Thursday Bears: Rowan Rant

Generally, I keep my personal life separate from Bears and Bullets. I don't need to go into the finite details about my day, and I assume that no one cared about those details in the first place. But, this morning, I got word of something that has been daunting me for four straight years now, and I feel it may be in my best interests to rant about it (yes, it has to do with music).

I'm in my fourth year at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Rowan's a small-ish Division III school with about 10,000 students located 15-20 minutes away from Philadelphia. Every year, Rowan, like most universities in the United States, brings artists and comedians for a big show. The comedians, generally, are usually surprisingly good, with acts like Lewis Black, Zach Galifianakis, and Daniel Tosh, amongst others, performing at the school in recent years.

Two years ago, one of my professors asked what, if anything, I would like to change or address about the University. Other student's complaints ranged from parking, to tuition, to food - you know, boring shit that can't really be changed. My sole problem with the school, however, was the consistently woeful music billing we were given year in and year out. Forgive me for sounding like a bitter 14-year-old girl, but that's how I felt this morning when I heard that in my last college semester, I would be treated with Ke$ha, Ludacris, and LMFAO.

Ludacris, I have no problem with. And while I don't like Ke$ha's music and know she's atrocious live, she doesn't bother me so much because I know she has fans. But LMFAO? Really? Has anyone ever heard anyone else said they actually like or would like to see LMFAO? The group whose claim to fame is the "shots" song that people stopped caring about half a year ago is the third billing? Really?

LMFAO, so you know.

Prior to the announcement, students were e-mailed a list of "potential" nominees that also included the Roots, Kid Cudi, Snoop Dogg, and MGMT, among others (bad and good). Obviously the excitement of seeing these kind of artists must of confused me, because if you look back at Rowan's music billing history, this wouldn't be too shocking.

Sean Kingston, Third Eye Blind, and Reel Big Fish were last year's billing. So, thats two artists that were lost in the 1990s and Kingston - who didn't even show up. It doesn't even matter if anyone liked Kingston or not, he just didn't show up.

The same face Kingston made when he decided to stay home.

The responsibility of generating the music billing is in the hands of the Student University Programmers, who do a decent job of handling duties for the rest of the school year. When it comes to the music though, they flat out miss. The cynical me wants to ask why people with almost no pulse on music are controlling what the rest of students get to see, but I'm not on the inside - I don't know.

I assume, hopefully, that they're getting artists that they hope the "majority" of students will like. And while that's probably true, it also shows that they'd much rather make safe picks than one that could push some boundaries and get out of the radio-friendly norm.

Of course, this is my opinion, and a blatantly expected one at that.