OPINION 5A TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2008 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN COMMENTARY MTV2 blues: Forget recycled tunes; 'crank dat' music on Mass Street I'm disillusioned with music today. I know this because of the sinking feeling I get in my stomach when I stumble upon a stream of "popular" music videos. It first hit me when I happened across MTV2 as it was knee-deep in a string of videos that reeked of high production costs. Not one of the exorbitant videos struck me as a song worth spending any large sum of money on, but because I've never been a fan of MTV or any of its other incarnations, I didn't expect much better. Still, I couldn't help but question whether there was even an audience who called this "their" music. A passing car bumping "Low" by Flo Rida reminded me that I might not be part of the majority. So there they were, samples of mediocrity gussied up and shoved in front of a camera. I know the quality of music is essentially subjective, but I was sure I had heard songs more deserving of a national highlight blasting out of doorways on Mass Street. Either way, I still wondered why some songs that seem almost generic get so much publicity and blow up on the charts while so many great artists go their entire career without the amount of attention MTV gives a song in a week. Who was deciding which songs get the airplay and which don't? Why do I need to see Akon's bare platinum-draped chest four times before I click mute on my TV? How many times do Soulja Boy have to "crank dat" before we stand up and say, "Hey, it's cranked"? After pondering these eternal questions, I came to the realization that maybe it's time for us to abandon the archaic system of pop music. Before you break out the tar and feathers, hear me out. Imagine a time when the music that we listened to was not forcefed to us through culture funnels such as VH1 or MTV, where popularity took on a more Darwinist approach and only the strong survived. In this digital age that we live in, any song you want is a click away. There seems to be an unnecessary and unfair limit to success to only the acts with overt commercial potential. By doing that, we are severely limiting the spectrum of creativity we are exposed to, a terrible injustice at best. I think it's time to cull the herd. Some of the forefathers of this industrial revival have already come, gone and made their mark. Bands such as Phish and Dispatch are well known in the minds of music-lovers despite having had minimal exposure in the major media outlets. They achieved all their success through word of mouth and the music they made. As a result, they built audiences that were devout followers and were more than happy to pay for albums and tickets to shows alike. The fact that we all know bands such as Umphrey the MeeGee even though the band never posed next to 22 proves that a grassroots system can work and maybe even bring a little integrity back to the music industry. Before you go turn on the video countdown and listen to the same recycled tunes, remember that there's a whole world of music beyond MTV Jams. Go find it. Lerman is a Highland Park, III. sophomore in journalism. Tyler Doehring COMMENTARY KU's new year's resolutions: Final Four, better parking The University of Kansas is constantly looking for ways to continue its tradition of excellence that carries it down the road to success. (Academic translation: Basically, ours is bigger and better than yours). Here are some New Year's resolutions both the University and the students can do to help us better Rock Chalk Jayhawk. 1. Have our basketball team go to the Final Four. 2. Care about our football team before it starts winning. Enough said. Now, I'm not a fan of Mizzou, but I did like one of their fans' signs: "Kansas Football: a tradition since September." 3. Realize there are other sports teams besides basketball and football. Yes, we have other sports teams such as baseball, soccer and cross country, and I've even heard rumors about a competitive underwater basket weaving team. But it's not enough to merely recognize their existence. We should also support these teams with our strong fan loyalty: Win or lose, we'll still booze! At the current construction rate, by the time a project is finished, even Chancellor Hemenway will have graduated. Raising student fees to buy handicap-accessible buses is one thing, but raising fees for SafeBus is another. Not all of us get ridiculously smashed on the weekends. 4. Actually finish one of the 2 million construction projects on campus. Some of us get responsibly smashed. 5. Don't raise student fees for services not everyone uses. If it's 60 degrees outside, don't wear Ugg boots. weather. And don't even think about a mini-ski with Ugg boots. If it's cold enough for boots, it's cold enough for pants. If it's 20 degrees out, wear Ugg boots. Actually, The Kansan provides a wide variety of both on and off campus coverage and even has a Web site, kansan.com, which provides students with many ways to interact with the paper, such as adding the Free For All Facebook application, for example. Surprisingly, The Kansan contains other important news besides the latest Chuck Norris jokes. Many of the people on Wesco Beach are representing a group, running a fundraiser or trying to raise awareness about important issues. 7. Read more than the Free For All. 8. Quit giving attention to the crazy people on Wescoe Beach. There is also the Sudoku. However, raising awareness about my personal dammation does not 6. Dress appropriately for the seem appealing to me for some reason. Apparently, if I support gay people, I'm going to hell. I'm also going to hell for listening to rock 'n' roll music and for breathing. Basically, if I don't agree with them, I'm going to hell. These people are purposefully trying to provoke students because their main purpose in life is to argue with you and piss you off, or as they call it, evangelism. The best thing to do is walk away and ignore them. After all, in the end, our salvation is completely based on how many games our basketball teams wins anyway. Now, I'm an English major, but I think my mathematical logic might be right. 9. Find a way to increase parking spaces and decrease parking tickets. If students had more places to park, then there would be less students parking in the wrong lots, and therefor fewer tickets would be issued. befriend Free For All 1. Visit kansan.com and find Free For All on the homepage. I don't think anyone would have a problem with that, except maybe the KU Parking and Transit Department (motto: Dante's Inferno did NOT do us justice). They might actually on the homepage. 2. Have a Facebook? Log in. 3. Browse applications for University Daily Kansan. 4. Add application. 5. Contribute. But please, not about Ugg Boots. So, let's put these resolutions into action, grab our excellence and blaze the trail to victory. (Academic translation: But first, I'm gonna take a nap). have to start earning money through other means. Hartz is a Stilwell junior in creative writing. Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish 》 FREE FOR ALL Who has two thumbs and rocked the symphony Saturday night? Oh yeah, this guy. --disgusting. Ew, I just saw a chic who looked like she was smuggling 20 pounds of Jello in her jeans wearing a thong. How long before they make a law against that? I mean, seriously, it's --weekend Free For All, I feel like a sell-out. I'm dating a girl who has two pairs of Ugg boots. Should I join a frat now? I'm calling Dr. ny. --weekend I'm the guy. I've got a computer science degree, but I'm not such a tech dork that I think HTML tags constitute humor. To the person hating on the HTML guy, what's your proof? Are you saying that intelligent people can't have social lives? Sorry, I have a social life, and I remember it well, too, because I don't down a fifth of Stoli each --- Quit hating on women's basketball. I bet you were hating on the football last year as well. Support all KU Sports Support all KU Sports. --- --- HTML is da domb! I saw a girl at the rec running on the treadmill like she was on Baywatch (and seriously thought she looked good). I laughed internally for about 10 minutes. --- --- KU, please stop advertising women's basketball. It's a joke, seriously. If you're using HTML tags in your online Free For All comments, you've probably got some social issues at college. Scrubs is probably the best television I've ever watched. No, not a good move on the boy's part, but perhaps you shouldn't have been so easy. --- Yeah, quit bitching about ResNet. It's nowhere near as awful as Sunflower Broadband. Is it run by the mafa or something? Once you've taken your monthly raping by Sunflower Broadband, you'll miss the days when only ResNet screwed you. TALK TO US @KANSAN.COM Matt Erickson, managing editor 864-4810 or merickson@kansan.com Dianne Smith, managing editor 024.1018.manage@libraries.com Darla Slipke, editor 864-4810 or dslipke@kansan.com Want more? Check out Free For All online. Bryan Dykman, opinion editor 884-4924 or dykman@kansan.com Lauren Keith, associate opinion editor 864-4924 or lkeith@kansan.com Toni Bergquist, business manager 864-4358 or tbergquist@kansan.com Katy Pitt, sales manager 864-4477 or kpitt@kansan.com Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser 864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com CONTACT US Jon Schittt, sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 or jschittk@kansan.com SUBMISSIONS The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions For any questions, call Bryan Dykman or Lauren Keith at 864-4810 or e-mail dykman@kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com. LETTER GUIDELINES GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES Maximum Length: 200 words Include: Author's name and telephone number; class, hometown (student); position (faculty member/staff); phone number (will not be published) Maximum Length: 500 words Include: Author's name and telephone number; class, hometown (student); position (faculty member/staff); phone number (will not be published) Also: The Kanasi will not print guest columns or letters that attack a reporter or another columnist. THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Darla Slipke, Matt Erickson, Dianne Smith, Bryan Dykman and Lauren Keith.