Myspace Analysis

Lilly Allen
http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic

Lilly Allens myspace is a simple site, which has a plain black background; with a photograph of Lily and small simple white writing. I think perhaps Lilly is trying to mature as an artist, and is moving away from her previous more pop orientated style. Her site is very much trying to be all about the music, and is covered in equalizers and vinyl. She lists herself as pop / ska, and I think this is again because she wants to ease away from pop. One thing she has maintained however is her dress sense, as she still wears large colourful dresses, as her way of being individual and unique. One thing about her space is that it seems to be very peronal and she seems to have a relatively close relationship with her fans.

Her space features a large banner for her latest album and gives the options for her fans to buy it online. Her space also features lots of her latest singles music videos, embedded from youtube.com. I think this is her trying to be almost welcoming to new fans withher music in a try before you buy sense, but in no way does she not want it to also be bought after as her site is littered with banners to buy the album.

La Roux

http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk

La Roux is a relatively new aternative/electro female singer/musician, who has quickly grown popular on the back of a few pop singles, released earlier this year. Her space is full of lots of very flashy banners and applications, with built in videos and posters. She uses a bright, neon style, almost cabaret inspired layout and font, on a plain black background. This is in an attempt to seem edgy and unique. She doesnt want to seem as shallow as a pop artist, but does not want to alienate the pop audiences.
Aside from this the space doesnt seem too personal to her fans, its really an info site, and doesnt look like she really put it together or has much input on a regular basis. I think this may be as a result of her coming up in a very mainstream way, through a major label contractl; rather than a band like Arctic Monkeys or Lily Allen, Whos myspace would have been pivotal for their music careers, and who therefore have a much larger input into their spaces, and more contact with fans through it.

Arctic Monkeys
http://www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys

The Arctic Monkeys, like Lily Allen, used like myspace to launch and promote their music and band, and to comunicate and listen to their fans. So they have been using myspace for years. Resultedly their myspace seems to be ahead of other artists myspaces, and seems to have minimalised, and have moved away from the usual mass of information, and instead, has a large minimalist banner, and only gig information, and a few videos, however no band information like that an upcoming band might have. They are popular enough to do this now, as they dont need to promote as much anymore. Their new style and revamped graphic image is a black and white, artistic style, which I think is much like Lily Allen, to keep things fresh and to keep moving ahead of the pack.

The space is effective in conveying the style of the band, and being an interesting space. I think that Arctic Monkeys a definately innovators on mypace and continue to move ahead and lead the pack.