Album Thoughts is a weekly album review blog that appears to focus on popular music and hip-hop/r&b. Upon first landing on the page, it is very clear that the website is focused on music. It is a clean and simple layout, which makes everything really easy to read and the website isn’t too busy which I think is appealing to its audience. I’m assuming they are targeting a younger crowd of all genders, therefore its neutral and minimalist aesthetic and overall vibe makes it marketable to its audience. I think the overall concept of the website, reviewing r&b/hip-hop top albums, both old and new also is a great selling point as this is the music that teenagers and young adults are listening to, which is who I am assuming Album Thoughts is targeting as their demographic. I like how there is a sidebar of recent posts as well as archives by month, it definitely intrigues readers to navigate towards the articles. Consumers also are always wanting the fastest most convenient way to access the information or products they’re consuming, so easy navigation tools such as this are always a great tool for a site and I appreciate the site author is doing so. Overall as a first impression, I think it is a good site and the concept behind it would make great marketable value for a younger audience.
After reading a few posts, I’d like to shout out a review that I think deserves recognition! (Although, I could be biased because this is one of my favourite albums.) Again, however, the music that Album Thoughts is writing about, and how they are the albums Noah most likely knows his age group loves makes it a great selling point as readers are going to want to hear what others say about their favourite music.
Frank Ocean’s Blonde album review was such a great read. I genuinely enjoyed this post and I think what makes this post have great marketable potential is how it’s more of just a review. It’s a very emotional analysis and informative piece on the album. Noah gives some context to the artist, their history and lead-up to the album and you can tell how passionate of a writer he is, which comes off as very genuine and appealing to readers. I love the little analyses of certain songs and lyrics within the album, I think this is what audiences are looking for with reviews. In the bit about Pink + White, I did not even know the song was about Hurricane Katrina and the loss of a loved one, I always just listened to it as a classic heartbreak song, which was super interesting and a great fun fact selling point. At the bottom of the post, he also adds a ranking list of the album, which I think is a great addition and gets audiences thinking about their own ranking list too. This can be a call to action for readers to listen to the album again, therefore they’re gaining a little activity out of reading this post as well. Overall, this was such a fun read that I thoroughly enjoy it and am currently reading his other reviews (such as Kid Cudi’s first Man on the Moon album – another favourite!)
Some points of critique I’d add are very small – probably just more images throughout the website such as adding featured images to your blog posts just to add more visually pleasing elements to the site. I think also creating a drop-down menu for the posiel menu would be beneficial as well. However, I genuinely enjoy this website and really wish Noah continues it after classes end.