HOW MY WEBSITE USED, DEVELOPED OR CHALLENGED CONVENTIONS

LayoutThe layout of an artists’ website can allow someone to infer a lot about the artist. Many similar artists to Jay Harper who are indie and organic, such as James Bay and Hozier, welcome people to their website with a very large image of the artist. This reminds their audience what they look like so that they can be recognised in the industry against mainstream synthetic artists whose images are flaunted everywhere. Our website therefore conforms to conventions of the indie genre in this way. There are also commonly many options at the top of the website that will lead people to different pages on the website like the store. This enables easy navigation round the website which is important as it lets the audience form more of a connection with the artist as the different options can help them learn more and become more involved. This conforms to conventions of the indie genre because these artists often have more relatability with their audiences which can be shown through their websites to help sell their music.

Social mediaOn websites of similar artists to Jay such as George Ezra, James Bay and Tom Odell, in fact on most artists’ websites, there are social media links somewhere clear on the website. We have conformed to this convention on Jay Harper’s website as it is important for the artist to connect with fans due to a lot of the indie genre’s popularity coming from people being able to identify with the artist. It is important for the target audience to keep up to date with what is going on so that whenever something happens concerning the artist, people know about it and so this relationship is formed, while also providing new ways to promote the music.

Choice of imagesIt is a common convention of the indie genre to keep on promoting their music with things like reminders to buy their albums on their websites. The choice of the image on the homepage of Jay Harper’s website did this in another way. On the website for James Bay, an indie artist like Jay, the image that takes up the homepage is the same image as on his album cover. Although the image that takes up the homepage of Jay’s website isn’t exactly the same as his album cover, it is almost identical. This provides a way of connecting the website to the music and therefore sells the music more, and so Jay conforms to this convention.

In addition to the image on the homepage, there are also other pictures of Jay on the website just like on other artists’ websites similar to Jay, like George Ezra. Like on George Ezra’s website, a great portion of the photos we chose to put in Jay’s gallery involved him and his guitar. This advertises his musical talent as he is able to sing and play an instrument. As a result, is authenticity is emphasised as well as connoting that he is an organic artist and therefore his place in the indie genre is reinforced, and therefore his website conforms to conventions of the indie genre.

ColoursThe colour scheme that is chosen for an artists’ website is a key element in establishing their genre and attracting their audience. Like Tom Odell and James Bay, artists in the same genre as Jay, their website’s are not vibrant, as are their digipaks. These relaxed and toned down colours, which we have taken inspiration from for Jay’s website, connote them to be natural, organic artists, in comparison to the bold and bright themes that are common conventions on many synthetic artists’ websites. Jay, therefore, is indicated to be serious about the music, not style, and so this conforms to the conventions which are seen on the websites of other indie artists like Jay.

FontThe font of a website can connote the kind of artist it is used for and their genre. The fonts used on the websites of artists similar to Jay all use capital letters throughout most of them. This suggests that they are indie artists looking to get their names into the music industry so that they can compete with bigger synthetic mainstream artists. However, Jay subverts from this convention as less of his website uses capital letters than the other similar artists. However, his name is still written boldly so that it is noticed, while some other words are in capitals, but less bold. This can signify that he is an organic artist due to the words being quite soft. They all conform (including Jay), though to the convention of not having complicated, over-the-top fonts which shows that they are organic indie artists who are not over-produced, unlike manufactured synthetic artists who may have over-the-top fonts.

MerchandiseA common convention for indie artists is that their merchandise selection is not as extensive as for synthetic artists. We conformed to this convention with Jay Harper as it shows that he cares more about the music and his target audience should feel the same way. Similar artists to Jay, such as Hozier, have more merchandise that are regular items of clothing, whereas synthetic artists typically have more extravagant items like perfume or toys because they care more about image and money. Therefore Jay conforms to the simple clothing convention of indie artists as well as the convention that most are plain colours. This is so that he appeals to his target audience who are likely to also like similar artists and so also won’t be a fan of vibrant clothing and would probably have a similar sense of style as the artists.