Students have had mixed feelings about University Union’s Rock the Dome concert lineup, co-headlined by rappers Ludacris and Rick Ross, since it was announced Jan. 4.

UU officials created the concert, which will be in the Carrier Dome on Feb. 2, upon receiving additional programming funding from the Student Association last semester. UU President Rob Dekker said the organization talked about creating the concert before receiving the money.

‘It was something that’s been in the works,’ he said.

Dekker said UU sent out a survey during the fall semester to ask students what kind of music they’d like to see performed on campus. Students were asked to list their first two favorite music genres, ranging from alternative rock to hip-hop. Of the 3,000 responses UU received, Dekker said 30 percent of students listed hip-hop as a first choice, while 23 percent listed hip-hop as a second choice.

But the survey may not be representative of the entire Syracuse University campus. Brittney Forcione, a junior general management major, and Katie Wendle, a first-year law student, both said although they are impressed UU is putting on such a large concert, they do not plan on attending.

‘It’s not my type of music,’ Wendle said.

SA President Dylan Lustig said in an email that there has been some talk in SA about students’ discontent with the artists performing at Rock the Dome. He said there is ‘no doubt that SA will be discussing this,’ but wanted to wait until he is able to talk with Dekker first.

‘We need to make sure that we have all the data from their surveying before we can make any accusations or have any of our members react poorly during a debate we may have,’ Lustig said.

Lustig said he thinks UU does a good job at planning shows people are excited to see, and he said he hopes Rock the Dome turns out to be the same way.

When the date of the show was first announced, some sororities were concerned it would interfere with the spring recruitment that is scheduled to take place during the weekend. But Dekker said the event should not conflict with recruitment because it is on a Thursday.

‘Officially, it won’t, but I have heard that there are some houses that don’t want their girls going because I guess they don’t want them to be ‘out of form’ for the next day,’ he said.

Dekker said they were originally planning on having the concert Feb. 3 but moved it because they knew women would be in involved in recruitment. He said UU also had to take athletic events into consideration when picking a date for the show. He said Feb. 2 works because it also gives students time to buy tickets.

‘We wanted to make sure we had a few weeks while students were on campus to buy tickets,’ Dekker said.

Dekker said UU sold about 4,250 tickets of the approximately 10,000 tickets available for the concert during the online-only student presale, which started at 10 a.m. on Jan. 9 and ended at midnight on Jan. 11. Dekker expects to sell more as students get back to campus.

Nicole Gonzalez, a junior English and textual studies major, said she and her friends are excited about the concert. She said although she prefers Ludacris’ music, ‘I think Rick Ross is the main person people want to see.’

George Ocasio, a junior political science major, said the concert will probably bring in a lot of money because of Rick Ross’ popularity. He said many of his friends are going to the show and some of them woke up at 9:45 a.m. Jan. 9 to buy presale tickets. But he said he has no interest in going.

‘I’m not a huge fan of the (artists) they have,’ he said.

Ocasio said he thinks it would be better if UU brought more diversity to campus concerts and put on a show that headlined two stylistically different artists, like LMFAO and Adele.

Dekker said the decision to bring in Ludacris and Rick Ross was also a financial decision.

‘It’s a lot more infrastructure to put a rock band on the road,’ he said. ‘It was more cost effective to go with these hip-hop artists.’

But he said UU would definitely consider bringing in other artists for future concerts, like Block Party. Still, Dekker said he is very excited about Rock the Dome.

‘I think it’s a great pairing and a great show,’ he said. ‘It’s something we hope will become a tradition that students really invest in.’

snbouvia@syr.edu 

Published on January 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephanie: snbouvia@syr.edu | @snbouvia