With the advent of the Internet, the World Wide Web has replaced the record store as the safehouse of the music fan. Instead of sifting through racks of dusty vinyl, one can draw from the seemingly bottomless well of musical knowledge found on the Internet. Whether shopping for albums, researching new bands or keeping up with news from the music world, these three Web sites will help keep you abreast with the changing tide.
The All Music Guide
www.allmusic.com
This Web site in an online version of the popular All Music Guide books, and the computer-based version far outstrips its printed predecessor. The site operates as an encyclopedia of rock, jazz, rap and all other styles of music while effectively and impressively cross-listing categories like personnel, similar artists and song titles.
The search function at the top of each page can search by artist, album or song name as well as styles and labels. If you enter “Bruce Springsteen” into the search field, allmusic.com will provide a detailed biography of the Boss, giving information on his musical achievements as well as noting his social impact and historical significance. Further down the page, a chronological list of his albums are given, along with a five-star rating, the year it was released and the record company who released it. Each album has a separate page, with an “Expert Review” and track listing. An album-specific link to online vendor cdnow.com allows for instant gratification.
Navigation is a snap too, with the search engine atop each page. Every page is filled with at least 25 links to other allmusic.com pages of interest, so it’s easy to get distracted but impossible to get lost.
This page is perfect for everyone from the novice music fan to the seasoned rock veteran. The reviews are helpful, specific and level-headed. If you are looking for the best Dusty Springfield album to buy (Dusty in Memphis) or wondering who sang “Brandy, You’re a Fine Girl” (Looking Glass), allmusic.com shall provide. Truly the most comprehensive and authoritative music site on the Internet.
Rolling Stone
www.rollingstone.com
This site is, understandably, the online version of the popular American music magazine. And while the content of the actual magazine has since gone down the toilet, the Web-based version retains some of the goodness of the magazine’s faded glory.
The home page features many of the same stories, articles and columns of the printed version of Rolling Stone. To the left of every page is a search function that allows one to search the alphabetical listing of artists or type their name into the search engine.
More mainstream compared to allmusic.com’s all-inclusive nature, this site lacks bulk of information and completeness. The reviews for several albums by Jonathan Richman only contained a bare track listing. During one search, only a handful of Elvis Costello’s 17 studio recordings surfaced, while the only article found on the avant-garde Sparks was actually taken from an allmusic.com article.
Where rollingstone.com trumps sites like allmusic.com is in the articles archive. One can read articles on people like Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, all culled from the magazine’s 30-plus year history.
Rollingstone.com’s appearance is straightforward, with black text on a white background and tasteful photos and images that never seem too busy. Links along the border can hook one up with like-minded fans or point one towards official Web sites. It is also easily navigated, with the search function to the left and links to the current articles.
RollingStone.com is handy for searching the archived articles and interviews as well as finding out basic biographical information about certain artists. But in terms of comprehensive, reliable reviews, this site can’t wave a lighter to allmusic.com.
Pulse: St. Louis’ Music Source
www.stl-pulse.com
For the last entry we turn to a site that specializes in St. Louis’ music scene. stl-pulse.com allows any interested band to create its own page on the site, using uniform styles and parameters. Bands can put up a short press release-style biography as well as list its personel, releases, contact information and reviews. Since the band has full control over its page, the reviews are usually good ones, so this site lacks objectivity.
Occasionally, bands’ pages are rather lackluster, with little effort put into them. Regardless, stl-pulse.com is a helpful resource for bands and fans alike.
The layout is done in a modern, blue-on-blue scheme. The home page is laid out nicely, with featured artists and songs, along with an upcoming events calender. The bands are listed in a space-saving drop-down menu and downloadable mp3 tracks and CD releases are on the right-hand border. Unfortunately, some of the bigger St. Louis bands (Nadine, MU330) don’t have pages on this site, but plenty of quality local acts, like Julia Sets and Prune, have posted information and photographs.
The top-bar links include a Real Player radio station, an artist list separated by genre, a page with links for St. Louis venues and a message board. Though stl-pulse.com is not in the same league as the more global sites like allmusic.com or rollingstone.com, it does a fine job of paving the way for St. Louis music on the Web.
