Great music has the ability to take a listener to new highs, and it becomes all the more literal when it’s college music on the dorm stereo.

College music, while not a specific genre, is a range of different types of music which is created for an age rather than a radio. It doesn’t have to have a specific tempo or melody, but rather a poignant message with an original composition. And, of course, it has to be mellow enough so it won’t kill any buzz in the room.

‘A lot of college kids smoke pot, and college music is the shit you want to listen to when you are high,’ said Liam Farrell, a sophomore music industry major.

While mind-altering drugs may be a happy companion to college music, it is not a necessity to enjoy the songs. College music has always had a reputation for being inventive, which makes sense, because college students are often given the same status. Unlike the cookie-cutter collection of middle and high school pop tunes, music made for college students is often different than anything ever heard before.

‘Today people are looking for music that everyone can enjoy,’ Farrell said. ‘Something they can use to meet people as a common ground, something that’s relaxing and something that’s fun. They want positive bands, not negativity.’

Today’s music has become a staple as a key defining point of one’s identity. College students nowadays make lifelong friends and form relationships based solely on the connection they share when it comes to their tastes in music. In fact, many students feel the music section of their Facebook profile is the most important part of showing their personality. Therefore, they aggressively list every band they have the slightest interest in.

One of the key aspects behind the appeal of college music is the message in the songs. Many songs that are targeted to a college audience seem to have very familiar and similar themes which people can connect to. Songs about changing and growing up, expressing oneself, love, heartbreak, bitches and hoes are often common subjects that speak to a younger generation.

‘A lot of the music is just fun and very chill,’ said Bradley Lamere, a sophomore illustration major. ‘You hear a particular song and you say, ‘Wow, that’s just the way I am thinking, that’s just what my views are,’ and you can voice yourself through the music you listen to.’

Often it is not just modern bands who are speaking to today’s college students, but ageless ones from the past which are still trendy today. Many older bands like The Rolling Stones, Phish, Journey and Aerosmith owe a large selection of their recent ticket sales to college students. And others like Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead are still being played in dorm rooms across college campuses. Bands don’t set out to be college bands, but they become them because of the fanbase they have. And it may be the best fan base, because college students actually get into the bands and support them, Farrell said.

‘Back in the ’70s, those bands were something new, and people these days still recognize that,’ said Andrew Maury, a sophomore television, radio and film major. ‘I think that college kids recognize how unique bands were back then and how their music has become timeless.’

Even many of today’s popular bands were once exclusively played in colleges. The Dave Matthews Band and Counting Crows are now filling the boom boxes of kids in middle school when they used to be known solely by word of college mouth. Bands now trendy on MTV only became so because of the popularity they carried with college students and the fan base they built there first, Maury said.

Maury is the guitarist for a four-piece band which tries to make music everyone can really appreciate. He and his bandmates know that music is a big part of any university, so being a part of it is an incredible opportunity. While Maury doesn’t plan on pursuing a career in music, he knows just being a part of the Syracuse University music scene is something he doesn’t want to pass off. A band just needs to write stuff they love, and then other people will love it too, he says.

It seems college students are always looking for something as creative and unique as they are, especially when it comes to their music. It’s for this reason that college music will never be pinned down to one genre, but instead is an ever-changing source of interesting creations.

‘College is the prime of the youth’s musical phase,’ Farrell said. ‘The bands you like in college are the bands you are going to like for the rest of your life.’

Published on August 28, 2005 at 12:00 pm