Every time I drive from Indianapolis to Muncie, I pass that billboard on Interstate 69, proclaiming Ball State to be "cutting-edge cool." It's always been fairly close to the truth, particularly when talking about Ball State's music building, which has state-of-the-art recording technology. So color me surprised when I heard Ball State was starting a music label. The label, started to give Ball State professors and students an opportunity to release music, is at this point, exclusively classical.
The label's name?
Beneficence Recordings. Yawn.
Aside from the snobbish and uppity-sounding name - this coming from someone who once referred to Dave Matthews fans as a "lower class of humans" - the label doesn't seem to fall in line with Ball State's "cutting-edge cool" slogan. I think that the point of starting a University-run record label is to take advantage of the facilities in the music building, moving forward in an innovative way. The University seems to think so.
"There's no doubt that Beneficence Recordings fits well into the University's strategic mission," said Robert Kvam, dean of the College of Fine Arts in the University's press release.
Oh, really?
As a music critic, I've studied and listened to classical music. Part of understanding rock music is understanding classical music. The thing is, classical music isn't cutting-edge, and is certainly not cool. Its sheer importance and influence in popular music today is unimaginable, but classical music itself is a relic only studied and played by music students and people over the age of 1,000.
I'd argue that if the School of Music broadened its approach with this record label, it would find that more students would be interested in joining the program - resulting in increased enrollment.
There are many things that the music program can do with Beneficence Recordings - beyond classical music - which would be more culturally relevant and would give students a place to experiment and create groundbreaking music that might otherwise never find a record label.
The Muncie music scene is more vibrant than people give it credit for, and a Ball State-run record label - if run in the proper way - could provide a springboard for Ball State students to launch a music career.
The chance to experiment with different recording techniques and new technology would give students a chance to grow musically - and maybe more importantly - give students outside of the music program a chance to hear quality music.
Such music may not sound great to the ears of the administration, but for students who are preparing to be sound engineers, musicians and producers in the music world, this record label could provide an opportunity to get real-world experience.
In the music business, a student that can record anything from classical music to rock music would be more marketable.
Beneficence Recordings has a chance to help students gain that experience. Quite simply, the possibilities are endless here - if the administration takes a chance.
Too often, universities come up with a half-baked idea - one like Beneficence Recordings - and fail to follow through with any semblance of innovative thought. In short, the University suffers from a short-sightedness with programs like this - they've got the best of intentions - but there seems to be a lack of vision. This could be great for the University. It could prove once and for all that Ball State University is really cutting-edge cool.
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