- This looks like
a PowerPoint presentation.
- Why did we all do this
one line thing with websites?
- Oh, that 3D graphic!
The "Wow"! Oh!
When was this?
2001! (claps)
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- (FBE) So, every single person
in this episode is a musician.
- (claps) Woo!
- (FBE) Because we partnered
with Wix for a special episode,
we're having real musicians
check out websites that were
definitely NOT made by Wix.
We're looking at old,
cringy band and musician sites
from the past.
- Oh, no! I can't wait.
It's like old Myspaces and stuff?
- Oh my gosh.
I'm sure there's gonna be some gold.
I'm expecting some clip art,
some ugly fonts.
- (FBE) But before we get into that,
to tell you a little bit more
about our relationship with Wix,
we here at FBE recently
used Wix ourselves
in our website redesign
for fbeteam.com.
For FBE, our needs
for our website
were very specific
and constantly changing and growing.
So, it's important for us
to be able to maintain
and update the site with ease.
We use our site for interacting
with our community,
showcasing our work,
the merch shop,
and as a place of discovery
for our partners.
We found a record of these old sites
using the Wayback Machine,
a digital archive of the internet.
However, some of these websites
may not function like they did
when they were first created.
- Okay.
- (FBE) Now, let us take a trip
back to the past. You ready?
- Yeah, let's go!
So first up, one of
the earliest websites from Weezer.
- All right!
There's a lot of pictures.
- So many instrument-- what?
It's very distracting.
- It's everything I expected.
- I like the wallpapers.
I forgot that was a thing.
- I feel like I could have
made this for Weezer
when I was 12. (laughs)
- Oh, there it is!
I'm like looking for where
I enter the website.
And I was like, "Wow!
Lots of bird's eye views of drums.
- (FBE) This is what they used to call
an introductory page,
like the landing page
or a splash page.
- Ohhhh.
I did not know that was a thing.
- Oh, I remember that!
[Bleep] websites always had
the front page where then you had
to then enter the website. Stupid.
- Oh, there we go.
We're in the website.
Here-- oh, no.
- It looks old.
And everyone used such boring colors.
It's so bland!
I'm not even excited
to just look at this.
It's just blocks
and blocks of text
that no one is ever gonna read.
- Wow, boards, mailing list.
Remember when mailing lists
were a thing?
- Let's see their store.
Nice. I'm glad I could still
cop some Weezer merch.
You remember these type
of T-shirts?
- Yeah, this looks bad.
I love Weezer, but this is
a [bleep] terrible interface
for for grabbing your attention.
I already don't wanna read that.
- That's it?
There's a little--
It's not even a photo.
It's a little icon.
- Oh, wow! This background.
- Nice!
Oh, and it's got
these little clickable buttons.
- Okay. We have to load it up.
- Ooh. That reminds me
of Flash games.
- Oh my gosh.
Yes, animation! Yes!
Ooh! Whoa, there's a lot
of different elements here
going on.
- This looks like
a PowerPoint presentation.
Oh, it does have a music player.
- It's like Myspace.
Okay, that's crazy.
It reminds me of, you know,
if you click on a high fashion thing,
and then you go on their website,
and the music's playing
and stuff like that,
but not as cool.
- It's just this?
But at least we got Adam Levine.
He's just singing.
- Graphically, there's just
a lot going on in terms of navigation.
I feel like nowadays
with stuff for mobile,
it's all about sleek, clear,
click here if you want this.
No extraneous stuff.
This is like music player,
mailing list
is also there.
- I like the look of it.
If that was all, you know,
a full-sized website today,
that would be actually kind of cool.
- (FBE) Let's go to Snoop Dogg.
- Ooh, what was Snoop Dogg
doing back in the day?
I'm excited.
- Ohh. Oh.
Wow. Okay, this is more
of what I was actually expecting
a little bit.
And the gif of the "Wow,"
the spinning "Wow."
- This truly does take you back
to a different time when the internet
was just a totally different thing.
- Oh, that 3D graphic!
The "Wow"! Oh!
When was this?
2001! Holy [bleep].
- This is so cringy.
I feel bad.
- What is he advertising here?
There's a lot going on.
I don't know where my eyes
are supposed to look.
- It literally looks
like Microsoft Word text,
"Snoop Dogg" with the--
that looks like a font,
like a preset font.
- The WordArt of Snoop Dogg
right in the beginning is classic.
- This font, though...
I mean, it's got some dimension,
which is...
at least there's some style.
This is very basic.
- Now this gif is just the cheesiest,
most dated thing. This is not cool.
This is not a cool site,
but that's all just from perspective.
At the time, it was--
clearly, this was a cool site.
- I'm glad we've improved
over the years,
'cause, yeah.
If mine looked like this,
I would just cry.
- What was the real point
of going on a website?
Was it just for news?
'Cause that's pretty much all it is.
- (FBE) Moving on to the next band.
- Oh! Okay.
This is-- it fits.
It's a good intro!
Those were good pictures.
It's a cool back-- whoa!
- This looks like the Angelfire page
that I made for cartoon dolls
when I was 13.
What I do know of Korn
has nothing to do with this website.
Like, why is it orange?
Or is this a wound pattern repeating?
- Why did we all do this
one line thing with websites?
- I mean, I love Korn,
but this is just awful.
- Oh, wait a minute.
There's a chat portion.
"We never know how people
are going to react to our band."
(chuckles) Well, or your website
for that matter.
"The Korn Korner."
That's good.
They're really leaning
into the Korn thing.
It's a little corny. Ha!
- Okay, it's pink.
That's a change.
- Oh my gosh.
We're going to the Flash site.
That's it.
Oh, the Butterfly era!
This was a great album.
- What is this?!
Wow! Okay, this is kind of cool.
(chuckles) I kind of like it.
I mean, who has Rolling Stone
and FHM covers as their background?
This is a mess.
I have no idea how
to navigate this website.
- Oh my goodness.
They don't even have a photo.
This looks like an encyclopedia page.
- 1997. "Welcome to Paradise"
in the [bleep] dookie font.
The current date
is December 20th of 1996.
- There's a guestbook,
like we're at a wedding.
- The design is very simple,
so it's not very eye-catching.
I feel like this one's
best for engagement.
- You can Java chat with Green Day?
Click!
Live chatting might take--
if you have Netscape 2.0. Wow!
- Eminem! Wait, is that the website?
I always forgot how angry he was
when he first came out.
- This is actually kind of okay.
I like the design.
It looks very old Eminem.
- It's super Eminem circa 1999.
I can never talk down on this website,
'cause I loved Eminem growing up,
so even if it's old and cheesy,
I love this.
- This one, I think
is a very well-done website.
When was this made? 1999.
The other ones don't have
the band aesthetic.
Korn's landing page did,
but then they flopped
with their actual website.
- It feels graphically interesting.
I get a sense of the tone of who he is
as an artist in a way that--
like that Mariah one, what did
that tell me about her? Brown?
- I'm biased, 'cause I love Eminem.
So, I'm like, "Yes, this is perfect.
Okay."
If it was today,
I'd probably be like,
"Okay, this is great.
Why doesn't my site look like this?"
- (FBE) All right.
You ready to check out some Myspaces?
- Of course.
- Oh! Oh.
- Lily! We need to talk
about this background
that is truly making my eyes hurt.
- It's just giving me anxiety
to see that much stuff
move at once.
- This is more what I was used to.
This is what my stuff would look like.
- Oh my god, this player!
I forgot about this player.
This is so... nostalgic.
- I had a Myspace,
and I loved the fact
that you could customize it.
How fun.
Her song would probably
start playing, right?
This would be--
So, it wouldn't just have been
this visual.
It also would have immediately
started playing a song,
so you were, like, in it.
- Oh, boy.
- (FBE) All right.
Panic! at the Disco.
- Love Panic! at the Disco.
Whoa!
Okay, that logo is sick, though.
- Oh, I love that.
Oh my gosh.
I remember those haircuts!
- Oh my god!
Look at them! They're tiny!
Ohhh! And the [bleep] web player!
Oh, I love it! I love it so much.
- Look at that!
Even when you scroll down
to the comments,
it shows that people were online.
- Ah, I love the "online now."
It just brings [bleep]
(imitates air whooshing)
(laughs)
Oh, Fallout Boy.
Nice.
I miss having a top five.
- This, I mean, obviously was an early
form of social media,
and the fact that musicians
founds a way to use that
to kind of strengthen their brand
or just have a landing page,
it's a really interesting
little window into how we as artists
can sort of jump on to new platforms
and use them, you know,
maybe with a little stumbling
along the way of figuring out
what actually looks
and functions the best.
- We've come SO far!
We have YouTube
and SoundCloud and Spotify.
It's just a totally different world,
and anybody can get their music out
on multiple channels
and actually reach people,
which is much nicer.
- (FBE) Obviously, these websites
were very outdated.
And before we start talking about them,
we wanted to do a comparison
to how different musicians' websites
are today.
- Okay.
- (FBE) So, we know that you, Adam,
actually have a site
that you created on Wix,
and we wanted to pull it up
and check it out.
- Oh, [bleep]. Oh, no.
Okay, let's go.
Look at that. [Bleep] it.
Up front and center, us.
You know who the [bleep] we are,
you know?
That's how we do it.
- About the band.
I think we need to work
on the bio.
I like the way this is designed,
because it's all on the front page.
There's no going anywhere else for it.
You don't need to go anywhere else.
But you can.
And then if I want,
I can throw the pictures up there too
and videos. You can
throw all those things up there.
It's gotta look good. You know,
if you're gonna have something,
if you're gonna do something,
do it right.
I don't want to put up
a half-assed website.
And I think Wix is awesome,
because they made it feel
like I could do it professionally.
I don't know how to make
a website at all, but they had
all the tools right there.
- (FBE) How has modern-day technology,
including websites and social media,
played a role in the music industry
for you personally?
- For me, a big part of the way
that I like to connect with people
is through music videos,
telling a visual story.
- This is the way that people
will find me essentially.
I don't have a record label
or a big team of people
working to push my stuff
out into the world.
Every day is kind of
in your own hands.
And that's the blessing and a curse
of being an independent artist.
- We have our hands in every pot.
So, yes, we're making music.
We're oftentimes writing the songs,
producing them,
shooting the music videos,
editing the music videos,
uploading it,
doing the thumbnail,
designing the channel
and the sites.
It's a lot of work, obviously.
But I think that makes the difference
between an artist that that someone
can sort of just casually listen to
versus one that you can really
get sort of like immersed
in their journey and story.
- (FBE) And finally,
after seeing some
of these old websites today
that people back then
might have thought were cutting edge,
do you think that in the future
people are going to look back
at the websites that we find sleek
and cool today and think the same?
- I think we're always gonna look back
and cringe, 'cause I feel
like stuff keeps changing.
- Don't we always hate everything
from 10 years ago?
Even if something
is really well-designed
by a professional,
I feel like in 15 years,
we'll be like, "(scoffs) Wow,
look at that loser."
I'm so into fonts.
And fonts go out of style.
And then you you hate the fonts
that were so cool a few years ago.
So, the font taste
will probably evolve.
- My kids are gonna look
at my old Instagram and be like,
"Dude, Dad, why were you doing that?
Why did you... fidget spinners?"
I wore a romper once to go viral,
and I know my kids are gonna see that
and go, "Why'd you do that?"
But at the time,
it made the most sense to do. (laughs)
- Certainly, we're gonna look back
and have some thoughts
about how we are engaging
with the internet
and social media today
in terms of kind of our attitude
toward the content and the kinds
of just selfies and memes
and all this stuff
that we're doing. Certainly.
I mean, you can look back
even a year ago and be like,
"What was I thinking?
Why did I p--
why was everyone posting
about this thing?"
- 100%, we're gonna cringe.
I look at Instagram,
the layout of Instagram
from four years ago,
and I cringe.
Trends change, you know what I mean?
It might be trendy
to have a [bleep] looking website,
and then we'll look
at these sleek ones
and be like, "Ew,"
you know what I mean?
'Cause trends change.
So, I think, no doubt,
what you do right now
is gonna be cringy in the future.
- Thanks for watching
this special episode of React.
- Click on the link
in the description
to get started
on your Wix website today.
- And head to FBE2 to check out
our five vlogs on us building
our new website with Wix.
- See you later!
