August 8th (8/08) is a special day for electronic musicians, because of its association with Roland’s classic TR-808 drum machine.
It’s also, though, the anniversary of the Electronic Music Studios Home Page, last officially updated 8th August 1998. And, like the 808, the EMS Home Page is an icon of old-school design, sporting minimal HTML, functional design and a retro-futuristic logo.
In 1998:
- Bill Clinton was President of the US;
- Gas was $1.15/gallon;
- Titanic became the highest-grossing movie of all time (at that time);
- Jesse “I Don’t Have Time To Bleed” Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota;
- Chumbawumba‘s Tubthumping had re-entered the charts; and
- People were upgrading their computers to Windows 98.
Somehow, the EMS Home Page has carried on, an immovable object that has resisted the irresistible force of time for 20 years.
Note: While the page was last officially updated in 1998, a gmail address was added somewhere along the line.
via tasgaum
In 1998:
• There was no such thing as Gmail, thereby making the last actual update at least 6 years later.
……But seriously, who’s got the guts to paypal £1600 to that Gmail address and see what happens?
Ah,… Good ol’ 1998. I remember it like it was 20 years ago 🙂
Wait a minute. The EMS page says last updated in 1998, but there is a Gmail address for the contact info and Gmail wasn’t around until 2004. Looks like they updated it in 2004 or more recently.
*shrug
Post updated!
Thanks for the feedback.
Also, Jesse Ventura became governor of Minnesota, not Michigan, that year.
Still visit that page occasionally. And to my (not so very recent) experience it is still possible to contact them and order (and receive!) available components (needed a new power cord for the EMS Synthi A).
Very nice guy, British of course.