by Kevin May
Recently, I was hanging out at a party on River Campus with a bunch of my friends. During a Dr. Dre number, we were approached by a bewildered-looking fraternity member.
The fraternity guy who introduced himself said that he?d noticed us dancing ? we stick out like Fred Durst at a Yanni concert. When he found out that we were Eastman students, he asked how it came to be that we knew the words to the song that was playing.
?Didn?t you guys bring your Mozart?? he asked, apparently still in shock.
After speaking with him for a few more minutes, I realized the extent to which many people are misled about musical interests at Eastman. I can?t blame him ? I was too before I arrived here. I didn?t know how my stereo packed with Nirvana and Foo Fighters was going to go over.
I soon learned that, comparatively, my musical tastes were rather conformist.
The singular unifying theme among Eastman dorm rooms is the music that permeates from every room at one time or another. Walking down the hall will dip you into a melting pot of sounds with all genres oozing out at some point.
The loudest contingent to this mixture would definitely be the fourth movements ? usually only the last two minutes ? of Mahler symphonies, which can most likely be heard outside the dorm room of a trumpet or trombone player.
Other doors might leak out some type of musical protest to the brass, usually presented on a lesser quality stereo, like a selection from Destiny?s Child or Shaggy.
The most intense stereo battles can come from the clash of the roommates, but the public can seldom decipher which songs are being played in these cases.
The intense love that many Eastman students ? not just the jazz majors ? have for jazz rears its head in the form of Miles Davis or John Coltrane.
?Some people prefer the laid back Miles Davis or Charlie Parker stuff, and others are into the Maynard Ferguson in-your-face big band jazz,? said sophomore violist Mike Pascaretti.
If you?re a hard-core rocker, don?t fret. There is always that hard-core Tool fan at the end of the hall, still in bliss from the release of ?Lateralus? and counting the number of time changes in the album.
?It?s a relief that you don?t have to be surrounded by classical music all the time,? said freshman vocalist Laura Puzio.
?Sometimes just chilling to Sublime is what you need to do after a big theory assignment,? Puzio said.
If you?re looking for an amazing concert, the Eastman Theatre is still the place to go. However, if you?re up for a magical mystery tour, just take a walk across the street to the Student Living Center.
Kevin May can be reached at kmay@campustimes.org
