Samantha Barbagallo ‘15
Staff Writer
While last year’s Spring Concert may have been a disappointment for many, the Merrimack Programming Board is looking for students’ help to make this year’s event a success.
Lauren Foster, concert chair of Merrimack Programming Board, talked about what they are doing differently this year to choose the bands. Most importantly, she said, is a survey that will be sent out soon to students.
“Students should look for a survey sent via e-mail within the next couple of weeks. This is their chance to let their voice be heard and let us know what they would like to see for the Spring Concert,” Foster said. “We are going to strongly encourage students to participate in the survey and promote it via social media.”
She also talked about the aspects that go into planning the show that students don’t know about. On top of fitting within the budget, Foster said the artists must also be willing to perform college shows, be on tour and be in the area.
“There’s a lot more that goes into the artist selection process than it seems. A lot of artists do not even do college shows and stick to main arenas across the country,” she said. “The artist also needs to fit within our college’s mission and values. Some times an artist may not be touring at the time we are looking to have the Spring concert or they may already be booked.”
Last year’s concert featured the Plain White T’s and A Great Big World. One of those who did not go to last year’s show was Jonathan Roberto, a junior and the new reigning Mr. Merrimack.
“I did not go to the Plain White T’s show because I think it was silly to have them perform at our Spring concert,” Roberto said. “Merrimack should try to bring back some rappers from the early two thousands.”
This year, several students told The Beacon they are looking for something a little more upbeat than the Plain White T’s and A Great Big World. Almost everyone said that The Plain White T’s are on the decline and are no longer interesting. In regards to the headlining band, Junior Tyler Shaffer said “A Great Big World, is a group known for one song ‘Say Something’ and that song is just depressing and not something that you want to hear at an event that is supposed to be fun.”
Foster said there was a student survey last year to solicit student input from students on choosing the act. She said only about 200 students responded.
“Last year we did a survey asking students what genre they would like to see. Unfortunately, very few students took advantage of this opportunity,” Foster said. “However, Country came out #1 with alternative/pop/rock as a close second. Because of how close it was, we felt comfortable going with the second most popular genre, especially since we had just had a country artist (The Band Perry) the year before.”
Many students told The Beacon that they would love to have a Country artist perform at the 2015 Spring concert. Some suggestions people had for country performers were artists such as Thomas Rhett, Cassadee Pope (from the hit television show The Voice), Jake Owen, Randy Houser, Brantley Gilbert and Hunter Hayes.
Rap, Hip-Hop and R&B were also popular genres amongst students that The Beacon surveyed.
“This spring concert I would like too see someone that gets the crowd going — like rap, hip hop, or something techno,” said sophomore Angelica Medinas. “I feel like whoever performs needs to get the people going. No one wants a sad, washed up band like we had last year.”
Several other students agreed and said they would like to see performers such as G-Unit and 50 cent, Ludacris, Hoodie Allen, Sammy Adams, Nelly, and Jeremih. Other suggestions ranged from Nick Jonas to Third Eye Blind.
Foster said MPB will do its best to make this year’s show a success.
“A lot of things are out of our control, especially timing, but we always try our hardest to please the most amount of students possible,” Foster said. “At the end of the day, we can’t excite everyone as everyone has different tastes in music, but we always strive to give the students the best show possible.”
The Spring Concert is a student run show. If anyone wants to help plan the show join MPB. They meet Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. in Meeting Room B on the second floor of the Sakowich Center. For more information contact Lauren Foster: fosterl@merrimack.edu.
