Just one more song! It cannot be over yet! Keep the lights down low and the music up loud!
These are all thoughts that go through any concert-goer’s mind when a concert has come to its inevitable end.
I cannot think of a better place to be on a Friday night than jamming to my favorite songs at a concert with my friends. The music is so loud you can physically feel the rhythm, strobe lights move with an array of colors to the beat and vibes are so great that you cannot help but dance and sing along.
Every year in the spring, GC puts on a Homecoming concert just for its students in the Centennial Center on campus. This spring concert is something that students look forward to, and we all yearn to learn the headliner each time spring comes around.
However, lately, the spring concert has not been such a popular event because of the recent headliners. I myself have been disappointed with who has come to perform at the spring concert since I began going to GC in the fall of 2022. The performers are just not people I am familiar with.
“I haven’t gone to one because the singers there are not relevant to my life,” said Rachel Myers, a sophomore mass communication major. “I feel like our campus would do better if they hired someone more relevant to what people listen to.”
I wholeheartedly agree. I think we should have a lot more variety coming our way with performers and differentiating genres. This past spring concert was headlined by Quavo. I am still not really sure who he is, and after his performance, I did not hear much buzz about him or about how the concert went. It was seemingly underwhelming.
I think the spring concert would benefit from getting people who are of varying genres. There have been a lot of rap or pop artists for the past couple of concerts, like Quavo and Yung Gravy. Why not a little bit of something new? I personally would like to see some country singers or even just some more widely known artists. Last year, Bailey Zimmerman came to do a show at Buffington’s in downtown Milledgeville. He was right there, across from the GC campus, performing. He would be great for a spring concert at GC! Musicians like him, whom people know well and enjoy, are who we need for our upcoming concerts.
“I went last year and thought it was OK,” said Emma Chambers, a sophomore liberal studies major. “It was nothing special. I can’t even remember it really, and I did not care to go this year.”
Students are losing interest in the concert when it ought to be such a fun event for everyone to experience and enjoy. Music brings people together. It is something that is meant to be shared among various types of people, and it does not matter who you are or where you come from to enjoy it with others. People can enjoy music on their own, but music is something that can bring people who are from various backgrounds or different walks of life together. A person may have a different major than you or come from a different state or even country, but maybe you both like the same artist or the same style of music. Immediately, you become friends because this common interest has brought such seemingly different people together to realize that we are not all so different after all.
In the spring of 2022, Flo Rida headlined GC’s Homecoming concert. Now, there is a headliner. He is so well-known, even if people do not know of Flo Rida as an artist, they most likely still know his songs. However, he still lands in the category of pop. There is the popularity, but where is the variety?
There are so many different genres and artists out there to choose from. I think that just choosing someone who is more popular is not enough. The demographic of the students should be looked at as well. I do think headliners should be artists who are popular, but I think they should not be from continuously repeated genres or artists whose songs may not be widely known by GC’s student population.
