Famous Band, No-Frills Web Copy
I half-expected Sting, the Police frontman and former English teacher, to accept nothing less than clear, concise web copy within the pages of his band's website.
The site's copy writers would seem to take Jakob Nielsen's advice, giving us smaller rabbits to eat in our information forages . On this homepage I can very quickly find concert dates and recordings. When I examine the entire canvas of thepolice.com, both its navigational and textual elements work together. Separate headings, dedicated to separate subjects, with simple sentences, link us to the larger stories beyond the links. I rarely plod through any chunky prose on this site
The homepage is not completely dry, including a few feature stories dedicated to the band's extracurricular life. Even here though, tight sentences and un-essayistic prose are the norm. Hardly "voicey", the text simply conveys the who, what, when,why and where. The quote at the top of the homepage indicates Sting's disregard for fame and the unpretentious copy below seems to reflect that.
A Perfect Example of What Shouldn't Be Done
I never really liked the rapper Vanilla Ice, and his homepage hardly convinces me to convert to his fanclub. The first story on this first page is dedicated to The Vanilla Ice House Party, that marvelous event, where everyone will be present, except the Ice Man himself, it seems. Mr Ice's copywriters have buried his "Full Hour Show" far below the run-on sentences above, using inconsistent clauses, weak verbs and questionable grammar.
Shortly after getting lost within these awful structures, I realized that Vanilla Ice's Website is only a glorified blog. These are not articles I am reading on Vanillaice.com. They are merely postings. I can't imagine that all aging rappers suffer the same treatment, yet neither am I surprised.
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