In the past couple of years that I have attended NMU, it seems the quality of bands that have performed on campus has been extremely disappointing.
Bands such as The All American Rejects, Boys Like Girls, 3oh!3, Lights Out Dancing and The Ying Yang Twins may still be popular, but not with our current college crowd.
Our taste in music has changed since high school. Some of us may have liked these bands eight years ago, but our taste evolves with age as we begin to appreciate real music.
If Northern Arts Entertainment (NAE) is to use the Student Activity Fee to bring bands to NMU, then they should at least bring bands that more Northern students enjoy and find worth their money.
I understand that they can not afford to bring very expensive bands, but I am sure there are bands out there that cost less than The All American Rejects and can be enjoyed by a larger portion of the student body.
NAE polls students on their Facebook page, but this appearantly isn’t enough. Some students do not have a Facebook page, and others may not know of the NAE page or when a poll will be posted. The poll does not discriminate against students and non-students, although the obvious focus should be on Northern students.
If the community is allowed to vote, that is fine, but let them foot the bill.
The Student Activity Fee affords students quality entertainment, not the surrounding Marquette community.
Polls need to be conducted, but on campus rather than online so that it is ensured students are voting for student entertainment.
Despite the effort, these polls do not seem to carry much weight.
On Oct. 31, 2011, there was a poll asking students who they would prefer to see come to NMU: Mac Miller, Girls, Mayday Parade, RJD2, Justin Moore or none of the above. Mac Miller won with 472 votes, none of the above was in second place with 470 votes and Mayday Parade was close to last place with 160 votes.
Later that year, Mayday Parade performed at NMU with 911 people in attendance, 589 of which were students according to Center for Student Enrichment.
The Vandament Arena holds 1,400 people, which means about 65 percent of the arena was filled. I really think this number should and could be much higher.
If student feedback isn’t even used or the options used in the poll are feasible, then polling students seems like a waste of time.
To find what types of bands NMU students are interested in, NAE should send out an email to all Northern students or post on NMU’s website a poll where students can vote what type of music they like and even what bands they would prefer to come to Northern that are within the budget.
Perhaps they should return to the old standby: paper polls that are conducted in the LRC or other places on campus, or sending students an email with a link that brings them to a website where the survey can be taken. This will give students some voice in the decision on what bands to bring.
By seeing what a majority of the Northern population wants, not what the Facebook community desires, NAE can ensure that students are benefiting from bands they want to see.
An on-campus presence or an email to students would let the student body know this poll was being conducted.
NAE has brought some great musicians to NMU, and I have enjoyed more than a fair share of concerts on campus.
Lately though, there has been a decline in the quality of music coming to NMU with more and more bands that were popular when I was in the fifth grade.
Students deserve music that is relevant to them: afterall, we are paying for it.