Breaking News: Aaron Carter will be singing at Centralhallapalooza. But, of course, you have already heard about it. It’s all anybody can talk about.
In a vacuum, I don’t care that Carter is coming to Hillsdale. Am I fan of his? No. Is the Student Activity Board and Student Federation wasting our money? Yes. But SAB can spend its money as it pleases. What bothers me is that Carter will be stealing stage time from hard-working student bands. To make matters worse, SAB is giving an hour of time to a disc-jockey. Depending on how long Carter plays, he and the DJ will rob stage time from between three and six student bands at Centralhallapalooza, the gig of the year.
I am a proud member of a couple student bands. There is a disturbing lack of bassists on campus; I try, and largely fail, to fill that void. Sure, I have some conflict of interest, but, as a member of Phi Mu Alpha, I have opportunities to play throughout the year. Other members of student bands do not.
Outside of Battle of the Bands in the fall and Centralhallapalooza in the spring, there are no opportunities for student bands to play on campus. SAB claims that it is adding the hour of DJ music so that students can dance. Those students have parties every week featuring dance music, many of them with live DJs, to dance at. Student bands do not have such opportunities.
Centralhallapalooza is supposed to be an event that creates enjoyment for the student body. So shouldn’t the performers be students? SAB doesn’t understand that as much enjoyment is garnered from playing the music for our friends as is found in listening to the music. I know of several seniors who were looking forward to Centralhallapalooza being their last opportunity to play on campus. Due to SAB’s changes, many will not get that chance.
Look, I get that student bands aren’t professionals. We don’t claim to be as talented as “real” bands. There’s a reason we play cover music. There’s a reason nobody is signing us to record deals. That’s not the point. Student bands have spent hours rehearsing for a chance to play at Centralhallapalooza. SAB doesn’t seem to care about this. They’ve robbed our chance to play for our friends. Is anybody really so excited about Aaron Carter that he’d personally cut a band out of Centralhallapalooza? Apparently SAB is.
