We'll continue this month with some basics in country music. We'll start by exploring the new Shania Twain web site. We'll also look at the site of her record label, Mercury Nashville, as well as the site of another label, Curb Records.
Shania TwainShania Twain has turned out to be one of the hottest female acts in country music. Some of that popularity has stemmed from her cross-over strategy into the pop style, which has broadened her base of record sales. Her second album, The Woman In Me, sold more than 10 million copies. Her newest album, Come On Over has already sold over 3 million copies and has stayed at or near the top of the Billboard Country Albums Charts since its release. Her popular style of music, which is much different from her very first album, can be attributed to the influence of her husband and producer, Jeff "Mutt" Lange.
Her web site basically operates at two levels: one being about Shania and her music and the second being ties back to her label, Mercury Nashville (see below for more information). It is obvious as you navigate the Shania Twain site that the content comes from her record label. The site contains the usual biography information and a photo gallery of "come hither" shots of this singer. The information on her albums contains a track listing and a couple of audio clips that are available in either RealAudio format or .wav format. There are also a couple of video clips that are available in either RealVideo, .mov or .avi formats. The RealVideo was very jerky and looked more like a succession of stills. I assume that if you took the time and hard disk space to download one of the other two formats, the quality would be better (again depending on processor speed).
What is really special on this site, however, is a two-hour radio special that is available in RealAudio. It is broken up into seven different segments, so if you're paying for Internet access by the hour, you won't blow your entire budget all at once. The special is hosted by Lon Helton, who hosts a weekly review of the Country Music charts as tallied by Radio & Records. It was recorded just before the release of Come On Over, a little more than three months ago.
If you're a Shania Twain fan, you'll want to visit this site. I don't know how often the information here will change; I suspect not much. I don't think I'd bookmark it.
