While reading the Daily News last week, I came upon the headline "Strokes show loses $41,000." It didn't hit me at first, but after I thought about it, I was flabbergasted. It was not the fact that no one showed up but the insane amount of money that went into this production and the negative return.
I mean, what can you buy with $41,000? You could pay for college for a couple of years. You could even treat 41,000 Strokes fans to McDonald's double cheeseburgers, granted you could find that many of them out there.
The truth is that if this concert would have happened about five years ago, during the Strokes' peak, Emens would have filled up more seats. They might have even sold out. Unfortunately, had it been five years ago Emens would not have been able to afford the Strokes. Pop and rock bands who are on the radio cost more and have busier schedules than some group that has been sitting around with writer's block, off the cultural and popular radar.
Emens, however, does not experience this problem when it comes to country music stars. Firstly, there is a greater interest in these musicians. Check out the Pulse link on Facebook sometime, which shows the top ten interests of Ball State students. Almost consistently one or two country music artists make it onto this list. As of Oct. 9, Rascal Flatts was fourth. With country artists, nobody has to worry about not filling up these seats. Secondly, country stars are easier to get. They are cheaper and are more willing to come to a place like Muncie, because they know there will be people to watch their shows. Emens makes money, the musicians get gigs and Ball State country music fans get shows. Everybody wins.
Things get complicated, though, when you factor in all the non country music fans at Ball State. They want to see acts like Dave Matthews, Coldplay, Kanye West and Jack Johnson. Unfortunately, these people will have to wait about five more years before Emens can afford to bring these acts to Ball State. I can say with some certainty that a majority of the people who wanted these acts so bad will be miles away from Muncie by this time.
People are scared because nobody is attending these rock shows. They hear how well Emens is doing with country shows and even hear rumors of switching to all-country line-ups. They reason that the only way to save the rock is to go to these shows.
Now, I am not a big country fan. I do admit to listening to Dolly Parton from time to time, but only because the woman is a walking enigma covered in fringe and sequins. I would love to see bigger acts come to Muncie, but paying thirty bucks to see some has-been band I don't even like play their songs from five years ago just so I can make sure the next played-out rock band can take its place makes no sense to me. Obviously there is not a market here for these people, so you cannot expect Emens to continue to lose thousands of dollars by appeasing rock fans.
Do not be angry with the organizers of these shows. They are trying their hardest to bring cultural and entertaining events that apply to everyone. If anyone is to blame, it is the popular artists that charge insane amounts of money to grace us with their presence. Maybe the appeal of country singers, beyond the lyrics about tractors and 'honky tonk,' is the fact that they stay down to earth and seem to care about their fans.
Christian Robinson is a junior telecommunications major and writes 'Overshare!' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Christian at cmrobinson@bsu.edu.
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