Jamiecullum.com

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Badkequartet.co.uk

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Mnozilbrass.at

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• As to the Pop music, these websites look like glamorous glossy magazines. Lots of high-resolution seductive photos, large fonts, pink, golden and silver colors, decorative gems and other elements. At first look you understand that now you will listen to something popular, light and romantic.

Christinaaguilera.com

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Rihannanow.com

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Maroon5.com

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• Wooden textures and skeoumorphic elements are frequently used to illustrate Country genre. The design style can be classified as retro, so all effects and fonts are picked out according to it. Such layouts cast nostalgic mood over the visitor.

Taylorswift.com

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Littlebigtown.com

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Zacbrownband.com

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• Cheerful motley layouts making use of illustrations are intrinsic to easy listening. Their rainbow colors and funny vintage look sound like a song you are humming during the morning shower in the anticipation of the new happy day.

Goldfrapp.com

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Bonobomusic.com

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Morcheeba.co.uk

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Surely, it’s not a comprehensive analysis of the connection we are interested in, nevertheless the showcase of the most awesome music websites we were able to find, will help you find out some more curious details and complete the picture. By the way, if you are going to start something of the kind, stop for a moment, click this link and view WordPress Music Themes, maybe they will cut your time and bring phenomenal result.