Jessica Pellegrino – General Assignment Reporter
It’s impossible to look around campus and not see at least one student hiding under gigantic Beats headphones or blasting music out of their cell phone speakers. Students listen to music to study, to exercise, and to relax, just to name a few.
Recently, Spotify released data about who is listening to music. Some common characteristics amongst college are search results with keywords like, “relax” and “classical”. The top listened to genres include Pop and EDM, and average peak listening times include six to seven AM, four PM, and one AM. So, what are Southern students listening to?
EDM
Junior Iris Cruz believes her preferences are underappreciated by the masses.
“My favorite genre is Ska. I love Reel Big Fish, Big D and the Kids Table, Less than Jake, just to name a few,” said Cruz. “Honestly I’m surprised Ska isn’t more popular in the college scene because of how much you can dance to it. It’s the perfect music for everyone to get up and have a good time. The “problem” is the musicians, is that they are great musicians but they just don’t care about anyone’s opinion. They write lyrics that make some people uncomfortable and they get on stage with checkered suits and bug eye glasses and people will leave because it’s not ‘in’.”
Ska music has a similar effect to the EDM craze amongst college students. Music that can be danced to seems to be making a giant comeback in the realm of the college aged crowd.
Another very common genre of music amongst Southern students is Country music. This summer, country concert season, shows sold out and lawn ticket prices skyrocketed, into the hundreds in the case of Luke Bryan.
Country
Krista Esposito, senior, shares why she loves country music.
Esposito said, “If I had to guess because over the past years it has somewhat expanded to have other genres like country-pop or country-rock and it is reaching a wider variety of listeners. And the stories they tell through country lyrics are extremely relatable to almost anybody, because they address common problems like love and breakups.”
Recently, country music has broken radio boundaries. Not only are bands like Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan playing on country radio stations, but they also play pop remixes on Top 40 radio stations. Country music has never been so widespread than it is today and them main demographic seems to be high school and college students.
Indie
Sophomore Ian Chamenko, said, “I know Indie is approaching popularity, but it’s still a relatively obscure genre in consideration to all music, but it’s my favorite. Indie is just more intellectually stimulating because of the lyrics and instrumental exploration. It is just a really nice, enjoyable musical balance.”
Indie music has also seen an increase in popularity recently. Artists like Mumford and Sons and Lana Del Rey have brought this style back into the spotlight. Bands like Mumford and Sons use uncommon instruments like banjos and plucky guitar to set their style apart from typical rock music. Lana Del Rey uses provocative lyrics and powerful ballads to create her own style. Indie music is versatile and easy to enjoy or relax to. For students, indie music can serve as good study music.
Music is a staple in the world of college students. Students use music for studying, relaxing, having fun or exercising, amongst other things. Music is how students express themselves and music is not going anywhere off of college campuses.
Photo Credit: Paul Hudson
Indie Music is more than just a Genre. It is creating and producing music without the backing of major big name labels, It is “any style or genre that is “Independent” .