My Favorite Website

Rollingstone.com

As s fan of music, movies, TV and just about all things pop culture it was hard for me to choose which was my favorite website. In this day and age, any and all information is just a click away. I chose a website that gives me access to all of these things and more, Rollingstone.com. As I subscriber to the magazine since 1997, I remember getting excited when they day came every 2 weeks or so (depending on the US postal service) when a new Rolling Stone magazine would find it's way into my mailbox. I could not wait to read the news and reviews on what was going on the world of music, TV and movies. Now with Rollingstone.com I don't have to wait two weeks anymore, all of the info and more is available with the click of a mouse.

While I will admit that the website has taken some of the fun out of getting the magazine bi-weekly, I can't help myself and check out the site. The homepage is broken up into three columns, the far left consists of the biggest story of the day (today happens to be the Led Zepplin reunion concert) the middle section is broken down into the features on the site and the left gives you a chance to check out stories and photos from the current issue along with more exclusive online pictures that did not appear in the magazine. Scroll down further and you will find shortcuts to sections such as, predictions for the '08 Grammy awards, artists to watch, rock lists, video game reviews, music and movie reviews, music quizzes, more photo galleries, Q and A with people in the news, and much more. The site is updated daily so the layout of which column is where can change but all of this info and more is available on a daily basis.

One of my favorite features of the site is clicking on the "artists" section of the site. From here you can pretty much find out anything you want to know about your favorite band or artist. From the Beatles to Bruce Springsteen to U2 to Jay-Z to Alicia Keys, they are all there. The main page on artists gives an artist of the day (today happens to be U2) followed by the top 20 artists on the site. There truly is something for everyone on this list, Elvis Presley, the Killers, Chris Brown, Josh Grobin, Linkin Park and Frank Sinatra all occupy the list this month. There is also a top 5 list of the most popular songs and albums of that week and links to download them.

Why the artists section is my favorite and what makes it a unique site is the artist directory portion. Here you can search through thousands and thousands of artists alphabetically. Today I searched my favorite band, Pearl Jam, and found a ton of information. The artists page offers you a biography, discography, news about what the artist is up to lately, album reviews, tour dates, photos of the band or artist and videos from the band, which, these days is helpful because MTV and VH1 do not play videos anymore but that is for another topic. Scroll down the page to find a 'key tracks' section. You can listen to the songs by simply click on a link and there is also a link where you can find more songs by the artist. Rollingstone.com also includes a link to the artists offical page, which gives the fan even more info.

In my opinion, the coolest part of the artist page is a section titled 'beyond'. The section is broken down into 4 columns, related, influences, contemporaries and followers. This gives the reader some insight into what other projects the band is involved in, who has had an influence on them, who have a related sound or who debuted around the same time and who the band has had an influence on. For my search, I may want to check out Mad Season (a Pearl Jam side project), the Who (had a major influnce on Pearl Jam), Stone Temple Pilots (from the "grunge" era of the early 90's) or Creed (who have shaped their sound after Pearl Jam). All of the artists listed in the section have a link to click on and check out their webpages.

After going back to the home page, I click on the news section of the page. This section is usually updated daily with the latest headlines and news tidbits. For example, I read about the Led Zepplin reunion concert, Billy Joel's first new song in many years, a recap of the reality show