Immediately upon entering this website I was put under the impression that the singer, Nick Cave, wishes to represent himself in a more artistic light, and seeing his works confirmed this. This was made conspicuous by the home page feeling almost minimalist in comparison to other artists' websites. A large majority of the home page is the excessively large roll over menu, which is located between the black boarders at the very top and bottom of the page. At first glance, the pictures on the rollover menu are in black and white, but upon hovering over them they gain colour, however these pictures are not the focus of the page; they are but an accompaniment to the hyperlink in the foreground. By this I mean they are relevant to the page that they link to, such as the link for "The Sick Bag Song" on the far left is clearly titled "The Sick bag Song" in italic EF Lingwood font, which is clear yet has an air of sophistication to it. Behind this. would be a close up of a spine of a book titled "Nick Cave Sick Bag Song", Nick Cave being underlined leaving clear evidence that he is the artist, or author. This is his newly released book containing his songs lyrics, poems, and a personal journal. It is titled this as it was originally written on the back of a sick bag whilst he was travelling. The books blank cover may represent his artistic and poetic nature, implying a use of symbolism, and to quote the words or Martin Luther King Jr., so the book is judged not on it's appearance, but its content.
Next to this would be a link to buy the soundtrack of Loin des Hommes, the film which he underscored. This both promotes himself as a composer, and the film to those who are interested in his work. The picture is hard to work out. I believe it to be a two shot from the film, but this is an educated guess. The picture is cropped to fit the roll over menu, and the reasons that part of the image is shown specifically are plentiful, one could be that it reveals two of the main characters, advertising the film, or it may be a specific scene where his work is sampled.
Before progressing, I should note that these large images are in place of a cascading slideshow, which I believe to be interesting and original, which is what he was aiming for with the website. Cascading slideshows, albeit a classic, are overused on a lot of promotional website home pages.
I could go on to describe the other two sections, however this would be incredibly pedantic. It is safe to say that these links are purely to promote his recent works.
Interestingly, the website's masthead is in the centre of the page. A white border with the artist's name in the middle, notably in two different fonts, maybe to differentiate the different sides to him. Both fonts are different to that of the roll over menu, and the boarder at the top; speaking of which is also a roll over menu. Possibly due to the overwhelming amount of content he has on his lyrics pages and such - an entire page has to be dedicated as a directory.
On the top right hand corner there is a mailing list, to interact with fans. It is in an easy to locate and convenient location, not pressuring to sign up, but leaving the option open. At the opposite end of the page is another method of keeping up to date with him, links to his social media pages, the most conspicuous of which being his spotify page, which allows the user to sample his music free of charge, also letting them share it.
Once again applying Blumler & McQuail's theory, the audience of this site may use it as surveillance - to keep up to date with Nick Cave's latest works. This would make the audience more active, which makes sense - Nick Cave is an alternative artist and a lot of his work is to be left to interpretation thus encourage an active audience is the logical thing to do.
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