•■v •
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Rock should
see rebirth
in next years
By Christopher Heine
Senior staff writer
Hip-hop is king; its future looks
like gold records.
For now, all we have to do is watch
as its walls become more cluttered with
them.
Rock ’n’ roll is the castle drunk, not
sure where to stumble next
If the past year is any indication,
rock doesn’t seem quite ready for self
recovery. A little counseling is in order.
Hey rock ’n’ roll, let’s talk about
your problems.
Confusion and headaches have
dominated your psyche since grunge
tried to give everyone brain piercings in
the early 1990s.
Subsequently, reports of slow retail
have given you a consistent hangover.
International businessmen in three
piece suits and independent upstarts
have been wondering when you’d get a
moment of clarity.
Because of your short-term deci
sions, your best friends - customers -
have also been in an uncomfortable fog.
A slew of can-of-worms questions
have made modem music fans quiver
with insecurity:
Rock ’n’ roll, are you dead again?
Doe? hip-hop have enough fertile soil
left to take even more of your territory?
Besides Hell, what could possibly be
next for you?
Your biggest problem lies with pop
rock executives. They try to start bands
in the stratosphere instead of on the
ground.
They’ve allowed tours and hard
won fanfare to become obsolete meth
ods of gaining a following.
In the last half of the 1990s, major
label marketing strategy has been dubi
ously simplified to spending a fortune
on an MTV-friendly video and hoping
for a quick return.
Worse yet, finding true artistic tal
ent has been replaced by the search for
bad party bands.
Building a grass-roots fan base now
means signing 311 sound-alikes who
perform marijuana lyrics.
Rock ’n’ roll, you haven’t com
pletely lost your pulse. However, there
are symptoms to your sickness.
FM radio, for the most part, doesn’t
play modem rock. It relies on flocks of
post-mortem bands such as Journey or
the Eagles - or Flocks of Seagulls for
that matter - to cover the airwaves
because rock creativity is at a lull.
Hip-hop reigns because of such
ineptness and your executives’ inability
to reinvent and compete.
No matter how bad your heroin
thing got back in the late 1970s, you
didn’t have much competition to take
advantage of it. (For Pete’s sake, rock
’n’ roll, everyone knew disco was just a
fad.)
Tunes have changed.
MTV has replaced your old drink
ing buddy, radio, as the influential mar
keting source. And hip-hop is now as
*' Please see MUSIC on 14
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_ ; V • i ■ \ : „ , 1UCK TOWNLEY/UIN
FRESHMAN SARAH HARRIS and classmates stretch on the balance bar in Ballet lll/IV class. The dance program has been in a state of limbo this
past academic year as it Is in transition between the theater department and the music department.
Dance program sees
through major flux
ByLizaHoltmeier
Senior staff writer
Despite a year of transitions, the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln dance program experienced a year
of growth and renewed optimism, dance faculty said.
“There were some bumps and bruises along the
way,” said Lisa Fusillo, a UNL professor of dance.
“In light of the difficulties, I think we came out shin
mg.
Richard Durst, dean of the College of Fine and
Performing Arts, said he had heard fewer rumblings
of discontent from the dance program.
“Usually when I don’t hear something, it’s usual
ly pretty good news,” Durst said.
Throughout the year, the dance program existed
in suspended limbo between departments. The pro
gram, which used to be under the Department of
Theatre Arts and Dance, began its move to the School
of Music during the fall semester of 1998.
The move resulted from budget cuts in the
College of Fine and Performing Arts. Under the
School of Music, the dance program should attain
more funding stability.
Despite the uncertainty of the program, much of
the students’ optimism came from the hiring of two
new dance faculty, Kelly Holcombe and Julie Kane.
As is to be expected, students took awhile adjusting to
the styles and methods of Kane and Holcombe. By
the end of the first semester, Kane said, rapport
between the new faculty and the students had grown.
Sara Schmid, a senior dance major, said Kane
and Holcombe were instrumental in turning the
morale of the dance majors around.
“They brought our attitudes up,” Schmid said.
“They refocused our minds on dancing rather than
what was going to happen to our program.”
Both women have been given an offer to fill tire
same positions next year. Kane has declined, opting
to return to San Francisco to dance professionally.
“I have tQ follow my heart and not just my wal
let,” Kane said.
Schmid said the students would miss Kane, but
were happy to see her return to performing.
“She’s been talking about how she misses it,”
Schmid said.
With Kane’s announcement aside, the students
said they hoped Holcombe would choose to stay.
Holcombe has not decided if s#e will return,
although she said she would like to come back.
Megan Dant, a sophomore dance major, said the
dance majors were nervous about more new faculty
members.
“The new faculty always turn out good, but you:
have to go through a period where you don’t know
them. You have to adjust all over again,” Dant said.
Kane said she hoped the dance majors could turn
the changes into a positive experience.
“I hope they can see it as, ‘We are going to get
another layer to put on die cake,”’ Kane said. “It’s yet
another view, another flavor of what dance can be.”
Another change for the dance program involves
next year’s new freshman dance majors.
This semester, the Academic Senate passed a
proposal to change the dance major from a bachelor
of fine arts to a bachelor of arts, Durst said.
The new degree will place more emphasis on lib
eral arts courses. It is geared toward students who are
more likely to graduate and teach dance as opposed
to pejform.
While the dance majors remained optimistic this
year, dance faculty members said a feeling of insta
bility still exists.
They are still uncertain when they will officially
become a part of die School of Music.
Durst said the request had been forwarded to the
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs’ office. That
office will then pass it on to the Academic Senate,
which will forward it to the University of Nebraska
Board of Regents.
“We don’t know what the future is. We hardly
know what the present is,” Fusillo said.
“Sometimes, I wonder if my key will fit tomor
RickTownley/DN
BETSY ERICKSON, a senior human resource man
agement major, dances in Ballet HI/IV class.
row,” added Lynne Nevin, a part-time dance faculty
member.
Without an official department, the dance faculty
are sometimes unsure where to take their concerns.
“None of us has answers to certain issues and
problems, because it’s all new,” Fusillo said. “With
die addition of two new faculty, we were all jumping
in at die same time.
“When everyone jumps in with two feet at the
same time, the water goes over your head.”
The ambiguities of the situation sometimes creat
ed overlapping responsibilities, Fusillo said, but did
not affect die program’s success. k
“Everyone got on with their jobs,” Fusillo said.
Schmid said she felt the administration was more
supportive of the dance program’s concerns this year.
Durst said the College of Fine and Performing
Arts was taking the program’s request for a new
dance floor very seriously.
“We are looking for ways to increase the pro
gram’s operating budget to fix the floor,” Durst said.
“We just have to get something done about that. We
need to reduce the chance of injury for both the stu
dents and die faculty.”
The addition of a new floor bears a promise of
hope for the program’s future. Given the commit
ment of students, faculty and administration, the
dance program’s fate seems to be a promising one
despite the current questions.