Apparently, someone at Amazon U.K. really, really likes Oasis. Or the company has just stumbled upon a whole new form of native advertising! In case you missed it, the entire Amazon.co.uk Music website has “gone retro” today, where it’s now branded as “Amazon Music 1994.” The idea, the company explains, is to recreate the Amazon Music Store the way it might have looked on May 16, 1994. Why? Because Amazon is celebrating the “impending release of the 20th anniversary re-issue of Oasis’ landmark debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’.”…Um, what?
I don’t even…
Oasis? C’mon, seriously?
The Amazon Music U.K. website’s 1994 makeover, aesthetically, doesn’t seem to involve much more than some different coloring and font choices. (White lettering on red! So old-fashioned!) But the top charts and “new” releases, at least, are meant to be reflective of a moment from some other time, with albums from artists like Beastie Boys, Prodigy, Weezer, Portishead, Beck, and others filling the main page.
(Am I old if I think all these albums are better than what the kids listen to these days? Don’t answer that.)
There are also some fun links and ads to grunge albums, Gangsta Rap, top TV shows like “Friends,” Michael Jackson albums, and more.
But the real “feature” on this flashback of a website is Oasis, whose album Amazon promotes heavily at the top of the page. In addition, the company says in a pop-up explainer box that visitors can also watch “a very special interview and live performance from Oasis just after they got signed in 1994.”
Some of those tracks are also being made available for free for a limited time.
If you don’t happen to like Oasis or 1994-styled websites, you can click a link to go back to 2014.
Thank god.