COPY EDITOR,
STAFF WRITER,
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Saturday, Nov. 12, 16 Monmouth students had the unique opportunity to see an advance premiere of a documentary that is described as a “music driven celebration of the art of recording” —Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music. The trip was sponsored by the University’s affiliation with the Grammy Museum, a museum devoted to the history and winners of the Grammy Awards.
Facebook blew up with furious complaints over Starbucks’ freshly released green “unity cup.” While Starbucks’ Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said the design’s mosaic of more than 100 people drawn together in a single stroke was meant to “create a symbol of unity as a reminder of our shared values, and the need to be good to each other,” my Facebook friends, and many people across all platforms of social media, did not feel the same.
Every semester, Monmouth’s student-run record label, Blue Hawk Records, creates and records a compilation album featuring various artists on campus. The Applied Music Industry class creates and produces this album; this includes holding auditions in Lauren K. Woods theatre to releasing and promoting the album.
Last December I interviewed senior music industry student Matt Alonso about his Kickstarter for Cortex which successfully raised $5,500. It may sound cheesy, but what once was an idea has now become a reality for Alonso after nine months of dealing with the ups and downs of the industry and working four jobs to make sure his dream would come true.
Ten University students had the extraordinary opportunity to meet and talk with “one of Country’s pre-eminent singer/songwriters,” Roseanne Cash before her show in Pollack theatre on Friday, Oct. 21.
The idea that an 18-year-old student is paying thousands of dollars to sit in a classroom and listen to someone talk about a topic for 3 hours is supposed to make you ready for the real world is really a crazy concept when you think about it. This is a reality for many college students (and even kids in high school and grade school) who do not care about school and think they can get by just sitting in the back of the room and not participating.
Everyone has heard the phrase “If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life.” We all want a life filled with doing what we love, but we also want a life where our wallets are filled with money. Unfortunately for the current generation of college graduates, the fear of not being able to afford to live on your own and start your own family is very real, and plays a big role in what these students major in and how they plan their future.
The First Amendment in the Constitution has always been viewed as one of our most important rights as an American citizen. Recently, our right to freedom of speech and expression of thought has created great controversy in the case of San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.
When we start college, we are excited to make new friends and have a good time in a new place; however, you slowly start to realize when you get to college you have to start “adulting,”. Our parents are not around anymore to do our laundry, cook meals for us, or buy us what we need. These college years often challenge young people and really put their “adulting” skills to the test. Finances are one of the hardest things for a college student to maintain and get a real grasp of. Many students are taking a full class load and do not have time for a job.
It seems as if the music industry has been placing a much higher importance on image over true raw talent since the 1980s. The release of the first music video ever for “Video Killed the Radio Star” by Buggles in 1979 really depicts the message of how looks, style, and what you could see on video literally killed the radio star, or the musicians who could sing and had true talent.