| by David Feder Move over Phi Delt. Diversity has a new home at Northwestern and it's in our ears. For a few days last week, I decided to stroll around campus to get a feel for what Northwestern students listen to while roaming to and from class. The shocking results? Let's just say that the contestants on Family Feud would have a tough time making a clean sweep with this one. In a survey of 80 NU undergrads, graduate students, and one hungry librarian, only three musicians managed to appear on the list more than once: Ani Difranco, The Talking Heads, and OAR, a techno/garage band from Ohio with little national following. (OAR, incidentally, stands for Of A Revolution, a fitting name for a group at the top of the NU charts.) While Ani remains popular primarily among the fairer sex, and the Talking Heads have a rabid following despite twenty-three years elapsing since their first major release, OAR may be making its first appearance on a chart outside of The Akron Top 100. At least this buckeye band can take comfort in knowing that if they did play Patton, at least two people will be in attendance. That's more than can be said for Bob Dylan, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or Eminem. Conventional wisdom would seem to indicate a pretty homogenous music scene. After all, with Apathy 101 the most popular class on campus, I figured everyone would just listen to what pop culture vomited up in front of them. So conspicuously absent: the Dave Matthews Band, Brittany Spears, and Limp Bizkit. Even Matchbox 20 was edged out by Monsters of Rock. Maybe those choosing to listen to these oft-maligned musicians chose to avoid me. Perhaps the guy who told me to "Fuck off" was actually grooving to Celine Dion. Regardless, the musical tastes at Northwestern are as diverse as the hometowns we represent, not the outward display of mall clothing to which we cling. Maybe we're collectively out of the loop. Maybe our standards of academic excellence create a more highbrow musical atmosphere. Maybe, but whatever the reason, it is clear that we shun the MTV crowd about as much as President Bienen and his big band-listening cronies. Let's take a closer look at the numbers. Of the 80 headphone wearers surveyed, 10 were listening to some sort of mix; eclectic varieties included Korean pop, Greek music, and MDMA-driven raver noise. Fourteen people opted for the radio instead. A tie at the top – between the retread '80s drivel of 103.1 and the Top 40 Q101 – could not be broken by our hometown WNUR, who got beaten 3 to 2. We can't assume, however, that everyone tuned in on campus is listening to popular music. On a rainy afternoon in Norris, a member of our trusty library staff remained riveted to National Public Radio's All Things Considered while an Allison freshman studied nearby, the classical stylings of 98.7 FM creeping into her brain. Radio listeners aside, students clinging to their Discmen outnumbered the dinosaur tape crowd 34 to 26. Only three students chose the once hailed, then failed minidisc – those who did cited the small size and user flexibility as reasons for the minidisc. But technology does play a part. The emergence of the burned CD in the past few years has revolutionized the way we create our mixes. Of the 10 mix listeners surveyed, two found it easier to burn their own CD's from their computer than to dub songs onto a tape. Now we know that our musical tastes vary considerably from the Billboard chart, but who on campus is listening to what music? It seems male music listeners slightly outnumber females by a 45 to 35 margin. Of those 35 women, over a third listened to the radio while only three of surveyed male listeners took to the airwaves. Nearly half of NU's music fans live off campus, the long trek necessitating some form of diversion aside from glimpses of D&D Finer Foods or Hassan's. No clear-cut pattern emerged from those students living on campus. The lack of Greek listeners is somewhat surprising. Perhaps this accounts for the lack of popular music as the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog/magazine/brainwasher guide, purveyor of everything "cool," is more likely to reach the Frat Quads than the overpriced off-campus household. Even the expected North-South discrepancy, with the "frat party" north tending toward the mainstream and the "artsy" south grooving to indie, techno, or some other experimental format, was non- existent. Led Zeppelin and 2Pac were as common down south as Silver Jews and Wank were up north. So what are we left with? Three bands, about as similar as NU, Madison, and DeVry, leading the pack of musical acts we chose to carry along to class. Ani is an obvious and somewhat expected choice. As a voice for college-aged women, she has sustained a high level of popularity based on no nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is music for quite some time. The Talking Heads, pioneers in electrically-created synthesizer punk/pop, have a devoted following, especially among the new breed of techno listeners searching for some history behind the percussive electronica of Paul Oakenfold and Pete Tong. But OAR is most surprising as a chart topper. When I said to the second OAR listener, "Oh, the ska band from Ohio?" he gave me an odd look that said, "Yeah, how the hell do you know?" "I don't," I said. "They suck." David Feder is a WCAS junior. He can be reached at d-feder@northwestern.edu. [ return to the top ] |
