Bus to showcase songwriters
By Megan Finnerty
Features
Editor
When it happened to senior Aaron King for the first
time, he was standing in a mosh pit at a concert in Chicago.
Among the thrashing bodies and twisting limbs,
King saw dozens of hands reach down to lift up fallen crowd surfers.
He heard thousands of voices united, singing Goldfinger's songs verbatim.
He was happy.
He felt the power of music.
"It's this rush of all these different people coming
together united by one thing, and that's the love of this band," King,
a Punk fan, said, his eyes twinkling with the memory. "Nothing can duplicate
the rush of all these people joined with one thing in common. It was
the coolest concert ever."
When it happened to Microsoft founder Paul Allen
for the first time, he was listening to Jimi Hendrix, according to Bob
Santelli, the deputy director public programs for the Experience Music
Project.
The guitar revolutionary and his music so influenced
this multibillionaire that Allen amassed the world's largest collection
of Hendrix memorabilia and wanted to share it with the world.
But early planning led to a broader cultural mission
— the Experience Music Project in Seattle.
The Seattle-based museum aims to educate, entertain
and enlighten visitors about the role of popular music in their lives,
in society and in America's history.
The rush King and Allen, and millions of others,
felt brought on by humanity's oldest art form is what the creators of
the Electric Bus want Purdue students to experience when it arrives
in the parking lot at Ross Ade Stadium Sept. 3.
The bus, which will be at Purdue until Sept. 7,
is an extension of the museum, exploring the role of song in society
and celebrating some of the greatest songwriters of the last century.
The Bus, now in it's second semester touring the
country, is really a camp of hi-tech tents, creating a 10,000 square
foot roving museum with three main exhibit areas.
"It challenges kids to come to grips with popular
music in their lives and in the history of their country," said Santelli
enthusiastically. "If I can teach you about the history, artistry and
innards of the music, that will make you a more sophisticated listener.
You'll be more appreciative of the music experience.
"I want you to take your listening of music more
seriously; I want you to reevaluate how you judge what is good and what
is bad music."
The Electric Bus and the museum are revolutionary
in that their visitors are active and immersed in the music experience.
The bus' creators aim to change student's lives via their connection
to popular music and their creativity through three main venues.
The Origins and Impacts section allows visitors
to listen to the evolution of a song through generations of interpretation.
The tents also let students explore the role of songs in everyday life
and their impact on American history.
The Artists and Artifacts section gives visitors
a look at instruments, handwritten lyrics and personal artifacts from
heavies such as Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain and Tone Loc.
Finally, the Song Lab hooks up visitors with the
basics of song structure and allows them to see how advances in technology
have changed the sound of contemporary songs. Visitors can mix, record
and create their own songs at the Demo Stage.
The programs and activities in the bus encourage
critical thinking and create perspective from which to interpret American
popular music's impact on society, according to Santelli.
Associate professor of history, Michael Morrison,
said this sense of perspective is important for students.
Morrison, who is one of four professors in Indiana
who teach the history of popular music, feels that students don't have
a sense of how much music and society interact.
"Music affects and reflects society as society
affects and reflects music," Morrison, a Punk fan, said. "If you can
get people to think about music as a way of thinking about society,
politics and culture, it makes us better citizens.
"In the end, what the bus is trying to do …
allows students to think about themselves and their music, and to relate
to others about their music, and to think about their society. That's
all we want you to do — to think."
For Brian Breed, director of Purdue Musical Organizations,
music is a major part of his identity and he can't remember a time in
his life where music was absent.
"Music comes through us and we have to be in touch
with that," Breed said. "It reminds us of our humanness and gets us
in touch with nature. Music is the human spirit and it's capturing the
essence of who we are."
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