Website Research #1

Missy Elliot
http://www.missy-elliott.com/

Genre:
Missy Elliot's homepage conforms to traditional depictions of a rap or hip hop artist through mainly the image of herself on the right above. She wears a gold and white Adidas jacket which typically connotes hip hop and rap music as they are known to wear expensive tracksuits in brands such as Adidas and Nike etc. Furthermore, rap artists are notoriously known for their extravagant method of displaying their wealth in the form of big jewellery that sparkles. In Missy Elliot's case, her big hoop earrings, her large stud at the top of her right ear and of course her long gold chain are evident of her wealth as with other rap artists such as 50 Cent and Nas.

Values and Beliefs:
The colour gold, is one that stands out to me in this website, and can be symbolic of a persons wealth and status. In this case the colour gold is the eye-catching colour in Missy Elliot's entire appearance and as the colour is present in her possessions - i.e. her clothes and jewellery - this may suggest that Missy Elliot is displaying her wealth and possessions as a focal aspect of her overall image. This may further reinforce the ideology of rap/hip-hop artists taking great pride in their physical appearance to their audience and enjoy showing off the possessions that they have worked for to obtain.

Attracting new listeners:
On her homepage, there is an opportunity for potential fans and new listeners to get a taste of what Missy Elliot's music is like. More specifically, she has put her most recent song up for the audience to listen to for free which gives the audience a sense of her more recent and current music.


Interactivity & building and maintaining audience relationships:
Aside from the opportunity to sign-up to Missy Elliot's 'mailing list', there is no other form of interactive opportunities for her fans and potential fans. However the fact that Missy Elliot has made her new song readily available to her website viewers can be a way of both attracting new fans and also providing a reward for existing fans as they have a first hand opportunity to listen to her new song before its official release date.