“DRAKE. BELL.” Screamed no one ever while standing in the front row of a sold-out concert, girls crying with anticipation and men wearing his face on their t-shirt.

Long story short, it’s mildly disappointing to say the least, that Drake Bell will be part of our Spring Concert line-up. Now I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, a free concert is a free concert; but then again, I’ve seen Drake Bell in concert and I was mostly just bored.

A year ago, while in Raleigh for the day, my sister and I walked past an underground bar in downtown advertising that Drake Bell was playing that night. It was raining and a $20 concert, so we went in. There was maybe a crowd of 30, and even then, Drake Bell wasn’t able to keep the crowd fully engaged. But in my personal opinion, when you’re a 30 something year old male who’s wearing your initials on a blinged out gold chain, singing the acoustic version of all your pop songs, it’s hard to keep anyone entertained. Flabbergasted maybe, but not enthralled.

I know Drake Bell has once again become relevant since pairing with Josh Peck to do a reboot of Drake and Josh; but unpopular opinion, it was a crap show to begin with. With that being said, I would bet money he’s going to sing the cover for the show – after hearing it live, I can tell you it’s underwhelming.

And who is RIP Micheals? With a whopping eight monthly subscribers on Spotify and his top songs all having less than 1000 downloads (two being his single from 2015 Clatchet) how did he even end up in the roster of choices? His websites last listing for a tour or show was in October of 2017!

I know we aren’t a huge school and don’t have the budget for a huge concert. But I’d personally rather have one great concert a year then a couple of mediocre ones with some has-beens – if you can call them that. There was a survey that went out during the fall semester asking what students wanted to hear, and country and rap were the top two. Then that survey was pulled and a new one was made available. It was neck and neck between R&B and country. There was no longer rap on the list. So, how do these choices come down to who is now in our line-up? Since the last concert was rap, why is rap even included in this year’s line-up. Why is there no rotation in the genres of music?

And the trend has not just been from the last concert. Looking back through the previous few years we have seen G-Eazy in 2015, Atmosphere in 2016 and Dizzy Wright opening for Lil Yachty in 2018. Yes, Country Jam is generally two months from the Spring Concert, so if that is part of the decision to not have a country concert, it does make some sense. But on the other hand, give the people what they want! Many of the artists that have been chosen for the spring line up are going to be known by only a slim portion of the population (i.e. College students) and won’t attract a large crowd from outside of the college. Country, however, is wildly popular. A good country singer, or even a more popular artist, would draw a larger crowd and therefor a larger revenue. When the decision is being made, we also must remember that we have a diverse age group who attend CMU. Yes, we have many in the 18-25 age group, but we also have many who are in the 30-45 age group.  

This is paid for by money we pay into our student fees, yet it seems that our votes really didn’t matter. RIP Michael is a rap artist, Drake Bell is a pop singer and Juicy J is hip-hop, none of the genres that the students would have chosen even made the list. We, as students, are not being thoroughly heard. Maybe in the future, students will make sure their voices are heard when it comes to the selection of who is going to be playing.

Then, we have the problems that occurred during last year’s spring concert. You had numerous police officers working as security, yet there were many underage people pulling liquor bottles from their pockets and drinking – often right in front of the officers. And let’s not forget the fights that broke out.

Between a line-up that leaves more to be desired, and brawls in the crowds it would be a shame to have attendance drop even further despite the big FREE sign attached to it. Listen to the voice of the students, and let’s make a change in the decisions to bring a more profitable, and more enjoyable concerts to Mesa.