There are really only 10 reasons why any student at the University should be watching TV: “24”, “Scrubs”, “The Office”, “Seinfeld” re-runs, Conan, “The Daily Show”, “The Colbert Report”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Da Ali G Show” and for DVD/ videogame purposes.
Let me borrow a line from Jerry Seinfeld himself: “Who are these people?”
In February, American Idol killed the Winter Olympics in the ratings. There were even columns calling for the death of the Winter Olympiad.
Why? So students could watch mildly attractive people sing snippets of bad pop songs to a group of judges who consist of a washed up pop star, a has-been, and a talent-less, angry moron.
Sounds like a fun and viable option compared to dangerous, fast-paced sports games involving real skills and talents. And what’s more, it’s an international competition.
It is not as if music tastes on campus are much better: 50 cent, Ludacris, Kelly Clarkson, Shakira, any Black Eyed Peas album after Behind the Front, Evanescence, Linkin Park and any other I-must-scream-until-my-high-school-angst-is-gone music should not be heard on campus.
There are the rare cases when student opinion and good taste do coincide such as The Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie, well basically anything with Ben Gibbard.
Considering the lack of good taste, I believe it is time for students at the University to start growing up. Obviously, physically the bodies of our student body are mature.
The other part about going to college is experimenting and expanding one’s horizons. That means trying new things, not just listening to whatever MTV programs you to download on your I-pod this week.
As educated members of society, it is your duty to pursue forms of art and entertainment that should also be meaningful and insightful.
Group think plagues many students and it never leads anywhere good.
Look at the current top albums on the Billboard chart. A Disney movie soundtrack is the number one album, followed by James Blunt, E-40 and Ne-Yo? Not exactly the kind of artists challenging the pillars of music. What’s worse is that the number one ring tone for cell phones is Nellie’s “Grillz,” because the letter z is way more ghetto than the letters.
The song is about teeth jewelry. The man has so much money he has nothing better to do with it than put diamonds in his mouth. I think the world gets it: You have money.
I don’t think the population needs another song about how much more money they have than us regular folk.
Students, take some kind of stand against bad forms of entertainment.
Do your best to find new music, Indie music, music with a message, music with social commentary, or at least something interesting.
One good source for new music is a Web site called Pitchforkmedia.com. Pitchfork does have it’s own problems: It suffers from Indie arrogance.
However, they have lots news, album reviews, interviews and even downloadable tracks. Students can even use it as a news page, like I do. Read about up and coming bands and if they sound interesting, go to the bands Web site to check out more.
Put away your childish music and step into the artistic world of adults.
Because choosing not to expand artistically is letting the terrorists win and nobody wants that.
Send comments to George at [email protected].
